By Eric Rood
We’ve talked drift trucks here before with Chad Copeland’s monstrous SR20DET-powered Datsun 620 getting a Hooniversal Car of the Year nomination in 2010. But French-Canadian drifter Maxime Lemoine took a different approach to utility-hauler-drifting. Rather than put a boosted car engine into a vintage truck frame, Lemoine instead dropped a GM LSX454 crate motor into a relatively late-model Chevy S10. The result: glorious American tire-shredding muscle in the hands of an able hoon from our French-speaking neighbors to the north. Enjoy a couple videos after the break.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElsPWoEjit8[/youtube]
Lemoine took home Rookie of the Year honors in the 2013 Driftmania Canadian Championships, about which I’ll admit to knowing virtually nothing. But a few seconds of hearing the unassuming beast’s ursine growl as it vaporizes tires tells you all you need to know about its nature.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WA3NodBd14[/youtube]
American drifters should feel a little ashamed that a foreigner put a giant, torquey crate motor in an American truck for drifting first, but they should mostly feel giddy that it’s been done at all.
Well struck, Maxime. Well struck.
[Sources: LowSub and kevacura YouTube channels]
Jeff Glucker