What the world needs now is an F1 drift car with a rotary engine

Formula 1 and drifting are polar opposites in the motorsport world, but "Mad Mike” Whiddett doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. That’s because the New Zealander has set out to do the unthinkable by turning an F1 car into a drift car.

Whiddett started his career in motocross then established himself as a major player in drifting. After competing across Asia and Japan in the late-2000s and 2010s, he became the first Mazda driver to win a professional drifting series by clinching the 2018 Formula Drift Japan Series in 2018.

But he’s perhaps more famous for his wild builds than he is for his professional drifting exploits. His first well-known creation was his 515 horsepower MADBUL Mazda RX-7. From there the cars got crazier. BADBUL, an RX-8 followed, then there was the 1,200 horsepower RADBUL MX-5. 

Among his more recent builds are the NIMBUL Lamborghini Huracan for the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, two off-road trucks called RUMBUL (a Superlite and a Prolite), MADAZ, a 787B-inspired prototype dubbed the 787D, and MADMAC, a McLaren P1 GTR and 650 GT3-inspired beast built off a McLaren 650S.

All but the Lamborghini, which retained a V10, are powered by screaming rotary engines. And that's what's going to go in the F1 car, making it not just the first ever F1 drift car, but the first F1 car to be powered by a rotary engine. A turbocharged four-rotor engine pushing out 1,000 is planned.

“It is quite scary actually. We are building by far the most insane project Toni [Cook, his partner and Mad Mike Motorsport manager] and I have ever tackled,” Whiddett said.

Even by Whiddett's standards, the F1 drift car project is pushing the envelope. Photo by Red Bull Content Pool

The car in question is a Leyton House March 87P, chosen from Whiddett's love of 1980s and '90s motorsport, which originally started life as a Formula 3000 car but was developed into a Formula 1 car for the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix when its successor, the March 871, wasn't ready.

Whiddett’s creation, which will be called ‘FORMIDABUL’, wearing the same -BUL suffix as most of his other creations (in reference to his longtime backer Red Bull) is being put together at Whiddett’s MADLAB workshop in Hampton Downs, New Zealand alongside a team that includes engine builder Alec Bell, and fabricator and engineer Brendon Thomas.

The build is being documented in a six-part YouTube series, the first of which was released on Wednesday. 

In that first episode, Whiddett and his team takes delivery of the car and sets to work on planning for the conversion, looking at gearbox and drivetrain configurations, as well as how to incorporate the all-important hydraulic brake, and how best to approach what is set to be his most ambitious build to date. The full teardown of the car, its engine build, work on the engine management system, cooling systems, fabrication, steering development, chassis development, shakedown, and the car’s final reveal will all be shown in the series over the coming weeks.

“The part I’m looking forward to most with this project is the inspiration I hope rubs off on anyone who sees it and learns my story,” said Whiddett.

“Growing up with my solo mum on a very limited budget, I spent my time building, breaking and learning to modify old radio-controlled cars, and I never let anything stand in the way of chasing my dreams full throttle. 

“That journey has now led me to engineering my dream Formula 1 car to showcase and entertain the world. If I can do it, so can you.”