Gittin’s Mustang is the first car to intentionally drift all of the way around the 12.9-mile road course.
Earlier this year, the Ford Performance YouTube channel offered up a video of drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. sliding around the Nurburgring in a new F-150 Raptor. The reason for Gittin being in Germany was to attempt to drift all of the way around the legendary track in his MustangRTR race car, but rain ruined that fun. Instead of trying to pilot a 900-horsepower race car around a long, wet track, he took to the ‘Ring in the surefooted Raptor, resulting in a cool video.
Since then, Gittin and his team headed back to the Nurburgring with the Ford Mustang RTR drift car and this time, Mother Nature cooperated. The biggest name in American drifting was able to take to the track with his monstrous muscle car and as planned, he drifted his way almost all of the way around the massive road course.
Drifting the Ring
The video above shows us 188 seconds of Vaughn Gittin Jr working his sideways magic in his Ford Mustang RTR race car. If you are familiar with the track and the record-setting lap times, you know that 188 seconds isn’t anywhere near enough time to show an entire lap. Instead, we get an array of clips of the 900-horsepower Mustangsliding and spinning around the world’s most famous road course.
From time to time, Gittin’s Mustang gets off of the track and into the dirt while at other times, the car soars through the air. For the most part, it appears as though Gittin did his best to literally drift all of the way around the 12.9-mile track, with the only exception being the long straightaway at the end of the lap.
When he gets to that point, the drift champ hammers down and races off into the sunset; perhaps in an effort to save the tires from what had to have been a good 10 to 12 minutes of endless abuse.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
