It’s a Toyota 86, but not as we know it, and it’s coming (sideways) to drift competition very soon. Techspan’s Tim Fastnedge and son Jake have come up with a recipe for adding excitement to a car that handles well but has never set the world on fire power-wise.
Forget the anaemic flat-four stock engine, think 6.2-litre LS3 Chevy V8, set well back in the engine bay to maintain excellent weight distribution. Though a stock LS3 crate engine puts out 320kW (430bhp), the Techspan car’s engine has been upgraded with an Oztrack Camshaft delivering a whopping 0.551-inch of lift on the 2.16-inch intake valves and 0.522-inch lift on the 1.59-inch exhaust valves, dual valve springs with light retainers for reliability at high revs. Tim and Jake say the work enhances the LS3’s already respectable airflow capability and broad torque curve.
As fitted to the GT86 the engine will produce 395kW (530bhp).
The LS3 package sits comfortably into the 86’s engine bay with a competition-specific Jerico ‘dog box’ (non-synchromesh) transmission sending power on to a Winters independent rear diff that starts out with a 4.12:1 ring and pinion. The Winters diff has take-offs for oil cooling if needed, and its design allows for quick ratio changes if needed.
The new engine fits so well it’s almost as if the 86 was designed for a bent-eight, though it has received a custom (wet) sump and a few other modifications.
The team cut away sections of panel steel where they aren’t needed so that extra airflow can feed to the engine air filter and around the engine itself for block cooling.
The car has a motorsport-specific suspension that is adjustable for ride height, castor and camber and the front-end geometry has been modified to allow the massive steering lock needed for drifting to achieve those ‘impossible’ counter-steer angles that allow drifters to go as sideways and possible for as long as possible in the corners.
At front and rear there are big brake discs and calipers that will provoke – and then tame – the car’s spectacular sideways momentum as necessary.
A V3 Rocket Bunny drift/JDM-style body kit and monoplane rear wing work with the new front airdam to keep the car nailed to the track surface.
The interior has been stripped (dumping kilos of plastic and steel) and the team has installed a multipoint roll cage, race seat and harnesses along with a motorsport ‘data’ dash.
At time of writing, the car was having its exhaust finished, and was then off to tuners for a dyno run to get the engine producing the right power numbers reliably in readiness for the drift season to come.