Fredric Aasbo announced that he will be piloting a 2017 Toyota Corolla iM for his 2017 Formula Drift season.
Fredric Aasbo and Papadakis racing continue their partnership with Toyota for the 2017 Formula Drift season but it looks like the Norwegian Hammer has a new ride with a totally different chassis. According to Fredric Aassbo himself on Facebook earlier today (Mar. 27, 2017) he’ll be trading in his Scion tC which he’s stuck with since Tanner Foust handed over the keys to the first gen tC in 2011 and switching over to what would’ve been the Scion iM but is now referred to as the Toyota Corolla iM. Check out the official video reveal below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6Qf-yDtTU
Fans of Initial D will notice that Fredric Aasbo and the boys at Rockstar mimicked shot for shot the opening sequence to Initial D stage One where the protagonist, Takumi Fujiwar,a infamously drifts, quite fittingly, an AE-86 Corolla. Filmed at night, the low light setting does very little to dampen just how much smoke this new chassis is throwing from its Nexen Tires.
If you’re looking for some really high-res shots of the build of this new chassis, you should definitely head over to Speed Hunters to see the behind the scenes photos shot by Larry Chen.
If you’re familiar with Formula D and the progression of popular engine swaps and power you’ll know that V8 engines reign supreme. With copious amounts of torque it’s a no brainer to swap in an LSx engine from GM or a 5.0 Coyota from Ford. Even Tanner Foust preferred V8 power in the first gen tC he drifted under Papadakis Racing. But with Fredric Aasbo replacing Foust’s seat, Scion (at the time) convinced Papadakis to try using their Toyota 2AR-FE engine with a giant BorgWarner twin-scroll turbocharger making sure that this four-cylinder could keep up. Papadakis Racing will use the same engine they’ve perfected since 2012 and will stuff it under the hood of the Toyota Corolla iM. Papadakis uses his skills and expertise to get this four-cylinder up to 1,000 HP thanks to 30+ psi of boost and a 150 shot of nitrous.
Thanks to Speed Academy off YouTube we also caught a glimpse of what Aasbo’s chassis looks like stripped down to the bare metal. Check out that video below.
According to Aasbo on how this iM compares to the tC, ” It feels very similar, but cockpit ergonomics are better (better seating position and steering column angle). The sub-frames are the same as the tC, but the wheelbase is shorter.” So look forward to some snappy transitions.
We love his new chassis and we’re sure that he’ll more than be able to compete with those running more than three times his displacement. It’s not like engine power did much to influence his second place finish behind Chris Forsbeg last year.
