Ken rolls the rumbling Mustang out of the pits, then squeezes open the throttle. Ahead, the concrete vastness of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro's abandoned runway stretches without apparent limit into the heat waves. First gear, Second, Third-all pass at wide-open throttle; Ken selects Fourth and still the throttle remains open, the supercharger shearing the air into that familiar, yet still hair-raising muted scream. We've covered a dragstrip's distance and are still charging when the once small wobbling line of orange takes form as a row of traffic cones, confusing at first, but now forming a generous arc to the right. Ken modulates the throttle for a moment, then with a sudden, explosive action, slams the parking brake, yanks the wheel, and gets back on the gas.
Welcome to drifting at 120 mph. Capital sport, we assure you, as the world goes sliding by with impossible speed and the interior fills with tire smoke. It's every boy's automotive dream writ large by corporate marketing dollars, and new ground for the Mustang to conquer.
So thinks Ford Racing, as the company has gone long lengths to help put a drifting horse under the youthful Ken Gushi, and thus in front of the growing drifting fan base. Starting with an '05 GT, Ford Racing went to its Performance Parts catalog and selected the latest in hot-rod hardware, to include an iron-blocked 4.6 Cobra Terminator engine and T56 Tremec transmission. The engine has been further hotted-up with a full suite of FRPP fire-breathers, to include a Whipple screw-type supercharger set at 14 pounds of boost. The result is rather similar to the nearly 700 hp '03 Cobra project car from Ford Racing and SVT we sampled in the September issue ("Bad to the Blown," p. 50), but the quoted power figure is lower at "over 500-rear-wheel horsepower." We don't know if there's some spec-box sand-bagging going on here, but we assure you there is no trouble smoking the tires at 100 mph.
Handling all that power is 18-year-old Ken Gushi, Southern California's black-maned drifting poster boy. Because it sells tickets and fits drifting's counter-culture roots, much has been made of Ken's conviction for reckless endangerment-that's what they call drifting when performed on public roads in the presence of a police officer-and resulting lack of a driver's license. The facts are true. Almost three years ago, Ken was testing another drift car on the street, the law was waiting, and as a result it will still be awhile before the People's Republic of California will be in a mood to reinstate his driver's license. But any insinuation that Ken is some sort of stray cat punk is pure carny barking.
Ken's father, Tsukasa Gushi, moved his family from their native Japan to the U.S. when Ken was but a year old. An auto mechanic by trade, Tsukasa is also an ardent rally fan, an interest that naturally passed on to Ken. To emulate the rallying experience Tsukasa would take his '86 rear-drive Corolla to the dry lakes in the Mojave desert, where pivoting around bushes he would practice the craft of sideways driving. A family man, Tsukasa would often put the barely past toddling Ken in his lap, and let him slide the car on the wide-open lake beds. We needn't say any more how Ken came to love being crossed up, and like his dad, for Ken the ultimate automotive expression is still rallying. But drifting is a lot closer to what is possible on a small budget, and Ken obviously has a love for it as well.