Watch Vaughn Gittin Jr. Drift the Nurburgring in a Ford F-150 Raptor
The Formula D driver trades his usual Mustang RTR for a four-wheel-drive off-road monster before tackling the Green Hell.
These days, if you want to make a stir at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, setting a record lap time may not be the way to do it. With two of the VW Group's biggest brands using their nine-figure budgets to create cars capable of trading increasingly-brisk sub-seven minute lap times, it's harder than ever for someone else to break into the record books with a lap of their own.
So instead of going for a new record run 'round the 'Ring, Formula Drift wheelman Vaughn Gittin Jr. went about lapping the Green Hell in a way more in-tune with his particular set of skills: As sideways as possible. But Gittin didn't perform this feat in his Mustang RTR Spec 5-D drift car, or even one of those street-legal Mustang GT RTRs he helped whip up. No, Vaughn did it in a vehicle designed for pretty much the opposite of the 12.9-mile race track: a Ford F-150 Raptor.
Though that wasn't the original plan. According to a press release accompanying the video, Gittin was planning on drifting his RTR Spec 5-D at the Nurburgring, but an unexpected bout of soggy German weather wound up putting the kibosh on those plans. So instead, the drift guru grabbed the keys to a black-on-black F-150 Raptor and took the 450-horsepower, three-ton beast out for a few fast laps of the iconic course. The resulting laps don't appear likely to threaten the likes of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS for turbocharged production-car 'Ring lap supremacy...but they sure as hell look pretty fun.
You can watch Gittin hoon his way around the Green Hell in the YouTube video below. But be warned: Viewing this may cause you to run out and either buy a ticket to Germany. Or, alternately, plunk down the cash for a Raptor and take it drifting.
Oh, and if you dig that, check out the behind-the-scenes photo gallery of Gittin's trip to the 'Ring below.