6.7 LITRES OF TYRE-SHREDDING GOODNESS

Roush-Yates is one of the best-known engine builders in the world — small wonder when both the names behind the company, Jack Roush and Robert Yates, are amongst Nascar’s biggest and best. Roush-Yates build the engines that power Vaughn Gittin Jr’s RTR Mustangs, and a similarly powerful and reliable engine would fit the bill for the Hoonicorn nicely. The 6.7-litre (410 cubic inch) V8 is topped with D3 cylinder heads, and Kinsler eight-stack individual throttle bodies, with MoTeC fuel injection. What’s the net result of all of that fury? A staggering 630kW and 977Nm — we don’t want to know just how many pairs of tyres were consumed in the making of Gymkhana 7.

Ian moved to the US in the early ’90s. He lived in Southern California for around 16 years, and in that time he raced speedway sidecars four nights a week, and began a race fabrication type of business. That evolved into a slightly bigger business building high-end street rods, which is where Ian first met Jason.

“The shop was mostly all Kiwis and Swedes,” Ian said, “so when Jason asked if we had any jobs, I pretty much told him ‘Go on then, get to work!’”

Ian shifted through a few businesses, and was eventually introduced to drifting in 2005 by fellow Kiwi Rhys Millen. ASD was soon started, to run in Formula D — one of the world’s biggest professional drift series — and, with Falken Tire jumping on board, it was all go. Over the following years, ASD rose to the top of Formula D. So how did ASD get involved in the Hoonicorn build? Vaughn Gittin Jr. is the ASD race team’s professional drifter, the owner of the Mustang RTR brand,