VAUGHN GITTIN Jr
The American drifter talks transitioning from a 240SX to a life of Mustangs
My whole life has been cars to the point of my mum having to pry Matchbox cars out of my hand during her wedding when I was supposed to be carrying the rings down the aisle My father was a used car salesman and he always brought cool cars home from auctions He was an old school hotrod guy and had Chevrolet Bel Airs Mustangs and lowered ProStreet pickup trucks
When I was four years old he got me a gokart for my birthday and I used to run it until the gas was empty Fast forward and it was remote control cars skateboarding dirt bikes BMX and then I finally got my first car at It was a Oldsmobile Cutlass lowrider
A few years later I got my first RWD car a Nissan SX and I would go to industrial parks and parking lots to do donuts burnouts and figures of eight
When we first bought that car it was actually for my father’s business to sell on to a friend As we were leaving the auction I did a little clutch kick and powerslide The friend then tried to do the same thing but he put it straight into a tree So I bought the car back and it sat on my parents’ drive in pieces for two years while I figured out how to get the funds to fix it It was through restoring and personalising that car that I learned about the sport of drifting which would effectively change my life
I started Formula Drift in a SX in its very first year in That was also the year that Ford debuted the fifthgen Mustang and I just fell in love with it From to this day I’ve been in Mustangs and haven’t looked back
I still have the Nissan in my garage It’s just sitting but it’s something I’m not ready to part with yet So many learnings and progression as a person are associated with that car There’s a lot of attachment there
Once I transitioned into the Mustang and I was in a Mustang before I had a relationship with Ford that was my first feeling of torque The Mustang is perceived to be a larger heavy car but it was so nimble and it worked so well for drifting I remember thinking to myself why didn’t I give this a chance as a teenager? I came to the conclusion that I was just being hardheaded
Once I started driving a Mustang and getting involved in the culture I was inspired to start RTR I grew a passion for Ford and from then on all of my road cars everything transitioned into Fords Right now I’ve got Mustang RTRs and an F Raptor My wife drives a Ford Explorer We’re very proud of the products that Ford is putting out and pumped to be working on projects like the MachE with them
I can’t leave things alone though The Raptor has a set of RTR wheels on it and some chunkier tyres It’s so impressive as it sits and it has a full warranty which allows you to go and have a lot of fun with it so I haven’t messed with that too much My Mustangs I have multiple it’s embarrassing range from RTR Spec s which just have our suspension all the way to Spec and Spec The latter is our supercharged widebody car with bhp