6 Awesomely Bizarre Drift Machines

When Nissan first penned the design for an affordable retro city car I doubt anyone in the design team predicted that the small econobox would one day be used as a drift machine. But thanks to some ingenious mechanics, that’s exactly what we have here.

In order to create a competent drift car, most of the Pao’s underpinnings have been scrapped. In fact, it’s best to think of the car as a Nissan S13 Silvia with a retro body dropped on top. The suspension, floor, and brakes are pure Silvia and under the bonnet you’ll even find an SR20DET. The craftsmanship that has gone into creating this hybrid is very impressive, and even though the finished product looks like a handful on the limit we still want one badly.

In his own words, this owner wanted to drift “in a rare car”. So what did he choose? A rotary RX-7 perhaps? What about an R34? Nope, he chose a Toyota Yaris.

Choice of car aside, the level of engineering that has gone into converting this front-wheel drive commuter vehicle into a rear-wheel drive drift machine is very impressive. Like the Nissan Pao above, the base of this Yaris is a Nissan Silvia S13. However, unlike the Pao, this car retains the Silvia’s long wheelbase making it much easier to control at the limit. The most fun Yaris of all time? Probably.

It’s safe to say that Greenpeace is not a fan of drift cars, but this vehicle in particular is likely to give it sleepless nights. Black Smoke Racing (aptly named) ran a diesel-powered Mercedes W123 estate in the Eastern European Drift Championship through 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The W123 ran a 3.0-litre, 24-valve, diesel engine with a huge Holset HX52 turbo putting out a scarcely believable 600bhp and 737lb ft of torque. Massive angles, black smoke and insane speed helped this team secure legendary status on YouTube. The car was retired at the end of 2012 and was replaced with an equally mad W203 Wagon, but the W123 is still our favourite.

4. Celica ZZT FF Drift Car

Founder of Noriyaro Alexi Smith discovered this car back in 2010 and it certainly split opinion.

This supercharged Celica started off life as a time attack car. But the owner, Kawashima-san, slowly converted it into an FF drift car. Due to DIY modifications the Celica ran a truly insane amount of camber and the stretched tyres looked incredibly dangerous. If there was ever a car that would make a mechanic wince it was this one. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask) Kawashima-san crashed the car at Fuji Speedway putting an end to this yellow machine.

However, the crash didn’t put an end to his madness. To replace his beloved Celica, he bought another one. But instead of learning from his ways, he added even more camber and stretched the tyres even further! In an interview with Noriyaro he stated that he was planning to “drive it to work every day and drift it too”. Madness.

Once again the website Noriyaro demonstrates the incredible diversity of the Japanese drifting scene. With its flappy-paddle gearbox, lack of low down torque and mid-engined layout, this Ferrari is certainly an odd choice for a personal drift machine.

Due to the automated gearbox the handbrake can’t be used to initiate the slide. Instead, the driver has to use a pendulum effect (inertia kansei drifting) to swing the back of the car round. To our surprise, once the Italian supercar is on the lock stops it looks very at home.

If you’re building a drift car for fun you can - within reason - do what you want, but when you’re a professional driver you need to have a car that will perform well and is capable of winning. Which is why we were surprised to see Mad Mike Whiddett use an MX-5 as a platform for his Formula Drift Machine.

A roadster with a 1000bhp, four-rotor, twin-turbo should not make a stable platform, but that clearly didn’t deter the crazy New Zealander. Even though project ‘Radbul’ had a difficult first year in Formula D, Whiddett proved many doubters wrong by beating series regulars such as Daijiro Yoshihara and Michael Essa. The car also gave us some of the best action videos of 2015.

So, CTzens, have you seen any other mad drift cars? Let us know.