The best reason to do something automotive is often for no reason at all.
How else could you end up with a situation like this where two drift cars, an RX Supercar and, er, a big truck can line up against each other? Logic, sometimes, just doesn’t need to come into it.
We’re lucky enough that in the automotive industry, most people involved are still very much real car people at heart. So, while they might still chase performance and improvement on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t mean that they’ve forgotten why they do what they do.
I, for one, would have loved to have been in the pitch meeting when this idea was proposed at Bilstein’s HQ. No doubt it was one of those ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ moments but someone was definitely pinching themselves afterwards when it was approved.
The vehicles themselves are as impressive as they are varied. Anton Marklund’s championship winning Polo Supercar is the one I’m immediately drawn to. With 550+hp, carbon fibre bodywork, sequential gearbox and all of the anti-lag helping it to 60mph in less than two seconds, these things are absolute rocket-ships regardless of surface or conditions.
With a combined 1400+hp between them, the Red Bull Drift Brothers (or Joe and Elias Hountondji as they’re actually known) tick every box on the pro drift car bucket list. 700+hp LSX swaps each? Check. Sequentials? Check. Quick change differentials? Check. Ability to hold borderline comical angles while still accelerating forward? Also, check.
The literal elephant in the room, however, is maybe the most impressive. Perfect for when you need to tow a trailer or win multiple European Truck Racing Championships, Jochen Hahn’s Iveco Strallis 440E 56 XP features a 13-litre turbocharged engine outputting over 1150hp through a 16-speed transmission. Yes, sixteen. It does weigh in excess of five tonnes, but I think we’ll overlook that considering how much time it spends sideways.
Perhaps Joe and Elias need a new tandem partner?
Forget your sensibilities for a moment, what are you jumping behind the wheel of? I think I’d feel most at home in a Volkswagen, if I’m being honest…
If you want to see all of this is about, you can check out the video on the Speedhunters Instagram account now.
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Twitter: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com
Photography by Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
Twitter: markriccioni
mark@scene-media.com
This post is brought to you by BILSTEIN Suspension, an official Speedhunters Supplier