Horse Sense: Going into the Pikes Peak demonstration, Falken driver JR Gitten estimated he had no more than 40 minutes seat time in his Mustang. JR is a member of the popular group dubbed the Drift Alliance. Check out their innovative Web site at www.driftalliance.com.
There's nothing like your first time, so they say. Well, this was my second time-in a drift car, that is. Falken Tire invited us to sample its new '05 Mustang drift machine; so there I was, strapped in, grinning, and hurtling sideways with JR at the wheel. The 700hp, supercharged Four-Valve was screaming, and thick clouds of tire smoke occasionally passed through the cabin as we gyrated left and right.
Then something caught my eye.
It was just a flicker, maybe a shadow or a change in the light to my right. Curious, I turned my head to glance out the side window, and my eyes almost bugged out of my head. Not 3 feet from my bearded chin was the left-front fender of another of Falken's drift cars, cocked just as impossibly sideways as we were. And behind it was Falken's other drift car, and behind that, yep, Falken's fourth drifter. All of us were sliding and smoking like the Blue Angels, and as we slithered through the Pikes Peak International Raceway infield road course, the Nissan beside us closed and opened a foot or two as we hit apexes.
It was an awesome sight, one that went straight to permanent memory, instantly a forever-ingrained image. Heck, I thought we were out there by ourselves-it was a real surprise to find another car almost within touching distance, and two more behind it.
But for Vaughn Gittin Jr.-just call him "JR"-the concentrated adrenalin rush of tandem quad drifting is still a major thrill and a regular occurrence. As a pro, JR is, after all, one of an extremely rare breed of cat. He still has his nine-to-five job as an IT specialist in his home state of Maryland but, like a helmeted superhero, on weekends JR is assigned to Falken's brand-new Mustang. His job is to win drift competitions and wow the crowds at demonstrations, a task he comes by naturally.
Asked how he got into drifting, the built-like-a-footballer JR says he started on his own, following his dad's musclecar roots and thrashing sideways through industrial parks on the weekends. In love with the slideways feel, JR said he realized he was hooked on the sensation and had a talent for it, so he bought a 240SX, "the perfect drift car," and got into Formula Drift. With the Nissan, he was one of three Americans who qualified for the top-of-the-heap D1 competition in 2004. Already associated with Falken, they designated this all-American boy for the Mustang's driver seat even before the car was built.
The building was the work of Eric Cheney and his XMP crew. Eric is well known for his line of outrageous show cars, but it's a reputation he's somewhat sensitive about, as he has even more background with proper racing cars and doesn't want the world to think the only thing he can build is a non-mover with neon-lit wheelwells. As such, Falken's drift car, which XMP built and maintains, is ample validation of Eric's performance skills.
Construction began last fall when Falken paid over list for one of the first '05 GTs out of captivity. The car needed to be in Falken's booth at the SEMA show, then appear at the Tokyo Auto Salon, so time was short and the pressure was on. XMP stripped the just-assembled car completely, seam-welded the entire chassis, and built a stiff 1 1/2-inch-diameter, chrome-moly, SCCA-legal road racing 'cage. Eric pointed out that drift-car chassis must be rigid to withstand the endless twisting and side loads they are subjected to, and this has proved just one of several technical details required by this new and energetic discipline.
For auto-show duty, a set of cut Eibach springs went in, but while in Japan, Eric worked with suspension tuner Tein (say "Tane") to customize the company's existing "heavy car" Mustang road race/drift coilover suspension-the first American suspension design for this popular Japanese company. A Tein highlight is EDFC, or Electric Down-Force Control. That's a fancy way of saying cockpit adjustable shocks, something Eric said was planned from the beginning but wasn't on the Mustang during our ride. It should be by the time you read this, however.
For power, Eric opted for a Sean Hyland Motorsports Four-Valve unit "similar to Jon Mihovitz's drag engine."This is an all-out powerplant, with forged everything, titanium connecting rods, and a generally bulletproof high-rpm demeanor. This was necessary, as drift cars need gobs of power to either slap the car sideways at any time or accelerate the machine between the typically tight drift corners. After all, competitive drifting is, style points and all, still a race where running down and passing the other guy-or running away from the guy behind you-is a major goal of the exercise.
To guarantee power, a Paxton Novi supercharger was fitted and geared initially for just 8 pounds of boost, then 12 pounds when we saw it, and it will only go up from there. Already, that puts close to 700 hp on tap at the flywheel, so JR has plenty of snort to work with.
Unfortunately, the supercharger beltdrive has proven a real trial to Eric and the XMP/Falken crews. The first iteration was a single eight-rib belt, but that got flung off about as fast as it could be installed, so Eric moved to a custom two-belt system of his own design, where the stock serpentine belt is retained and a second belt is added just to drive the supercharger. This required considerable effort to design and build some involved bracketry-it really meant a complete redesign of the front engine dress. The two-belt system now divides the humongous belt loads, thereby increasing the blower belt lifespan to at least long enough to make it through a couple passes. It has the added benefit of allowing JR to complete a competition even if the blower belt shreds or comes adrift, which it still occasionally does. This already happened, in fact, at the Houston event just prior to our ride at Pikes Peak. JR says the car is obviously a slug without the blower, but can still do some good and score points.