Drifting at the Nürburgring in a 900 hp Mustang? Vaughn Gittin Jr makes history

Vaughn Gittin Jr has become the first driver in the world to complete a full lap of the “Green Hell” while drifting.

The Nürburgring is one of the meccas of motorsport, a circuit where just about everything has happened. Formula 1 single-seaters, DTM cars, the sportiest models on the market and even buses or other bizarre vehicles have all raced around the “Green Hell”. What has never happened on the Nordschleife is for a car to complete a full lap of the circuit while drifting; the fact that drifting is prohibited on the track is largely to blame. Fortunately, our friend Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Ford Mustang RTR Drift have put an end to this nonsense.

American driver Vaughn Gittin Jr has become the first driver in the world to cover the 20.7 km length of the Nürburgring circuit while drifting. To do so, he used his Ford Mustang RTR Drift, a tuned muscle car whose supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine produces up to 900 hp.

Ford has not given many details about how the feat was achieved on the “Green Hell”, but what we do know is that Vaughn needed three sets of tyres to complete the full lap.

The American carmaker did not reveal the lap time Vaughn recorded on his historic lap either. However, we know that the Mustang RTR Drift reached speeds of over 240 km/h and even performed drifts in sixth gear.

According to Vaughn Gittin Jr, “Drifting at the Nürburgring is the biggest challenge for me: many people question whether it would even be possible, and wonder whether you could get out of it in one piece. Something inside me pushed me to try it, to settle the doubts”. The drift driver even admitted that he didn’t know the circuit as well as he thought: “everything changes when you’re sideways at those speeds”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=oLXXL3SK3o8

Technical specifications of this car

CoupeFord Mustang6 versions · from 62,405 €