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THIS 850HP DUAL-SUPERCHARGED ASTON MARTIN IS FORMULA DRIFT'S COOLEST CAR!

Published: 2022-04-15 08:59:22 Last Updated: 2022-04-15 09:52:11

In the highly competitive world that is Formula DRIFT, there’s a few very interesting cars competing. In a strange twist, some of the ones that are the most talked about thanks to the high level of insanity involved belong to chaps who hail from New Zealand. If you follow any form of motorsport, you will likely still have seen or read something about the cars used in Formula D, especially in the Pro Car class. One that immediately jumps to mind is the Mazda MX5 owned and driven by Mike Whiddett, one of the reasons the man rolls with the nickname ‘Mad Mike’. He has a few cars up at this mad level, and it’s clear that he’s a fan of the pistonless powerplants.

In this case, we’re talking about that other Kiwi who’s taken a car usually reserved for the wealthy types who wear stylish suits and spend R50 000 on loafers – an Aston Martin Vantage. Of course these cars can be had in a higher state of tune with suspension tweaks and the like to make them more capable on the track for when a track drive is needed to relax, and there’s even purpose-built track versions available, but what we see here is on a whole different level. Darren Kelly wanted to campaign something special in the 2022 Formula DRIFT series that wouldn’t only be competitive, but also something that was a bit different. He got that right. The Aston Martin Vantage that he’s using was originally one of the aforementioned track ready ones created to compete in the GT4 challenge, a Gentleman Driver race series that sees entrants all competing in these Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 cars, which were pretty fast with 330kW on tap.

This here Aston Martin no longer sports an 8-cylinder setup, oh no, that’s not how Kiwis roll. Darren raised the bar when he chucked the V8 lump from a GT4 chassis and replaced it with a V12, and to keep purists happy, it’s an Aston Martin V12. These amazing sounding engines were mostly found with power at 380 kW (510 hp) and 570 Nm, depending which model it was sourced from, the S model was rated at 420 W (563 hp) but that’s a little harder to find. Not that it matters because this one was built to be competitive and so thanks to a pair of superchargers, the Formula D version of Aston Martin Vantage has between 552-625 kW (750-850 hp) available depending on which track the car needs to compete at. That’s more than enough power to shred tyres and change the weather to overcast.

The SXdrv crew loves this build, it's not the usual kind of thing, and that's always a good thing, especially when it's been put together like this Formula DRIFT car. We also love it when Larry Chen does a video of some of his shoots because we an in-depth look at the cars, but he also has lengthy chats to the owners so you get more insight on why things were done the way they were in the build.

Take a look at the YouTube video about the absolutely insane twin-supercharged Aston Martin drift car campaigned by New Zealand’s Darren Kelly below: 850hp V12 Twin Supercharged Aston Martin Vantage: Darren Kelly's 2022 Formula D Pro Car | Larry Chen.

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Article Tags: Cars SXdrv Larry Chen Darren Kelly Aston Martin NZ Slideways Drifting Formula DRIFT Drift Formula D