Formula Drift 2017 Champ James Deane Drifts the World’s Fastest Drift Nissan GT-R
Fresh off a Formula Drift 2017 championship, James Deane heads to the Dubai Autodrome to drift around in the World’s Fastest Drift Nissan GT-R.
James Deane is a professional drifter who had been tearing up the European drift circuit becoming a five-time champion with wins in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2017, he made his return to the United States to compete in Formula Drift after being out of the series since 2010 and came back as a force to be reckoned with as he not only won his first event back in the series, Long Beach, he became champion overall in the 2017 Formula Drift season.
Recently, Deane visited the Dubai Autodrome to play with the World's Fastest Drift Nissan GT-R. The GT-R, a NISMO model, was built as part of a special joint program between Nissan’s Nismo, Greddy and Prodrift Academy UAE. It features its stock Nissan GT-R VR38DETT twin turbo V6 engine, but with the power levels turned up to 1,200 horsepower and the GT-R's transmission changed to a manual sequential transmission giving the driver three pedals to deal with. The car holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest drift when it was driven by Japanese drift champion Masato Kawabata at the Fujairah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at a speed of 304.96 km per hour, roughly 189 miles per hour.
Deane thrashes the GT-R all over the track giving us some great drift views with the desert sun as the backdrop. The Autodrome is used to Formula 1 cars and Sportscars clipping apexes, but not as many cars at full lock sideways with plumes of smoke out the back.
Check out Crank and Piston's Man vs. Machine feature video featuring James Deane driving the World's Fastest Drift Nissan GT-R below.
