Zac Quinn 
When you think of the Corvette, a drift car is probably not the first thing that would come to mind. It’s a road course-conquering track car for the street, after all. That being said, creative minds have turned the Corvette into everything over the years. From an off-road 4×4 with swamp tires, to a record-setting drag racer, Axel Hildebrand applied this do-anything ethos to his C6 Corvette, turning it into an ultimate drift race car. The car was featured on the Fast Car YouTube channel, and everything about this thing is impressive.
Rotary-Powered C6 Corvette Drift Car: Details
The car started as a standard 2006 C6 Corvette but was stripped of the stock LS V8 engine for a Mazda 20V rotary turbo engine built by Pulse Performance Racing in New Zealand. The engine makes around 800 horsepower at the moment, but the group working on the car aims to bump the power output to 1,000 ponies. The engine currently features a Garrett G52 1450 turbocharger which looks massive when hooked up to the engine. The car runs on E85 race fuel, which gives the engine resistance to detonation, which makes tuning it easier. It also burns cleaner, reducing soot which is vital for a rotary engine.
Turning the C6 Corvette into a drift car wasn’t easy for Hildebrand as the transmission in the stock car is located in the back, which isn’t ideal for a vehicle intended to swing the back end to and fro. So, they had to try and find a way to move the gearbox to connect to the engine. First, they replaced the stock one with a Wave 69G sequential six-speed, which comes from the UK, making repairs easier since the Corvette is also located there. Since the gearbox was moved from the back to the front, the radiator was moved to take its place.
Putting the radiator in the back means a larger radiator can be installed into the car; drifting means there’s not a ton of air coming into the front, so the back allows the builders to equip larger fans into the vehicle. Also, placing the radiator over the rear wheels gives more weight to improve traction and help the car obtain speed. The assembly for the radiator sits above a Winters Quick Change differential which can be found in all high-end drift cars due to its durability and simplicity in adjusting the gear ratio to better suit the tracks.
Finally, the C6 Corvette features a carbon kevlon body kit found more in motorsports and has begun making its way onto drift cars due to its light weight, strength, and flexibility when bumping into things. The body kit comes from a mold of a C6 Z06, a wider body than the standard car. This thing is a fantastic creation and looks like a blast to drive.
Corvette history buffs may recognize that this isn’t the first time that somebody fitted a Wankel engine into America’s Sports Car. Far from, in fact. Even General Motors officially flirted with the idea as far back as the early 1970s with the XP-882 Aerovette, which was also mid-engined, by the way.
