--- title: "Formula Drift Driver Chelsea DeNofa Shows You How to Buy a Drift Car" description: "Formula Drift Driver Chelsea DeNofa goes through everything you should look for when buying a drift car." date: "2018-01-13" modified: "2018-01-13" authors: - name: "Kyle Cheromcha" job_title: "Editor-in-Chief" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/17659/formula-drift-driver-chelsea-denofa-shows-you-how-to-buy-a-drift-car" categories: - "News" - "Racing" - "Watch This" tags: - "drift" - "Drift Car" - "Drifting" --- # Formula Drift Driver Chelsea DeNofa Shows You How to Buy a Drift Car ![]() *\www.thedrive.com* Chelsea DeNofa is a Formula Drift driver in the top tier Pro category. In Formula Drift, he races a Ford Mustang RTR for Vaughn Gittin Jr's RTR Drift Team. He has obtained a following on YouTube from his vlog series following him doing things with cars during the Formula Drift season and in the offseason. For his most recent video, he shows you how to buy a drift car. DeNofa brought two top suggestions for a first drift car to San Antonio Speedway to give a rundown of what to look for. He brought an E36 BMW 3-Series and an S13 Nissan 240. First off, DeNofa comments that people shouldn't care too much about what the car looks like. His suggestion is it just needs to pass the 100-foot test. He says there's no purpose of looking for a car without any dents because, within a few minutes of drifting, it will end up with plenty of dings and scratches. He recommends looking for a drift car around the $2,500 price point, which both of the cars he brought are in the range of. He mentions there are extremes around that price budget up to $4,000, but at the $2500 price point, you will get a quality car to have fun in. He suggests that you can find a drift car on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, Facebook groups, or even chatting with people at drift events. In the video, DeNofa goes over a few of the important items to look for and eventually takes both vehicles a for a drift test drive. Check out Chelsea DeNofa's *How to Buy a Drift Car* video below for more of details on what to look for when looking for a drift car as well as what to look for during the test drive. https://youtube.com/embed/JTBd74yWxAo ## Author Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()