Drift Force: Beyond the 1000 hp mark 🎥
DRIFTING WITH ETHANOL In 2023, Team Drift Force from Seelisberg will no longer be competing in the American Formula Drift, but in the Europa Masters with extremely powerful Toyota GR Supra cars newly developed in Switzerland.
Founded by Yves Meyer and Joshua Reynolds in 2020, The Drift Force racing team is no longer focusing its efforts on the U.S. this year, but on the similarly competitive European scene.
Yves Meyer: "The level in the European Drift Masters has risen enormously. Since we have built completely new cars, it makes more sense to do all the development work on race tracks in Europe as well. The first races and experiences proved us right."
Change to the GR Supra
The official brand ambassadors of Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland have taken a big step forward in terms of material by switching from the Toyota GT86 to the newer Toyota GR Supra model in order to become competitive. While the chassis was created in-house at The Drift Force, Maptec Motorsport Engineering in Romanshorn took over the development of the engine.
There, the conversion was carried out to meet the needs of drift racing, where particularly high power is required. As with the original Supra, the displacement remained at three liters, but the maximum power increased from 340 to more than 1000 hp. Even at 3500 rpm, 1240 Nm are available. Ethanol E85 is used as fuel.
Wall contact in training
Due to technical problems at the first meeting in Ireland in May, the team from Nidwalden decided to forgo the second event in Sweden and instead competed in the third round in Finland on the second weekend in July with two further modified Toyota GR Supra cars. Reynolds' car suffered major damage in practice after a heavy wall contact, and rain set in for Meyer in the middle of the qualifying runs. The next day, the engine of Meyer's car suffered connecting rod bearing damage, bringing the test day to an early end.
Yves Meyer: "We pulled out all the stops after the return and changed to components from the same manufacturer that Maptec already used in Joshua's engine. Our work since Ireland is now paying off. I was able to keep up with the pace of the best right from the start."
The next round of the Drift Masters European Championship will take the team to Riga in Lithuania in calendar week 30.
