While some may say that it’s the same cars out on the field, Chris Forsberg changed things up this past weekend at XDC Round 1 with the debut of his much-anticipated four door ride-along drift car. For those of those that aren’t familiar with the car, Chris got his hands on an Infiniti M45, with which he wasted no time stripping, strengthening, and caging the chassis. The car was fitted with a set of 4 Recaro seats to keep the passengers in place, Seibon Carbon fiber body panels to keep weight down, and a generous boost in power courtesy of the engine and transmission setup from his 2009 Championship season 350Z.

15 lucky XDC fans suited up in firesuits and helmets and made laps in the passenger seats of the four-door drift tank around Irwindale Speedway this past Saturday in what was no doubt an unforgettable experience. We were there to catch all of the action and feel the rumble of the first Infiniti M45 Drift Car from both behind the lens, and from the backseat.

Flip through our mini-gallery below and tell us what you think.

We reported last year that Michihiro Takatori would be with the Drift Emporium for 2010 but we never really updated you guys with that information. He will be taking over Kenji Yaminaka’s car for Formula Drift. The Drift Emporium x Mazora S15 will keep it’s V8 power plant but add a supercharger to the mix for the new season.

The guys at Gruppe S have an update on the Nissan GT-R which will be driven by Robbie Nishida. They have posted some progress on the engine/transmission to the blog about the Formula Drift car. A replicated complete version of the car is posted above to get an idea of what your looking at.

This is a photograph of the stroked VQ35 engine sitting inside the Nissan GT-R engine bay. The transmission matted to the VQ35 is from Gfroce. The engine in the photo as you can tell is shifted way back which is made possible since the VR38 is much larger. What is going to be done with all that extra space in the engine bay? Here is what Gruppe S says, “The extra room in the engine bay will allow for a bigger turbo and even a larger diameter downpipe.”

Source: http://gruppe-s.blogspot.com/2010/02/transmission-and-engine-are-in.html