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“The biggest thing these cars struggle with is going slow”, said Josh Stroud, Formula DRIFT crew Chief for RTR Mustang #213, as he walked me around Ben Hobson’s Pennzoil Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD. There’s a lot more to a real drift car setup than negative camber and hydraulic handbrakes.
Drifting used to be just a grassroots motorsport, but Formula DRIFT (FD for short) has spent the last 20-odd years pushing the limits of drifting, showing the world a motorsport based on style and technique, not just speed. The RTR (aka “Ready To Rock”) team has been an integral part of the rise of drifting in the USA, bringing screaming V8s to a scene once dominated by imports.
Over the course of a weekend at Formula Drift “Battle at the Springs,” I shadowed the RTR Team to learn what it takes to build a state-of-the-art professional drift car, from the perspective of someone who has spent the last three years building and sliding my own grassroots drift car.
A professional drift car has a couple of key differences from normal racing cars, separated into three main areas:
- Suspension and Steering
- Engine and Drivetrain
- Body and Styling
Jake Allen
Jake Allen
Suspension and Steering
It’s obvious that any drift car is meant to go sideways, but this is a professional sport judged on how sideways you can go while still maintaining breakneck speeds of forward momentum. This is done through steering, suspension forgiveness, and rear grip. The RTR Spec-5 FD Mustang is set up with a bottom ball joint farther away from the body than stock and extended tie rod ends to match. This offsets the whole front knuckle and gives any drift car that famous “bulldog stance.”
Pushing the bottom of the steering knuckle outwards allows the wheel to turn farther before hitting the body, great for achieving maximum angle. It’s important to understand that while the front wheel can turn more angle lock to lock, that does not actually change the number of turns the steering wheel can make. This means every degree of steering wheel adjustment translates to a greater degree of turning from the front wheel. This can have the adverse effect of making a drift car incredibly snappy, because smaller inputs = bigger movement. This can be fun when you know how to handle a steering wheel that likes to spin back and forth in drift, but unnerving to the untrained individual. Alongside this custom steering setup is a laundry list of custom alignment adjustments.
RTR
RTR
RTR
“I can’t tell you what I changed, but I’m trying to add more bite”, said Shelby Crackston, crew chief of RTR driver James Deane. This means she was likely dialing the rear toe arms inwards toward the car. This forces the rear tires into a pigeon-footed position, spinning toward each other. This has the effect of forcing more traction (bite) into the tires when you hit the gas. It’s terrible for street driving, but when these drift machines blow through 315-width Nitto tires every two runs, who cares? That was all I could get because she wasn’t telling me much about her secret sauce, and for good reason.
Suspension setups and tire pressures are the main ways any driver can get an edge. It’s common to start out drifting without any of these steering modifications and stick just to suspension adjustments. Adding angle kits too early can be jarring to the uninitiated.
RTR
RTR
Engine and Drivetrain
One of the goals of Formula DRIFT is to keep driving accessible, so cars are required to be based on their street-legal counterparts and are typically fitted with parts that any shade-tree mechanic can buy off the internet. So yes, if you wanted to, you COULD buy one of these Mustangs. But I recommend one of their more street-friendly ones.
RTR started as a speedshop created by Vaughn Gitten Jr., focused on building Mustangs turned up 11. It quickly snowballed into a Ford-backed performance parts supplier and outfitter so ingrained into the company that the RTR Drift team actually services their procar Mustangs at Ford Dealers when they can’t make it back to HQ in time for the next event. Can you imagine your Ford Escape on a lift next to a 1,249-horsepower Mustang?
Jake Allen
Ben Hobson’s car is fitted with a 455 cubic-inch V8 and fires at least a 300-shot of nitrous every run on top of all that rowdiness. After the weekend at the track, I got a chance to sit down with Sean Nguyen, Pennzoil Technical Scientist and Automotive Lubricant Specialist, to understand how these engines can withstand such high stress over time.
“They go from 0 to 9,000 RPM in [one] shot. And of course, all that puts heavy demands on the oil, the transmission… So the product has to be shear stable to handle that”, said Sean after I was surprised to learn that these RTR Mustangs use off-the-shelf Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 10W-60. It follows the theme of accessible components and ease of maintenance. Anything the RTR team can do on these cars to ensure simplicity and reliability helps ensure a well-performing competition day.
RTR
RTR
Even one run in amateur drifting consists of full-throttle moments, quickly followed by off-throttle slides. This sudden adjustment of velocity and throttle can be hard to manage without a dry sump fitted or a baffled oil pan. Just like drifting transitions, much of Pennzoil’s oil engineering is built to react and accommodate whatever motor it’s put in. These hopped-up RTR Spec-5 FD engines are built “loose” and require thicker oil to fill the gaps compared to a normal car. Sean explained, “You lose a seal, you lose compression, you lose power.” As a partner with RTR, they can’t afford to let their product be a cause for concern, so Pennzoil worked hand in hand with each RTR driver to understand their car and driving style before selecting oil that works best.
Body Design
When getting into the sport of drifting, you need to accept a truth: you will crash. Once a driver has accepted that truth, their mindset changes, and their driving immediately becomes better (ask me how I know). With Ben Hobson’s RTR Mustang and many other drift cars in the paddock, everything “stock” in front of the shock towers and behind the rear windshield has been cut away and replaced with breakaway metal called “tube frames” designed to drag against a guardrail or bump into another car in tandem drift without causing permanent damage.
A grassroots 1UZ-swapped 240sx drift car with a tube-front and detachable radiator support.
These types of design techniques are used to give drivers confidence to push it, knowing they have easy-to-mount spares sitting back in the trailer if needed.
This is how close to the wall the cars get.
Inspiring the Next Generation
As someone who goes to 10+ drift days per year, I spent my first weekend at Formula DRIFT expecting something similar to my time walking pits at other race series around the country. Instead found a professional league that doesn’t sit behind velvet ropes and VIP entry cards, but welcomes everyone into the fold, letting them get up close and personal with the cars and drivers many of us idolize. I witnessed a friend drive their drift car to the event, walk up to a driver, and proceed to discuss suspension setup. About an hour later, they were watching that same car lap the track. This type of accessibility is why I love the drifting community.
Jake Allen
Full disclosure: Pennzoil, sponsor of both Formula DRIFT and RTR, invited me to the event this weekend and paid for my ticket.
Aaron works for The Drive’s parent company, Recurrent. While he spends most of his time behind the scenes, he has always been a diehard automotive enthusiast and frequently contributes to The Drive.
