Wednesday 26th September 2018

Ford Mustang drifts lap of the Nordschleife

What's it like drifting a 900hp Mustang around the 'ring? Funny you should ask...

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Professional drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr has become the first person to drift a whole lap of the Nordschleife in his Ford Mustang RTR which, well, makes for a very different kind of Nurburgring record video...

Gittin uses his purpose-built ‘Stang in the Formula Drift series in the US, so it has a race-tuned version of Ford’s 5.0-litre V8 to produce up to 900hp. The run at the 'ring was considerably longer than the average drift stint, meaning the motor’s appetite for rubber required two stops for new tyres.

As such, it’d be hard to constitute this attempt as a true ‘lap’ – but we can certainly cut Gittin some slack. Threading a car along the winding ribbon of asphalt that makes up the Nordschleife is hard enough when you’re trying to keep things tidy, let alone when you’re navigating it with yaw angles so great that your view ahead is through the side window.

Little wonder the run features much grass cutting and even the death of a drone by stoning...

[irocfan]

wow!

[Wammer]

Coming Soon Gymkhana 13 The Green Hell

[tektas]

I seem to remember that someone did this before him.

Found it. Werner Gusenbauer did it in a Mercedes CL. And he did it on one set of tires. Mind you the tires were cooled via a massive 100L Watertank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUDdj82sLzQ

[havoc]

That video is REALLY bad on the eyes. Whoever did the cuts / production should really consider a change of career...

Not nice / not clever.



Looked like immense fun though...and expect it to be emulated by a few dozen young 'ring wannabes..all collecting the Armco before they're 2km in!

[F1GTRUeno]

Had an awful lot of fun at the Red Bull Drift Shifters event in Liverpool. Always appreciated the talent required to do it but never been a huge fan of the sport until I saw it live and it's incredible. Getting showered with bits of tyre as they slide past at silly speeds right up close is an immense rush. The precision they've got and the control they've got is something else.

I'd love to have seen an entire lap done and not (badly) cut into a three minute video but still, great fun and Gittin is clearly very, very good behind the wheel.

I suppose it's always good when talking about drifting at the Nordschleife to remember the OG.

The Yellowbird and Stephan Rozer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSMCfPASImQ

[NAS]

tektas said:

I seem to remember that someone did this before him.

Found it. Werner Gusenbauer did it in a Mercedes CL. And he did it on one set of tires. Mind you the tires were cooled via a massive 100L Watertank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUDdj82sLzQ

Didn't know that video. Thanks for the link.

[Michael77]

Yeah this video was filmed and edited over a couple of days I believe, so "first to drift a whole lap" was probably done by someone years ago if drifting particular corners on different runs counts.

[Michael77]

Ah, and the very next thing I see is BtG post debunking that claim, and also mentioning that Werner Gusenbauer video. https://www.bridgetogantry.com/debunk-vaughn-gitti...

[re33]

Also response on BtG

https://www.bridgetogantry.com/response-vgj-on-the...

Great video, great driving but still don't get it. What % of the lap do you have to drift for it to be full lap? Without linking entire lap it's no more or less valid than any other "drift lap". Still looking forward to seeing longer video but "full drift lap" is just PR nonsense.

That said as much as I enjoy sliding around in car and watching drifting I would argue it's not really motorsport unless there is a stopwatch involved.

[InductionRoar]

tektas said:

I seem to remember that someone did this before him.

Found it. Werner Gusenbauer did it in a Mercedes CL. And he did it on one set of tires. Mind you the tires were cooled via a massive 100L Watertank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUDdj82sLzQ

I thought the RUF Yellowbird did it back in the 1980s too.

[TooMany2cvs]

Three sets of tyres for one lap.