THE ONLY NOISE IS SCREAMING TYRES

There’s something oldschool appealing about the concept of “Fast Fords”, but the Blue Oval is keen to demonstrate that it’s moving with the times. Even with the very, very Fast Fords.

The one-off Mustang Mach-E 1400 drift and circuit car created by Ford and RTR (the company owned by drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr and Kiwi Ian Stewart) might make 1044kW (that’s 1400bhp, hence the name), but it doesn’t use a drop of fuel.

That’s because it’s based — ahem, very loosely — on the forthcoming Mustang Mach-E EV-SUV. It took 10,000 hours to create the car, with the sole intention of blowing people’s minds about what an EV is capable of.

This super-EV (SEV?) has seven motors. Three are attached to the front differential and four are joined to the rear “pancake”-style, with a single driveshaft connecting them to the differentials. The whole set-up can be configured for anything from spectacular drifting to dragstrip racing.

Power can be evenly split, or directed solely to the front or rear. Different suspension components cater to different styles of motorsport and the car can produce more than 1000kg of downforce at 260km/h.

No surprise that the battery system can get a bit hot. There’s a special cooling system used to decrease the wait time between tyre-smoking runs on track. Ford says it’s all very serious, as the Mach-E 1400 acts as a test bed for new technology and organic composite materials. Yes, yes, of course.