We’re excited!

Our Konig Hypergram flow formed wheels have recently had their debut under Matty Hill’s S15 drift car monster at this year’s World Time Attack Championship (WTAC).

For those that don’t know, Matty Hill is the first international driver to win a D1NZ drift event and is ranked among the top drivers in Formula Drift Japan, so it’s fair to say he knows how to steer. He also knows cars, and how to set them up to perform on the track, which is equal parts intuition, experience, and talent. A casual chat with Matty about his car, and the difference a lightweight wheel can make to a race outcome, and even the way his car feels and performs on the track, is enlightening to say the least.

If you’re in the drift scene, Matty will be well known to you, but for those that aren’t, let’s take a quick look at the man and his S15 drift weapon.

Matty Hill

Matty built his first drift car, a Nissan 180SX, when he was 19 years old. He did it the hard way, in the shed and on his back, and without much in the way of mechanical experience, beyond the basics. Online forums were his guide, and over a period of three years, he turned the Nissan into an SR20 powered drift car, that he then proceeded to track, and break, at local competitions and practice days.

Matty was a uni student at the time which meant funds were tight, and the 180SX spent more time sitting in the shed waiting to be fixed than he’d have liked, but over the next 6 years, he drove the wheels off it, lunching numerous SR20s, while he honed his skills.

The 2JZ powered S15

In 2014 he made the decision to step up to a Nissan 200SX S15, which would have originally been SR20 powered as well (the SR20DET), but this new build, saw the SR20 swapped for the infamous Toyota 2JZGTE 3.1-litre turbo six-cylinder engine, as found in the Supra back in the day.

The 2JZ Toyota engine is almost indestructible and can be tuned to produce ridiculous levels of power, making it the perfect engine for this type of motorsport, and drag racing as well, if that’s your thing. What it offered Matty, was the promise of reliability. Less time in the shed waiting to be fixed, and more power out on the track to go sideways.

Fast forward to 2020, and Matty was a veteran of three 2JZ S15 builds, that combined, saw him compete at events throughout Australia, New Zealand and Japan. This current 2JZ S15 iteration was built during Covid induced down time in 2020 and is a distillation of everything Matty had learned building and tracking 2JZ powered S15s over the previous 6 years.

The current chassis, the one in the pics, is a 200SX S15 Spec R and the 2JZ is thoroughly modified, with beefed up internals, stage 3 cams and a Borg Warner 9180 turbo. Outputs are estimated to be around 670kW and 1200Nm+.

You can’t tame that much torque, and untamed torque is what drifting is all about, but the S15 also needs to be controllable and the driveline, from the flywheel back, has to be as strong as an ox. To those ends, Matty’s S15 is fitted with a Wisefab front lock kit and front control arms, along with Parts Shop Max rear control arms, which help him point the Silvia where he knows it needs to go on the track. An ex-Nascar Jericho 4-speed dog box deals with torque, as does a Sikky Winters 10” rear diff. Sikky Winters was also the brand of choice for the essential to drifting, hydraulic handbrake. The brake calipers have been pinched from a Nissan GT-R.

The S15’s ‘office’ includes a Velo driver’s seat and a Haltech IC-7 dash and CAN keypad that allows Matty to control various electronic functions, including data logging and engine management, via the Haltech Nexus R5 VCU (Vehicle Control Unit).

The Wheels

Up until the 2023 WTAC event, Matty was running three-piece Rays wheels, 18×9.5 up front, and massive 18×11 in the rear, but the relatively heavy three-piece design was proving fragile on the track. He also wanted to reduce the rear wheel width, just a little, so that there was less stretching of the sidewall. The Konig Hypergram in a slightly narrower fitment on the rear, was the answer.

Hypergram was developed utilising flow forming technology, making the wheel both lightweight and immensely strong.Not only do they look amazing, but they also take rolling on and off kerbs, at crazy speeds, in their stride. Matty opted for some staggered sets, with 18×9.5 ET25s up front and 18×10.5 ET25s in the rear.

The LZ World Tour

The 2023 WTAC was just a practice session for Matty, it wasn’t a drift focused event, and he’s now busy getting the S15 ready for the LZ World Tour, on October 21^st and 22^nd at Calder Park in Victoria.

World famous Youtuber and accomplished driver Adam LZ is bringing his entourage to Calder Park for two days of drift action. There will be 29 drivers that enter the qualifying session on day one. The top 13 drivers from that session will make it straight through to the ‘Main Show’ on day two. The remaining 16 drivers will get to fight it out one more time on day one, with a top 3 finish winning them a place on the grid of day two’s Main Event as well.

If you want to find out more about the event, tap the following link – LZ Word Tour

Go Matty!