Building a Competition Drift Car in 40 Days–Crazy, or Ambitious?

A tight timeline is no match for a motivated team of professionals.

How many of us have a project Mustang that’s spent years on jackstands? Can you imagine building a competition-ready drift car in just 40 days? Yeah, me either. Thankfully, James Deane on YouTube is chronicling his build in video form so that we can all get inspired together.

Deane is based in Ireland, and he had sourced his newest project from the USA. However, dues to some shipping issues, it arrived a month late, hence the abbreviated timeline. The contents of the shipping container make up a dream LEGO set for Mustang enthusiasts – a pair of new Ford Performance RY45 crate engines and a fresh body in white from RTR, as well as plenty of other goodies we’ll see soon enough in another container.

You’re Tearing Me Apart

The body is pretty bare to begin with, but the crew starts out by removing the fenders and doors. Then, spot welds are drilled in key locations to remove other unnecessary components. You know it’s a serious build when even a body in white isn’t stripped bare enough. By the time they’re done, even the roof and quarter panels are gone.

After some more “new parts” eye candy, the bare unibody of the Mustang is transported to a friend’s shop for a roll cage install. Anyone who has built a race car knows how much easier this process is with most of the body removed. It’s much easier to build a car around a roll cage than the other way around.

A new transmission tunnel is also installed, and the front and rear subframes are “bobbed” to make way for tubular crash frames. The main hoop for the roll cage is in place, as well as the base plates for the front. All in all, quite a lot of progress for just 24 hours. Maybe they really will manage to pull this off in just over a month.

Are we inspired to work on our own projects? Yes, of course! We just need a nap first – just watching Deane and the boys thrash on their new drift car makes us feel exhausted.

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Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.
He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.
In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.
You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.

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