When Mad Mike Whiddett gets behind the wheel of one his drift cars there are a few you things you can be guaranteed of. Big noise, big smoke and big angle are part and parcel of the Kiwi drifter’s repertoire; and recently he brought them all to a special video project named Red Bull Conquer The Crown. Filmed on the iconic Crown Range Road in Queenstown near the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, the project presented a once in a lifetime chance for Mike to go maximum attack on the closed 10.47-kilometre (6.5-mile) stretch of tarmac in his 515hp quad-rotor MADBUL RX-7 – and he didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. Turn up your speakers and press play to witness one of Speedhunters’ own hit the vertical switchback section; find the limiter in sixth gear on the high-speed plateau; and slide through some classic touge-style corners on the final run to the 1.08-kilometre high summit. Epic stuff!
Chasing the success of last year’s tour, Speedhunters is proud to announce the European Drift Tour 2013. Featuring the renowned drivers Mad Mike Whiddett and Fredric Aasbø, the Speedhunters crew will be hitting up a number of European events over the summer, bringing along their unique mix of talent, mayhem and of course, burnt rubber, to [...]
If you caught my first post on the Hampton Downs round of the 2012/2013 Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship that played out last weekend, you’ll know that one of our own – Mad Mike Whiddett – fought off some tough competition to finish up on the top step of the podium. Not only that, but [...]
It all boiled down to this. After years of thought and months of planning, a dozen pro-spec drift machines rolled out of their makeshift pit bays and onto a closed-off section of downtown city road in Auckland, New Zealand. In front of a huge crowd gathered at the free-to-watch event, the Red Bull Drift Shifters [...]
The New Zealand drift community is getting pretty excited right now, and for good reason. This coming weekend an entire city block in downtown Auckland will be shut down and transformed into a tarmac playground for a bunch of Kiwi drifters and three Formula Drift internationals. The cause: Red Bull Drift Shifters. The event is [...]
I’d wager that last Saturday the largest gathering of car enthusiasts in North America, possible the world, converged at Irwindale Speedway. For those twenty four hours the course was not only the home of the final round of Formula D, but also had a paddock full of vendors, a parking lot bursting with street sweepers [...]
Ask anyone who knows anything about drifting and there’s little chance they won’t recognize the name MadMike, or one of his world-renowned Mazda drift machines. But what about the guy behind the name? Last weekend I spent a day out at Mike’s workshop shooting a feature on his reloaded BADBUL RX-8, so thought I’d use the opportunity to take a look inside his compound and give you a glimpse into the day-to-day life of MadMike Whiddett.
When it comes to building cars as tough as they are unique there aren’t too many people out there that do it better than New Zealand’s drift export, Mad Mike Whiddett. But while his famed MADBUL RX-7 has proven itself on the international stage, Mike’s the first to admit that his other car – an RX-8 named [...]
Although the Speedhunters Gatebil 2012 drift and media team have now scattered to the corners of the globe, we are all still basking in the afterglow of the experience of a lifetime. The event was simply that great. And while we’d all love to hold on to the immediacy of these memories, it’s soon going to be time to move on to our next projects. But before this happens, I thought to round up Darren, MadMike and Fredric for one last look at their own Gatebil stories.
If you haven’t noticed by now, Gatebil Rudskogen was a pretty wild place. When I arrived I really didn’t know what to make of it but quickly discovered it’s only too easy to become overwhelmed. With so much going on at any time just trying to decide where to go and what to do becomes [...]
Norway is one of my favorite places in the world to visit. The sun seems to kind of just hang there when the light is just right. The clouds are amazing and the air is so crisp and clear. It’s a photographers dream. After traveling for a grueling 20 hours I met up with Mr. [...]
I have seen a lot of different drift cars in the states and Japan, but nothing could prepare me for the craziness that is “Mad Mike” Whiddett’s FD RX7. While Mad Mike normally can be seen competing in New Zealand’s drift events, us Americans got the treat of seeing him in action last year during [...]
