This 1000-horsepower Corolla iM drift car is the ultimate hot hatch

Papadakis Racing took care of those issues when building Fredric Aasbo's latest Rockstar Energy-sponsored drift car. It's a Corolla iM with an incredible 1,000 horsepower and rear-wheel drive.

In case you hadn't guessed from that line alone, there isn't a whole lot of Corolla iM left under the drift car's widened body. But it does still have a Toyota four-cylinder under the hood. It's a 2AR engine whose less burly cousins are found under the hoods of the RAV4 and Camry, among others. It produces the aforementioned 1,000 horsepower and 850 pound-feet of torque thanks to both a turbocharger pumping in 33 psi of boost and nitrous oxide injection. The power goes through a four-speed dog box transmission to the rear wheels, and the car features large fender flares at all four corners.

Of course, since this is a rear-drive drift car with the Corolla name, the Rockstar Energy drift team couldn't resist a tribute to manga and anime series Initial D, which helped popularize the Corolla AE86. The reveal video for the iM drift car is a remake of the Initial D intro from the first season, and is quite loyal to the source material. Even if you don't care about Initial D, the video is still worthwhile just to see this crazy Corolla smoke some tires. You'll be able to see the car race this weekend at the first Formula Drift event of the year in Long Beach, California.