‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett, the drifter from New Zealand, is well known for wild project cars and his latest is the wildest to date.
It’s a rotary-swapped, 1,000-bhp, flame-spitting McLaren drift hypercar. But it’s hardly surprising for a guy with a nickname that has ‘mad’ in it.
In collaboration with Lanzante
The hypercar – referred to as ‘’MadMac’ – has been developed and built in collaboration with British automotive engineering specialists, Lanzante.
It is being shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week in England. It celebrates Mad Mike’s 10 years of drifting at the event.
Lanzante, led by Dean Lanzante, provided the foundations for the project, calling upon the extensive experience and expertise of the McLaren P1, built up over the past decade.
Combining an inherently strong and versatile McLaren carbonfibre chassis with additional safety from an FIA-approved rollcage, the team scanned, developed, tooled and sculpted bespoke P1 GTR and Lanzante-developed P1 LM bodywork.
Modified body
This newly formed shape was stretched in all directions, giving a much more aggressive rear stance, as well as wider front arches to accommodate the expected steering adjustments needed for Mike, 43 years old this year, to perform his iconic drifting style.
A pivotal moment came for the team as they looked at how to genuinely build the world’s ‘wildest’ drift hypercar, and how best to extract the necessary performance they wanted from the vehicle.
Originally fitted with a 3.8-litre V8 twin turbo, the team made a bold decision to ‘go with what’s in Mike’s DNA’, as they looked at ways of generating the desired 1,000 bhp and Mike’s signature style, from a powerplant they understood.
The result? A custom, MadLab-built, 3-rotor billet 20B turbo engine installed into the heart of the McLaren’s carbonfibre chassis.
Next-level build
Mad Mike has become known for rotary engines in almost all his drift builds, but MadMac has taken this to the next level.
With the original transmission from the McLaren retained, ingenuity and engineering were then pushed to the limit again, as the team worked quickly to design, create and install a bespoke transfer case to connect the flame-spitting rotary engine with the factory-fit sequential gearbox.
Beyond this, the 100 days of the time-frame that had been set were optimised to make a list of further enhancements. Custom uprights and a steering rack provide further steering rotation required for drifting.
Other tasks were designing bespoke wheels, installing a custom Haltech ECU and dashboard to ensure full control, transferring from GT3-style steering wheel mounted paddle shifting gearchanges to a modified gaming-style gear shifter, and installing a hydraulic handbrake.
A trip to Japan was made to work with legendary bodykit designer Rocket Bunny to enhance and emphasise the sculpted lines of the P1 GTR bodywork. With further development work continuing after many private shakedowns and testing days, the team utilised every last minute available, before bidding their ultimate build farewell at Auckland airport.
“We pride ourselves in our projects, and creating some of the most show-stopping vehicles, but MadMac has taken this to a new level,” explained Dean. “Everything we do is completed to the highest level, so to have a chance to work with Mad Mike – the best in the business – and to take on a new challenge in a different area of the sport, was something we simply couldn’t say no to.”
“The work Mike and his team have taken on, with the deadline of unveiling at Goodwood, shows the confidence and the abilities they hold. It is the perfect celebration for Mike’s 10 years of drifting at the Festival of Speed, and we are honoured to have played a part in it,” he added.