Eric O'Sullivan's hachi-roku is an admitted beater. We're not going to lie - the photo gallery would betray us if we did. But it is a Toyota beater with an illustrious past, a hooptie Corolla that carried a champion to his crown, an AE86 wreck with the heart of a lion - a lion that, incidentally, bears a Honda badge.

If you're a drifting fanboy/girl and don't know the name Eric O'Sullivan, you likely will before too long. Among the Dublin mechanic's many achievements, he was ProDrift Ireland's 2005 Rookie of the Year, 2007 series champ, and earned a bid to last year's inaugural Red Bull Drifting World Championship in Long Beach - one of only 32 invitees and only 17 foreign competitors.

O'Sullivan acquired the status behind the wheel of his trusty Toyota AE86 Corolla, and took home most of his podiums with a 2.0L Honda S2000 mill under the hood, the F20 (2004-and-up S2Ks were outfitted with 200cc more displacement, thus changing the engine code convention to F22). The mash-up of Toyota and Honda, from a pure performance perspective, is an undeniably lethal combination. It's all about matching a high-revving motor to a lightweight, flingable chassis.

The decision to go with an S2000 bullet was made in late 2005, as O'Sullivan's pro drift career was just coming into focus. Already getting help from Ireland's Modified Motors Magazine to get the project up and running, the inspiration came in part from Techno Toy Tuning's (T3) Gabriel Tyler in America, who also rocks an F20 in his AE86. Fellow competitor and Formula DRIFT challenger Darren McNamara is also a part of the Corolla club, but unlike Tyler opted for a turbocharged Nissan SR20 to replace the native 4AG engine. However, O'Sullivan was looking for naturally-aspirated setup, hence the high-spinning F motor.

The swap was no walk in the park. For starters, O'Sullivan sourced a low-mileage Euro-spec motor, complete with gearbox, driveshaft, ECU and wiring. Unfortunately the engine, which came out of a LHD AP1 chassis, had to fit into the engine compartment of a RHD AE86. The standard F-series header, which is already very efficient, simply wouldn't work with the steering rack of the Corolla, so a new manifold had to be fabricated.

Other major fab work included seam welding the chassis and caging it properly. There was also a considerable amount of labor put into the gearbox tunnel, which had to allow the engine to sit as far back as possible while also giving O'Sullivan easy access in case he needed to work on the tranny.

The other area that required major fabrication was the front crossmember; the whole assembly was lowered on custom spacers to provide clearance for the tall F20. The steering rack mount was also modified, as were the gearbox mount, the driveshaft, and a custom brace that runs under the gearbox.

To say it was a bitch to get the motor in is probably an understatement, but there's no arguing with the results. O'Sullivan reports that the power-to-weight ratio is near perfect, and while the feather-light Corolla doesn't generate as much rear tire smoke as some of its heavier competitors, the driver boasts, "I [can] push big angle at 9000rpm all day long."

If you saw the Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored Corolla compete in the Red Bull DWC, then consider yourself lucky; that was likely the last time the car will see any action on U.S. soil. For the foreseeable future, it's going to remain in Ireland where O'Sullivan will continue to campaign it in European events. But Eric's got a few surprises up his sleeve, including a recurring engagement in North America - check out the sidebar to see what we mean.

ROCKSTAR/HANKOOK SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STi

Eric O'Sullivan gives us a sneak peek at his 2009 U.S. competition car Like countryman Darren McNamara, O'Sullivan is reportedly preparing to compete in both the Irish ProDrift league and Formula D this season. And like McNamara, O'Sullivan's AE86 will stay on the Emerald Isle, Eric instead getting a crack at the Dynamic Autosports/Gruppe-S Subaru GD-chassis Impreza WRX STi, the Subie formerly owned by APR. The car is undergoing a complete teardown and rebuild from the ground up. Rockstar Energy Drink will be accompanying its star Irish drifter in America and Hankook will be providing the rubber. Additionally, HPI Racing already has an R/C car in the works (which is the subject of the photos - thought it was the real deal at first, huh?!) Yet another interesting wrinkle to the FD Long Beach opener on April 10 - should be good!

TOYOTA AE86 COROLLA GALLERY