Formula D Driver Talks About His 1000 HP Subaru BRZ

You see a lot of Subaru BRZs that have this look. However, they are only pretending to be drift cars, whereas this one just took second place in Atlanta.

There aren't as many people watching Formula Drift these days, which is a real shame. The 2016 lineup includes some really crazy cars, including the Rockstar Energy 2016 VW Passat, the beautiful Monster Energy Mustang, the latest Camaro, and all the Japanse coupes you can think of.

All things considered, last year was pretty much a disaster for Dai Yoshihara. Hopefully, all the growing pains and learning curve resulted in some serious off-season chassis development. But watching him race since April, many people feel that he got his mojo back.

We want to think that the updated car plays a small part in this. After all, when you've learned how to drift in Japan, an RHD conversion is bound to help your line and shifting.

The livery is nice, but we hate the chunky Falken tire stickers. Momo is also represented on the car, likely meaning that Dai stopped using the wheel design he came up with and switched to their 5-spoke alloy.

In true drift car style, the BRZ is augmented by the typical second-generation Rocket Runny widebody kit, consisting of fender flares and spoilers. Under the hood is not a 2-liter boxer engine, but a custom V8 that's based on the Chevy LS architecture. It's a 7.8-liter unit that makes 1,000 horsepower thanks in part to a Garrett GTX50R turbocharger running 6 psi of boost.

He'll chase the 2016 Championship in his Turn 14 Distribution Subaru BRZ. But while away from the track, Dai leads an effort to support and restore Japan after the March 2011 disaster. All proceeds from his charity RFJP.ORg are donated to Japanese Red Cross Society.