Australian Drifter's Violent Rollover Crash Shows Why You Need a Rollcage

Then again, the time to consider such wheels-in-the-air incidents comes during the process in which street-level rear-wheel-drive machines are turned into drift cars. That's the point when a rollcage needs to be installed. And why some, admittedly not many, sliders choose to skip this step, this can be a serious mistake.

Drift cars are lowered and gifted with every possible tech asset that allows the to stay on the tarmac, but you never know when things can overturn. Let's take the Nissan Silvia in the video at the bottom of the page, for instance.

We're dealing with a 1989 S13, which has been given a complete slip angle-savvy treatment, with the car being raced in Australia. Unfortunately, during a recent event, Jake, the driver of this Nissan, ended up clipping the concrete barrier on the side of the track.

As the car was fully sideways at the time, the impact caused the Silvia's front end to hit the wall and, since the wheels were still turned towards the barrier, the car ended up flipping. The crash took place at the second round of the VicDrift Championship, which was held on Calden Park on May 29th.

Fortunately, Jake walked away from the crash and the driver's unharmed status has a lot to do with the solid cage of the car.

Alas, we can't say the same about the S13, which sustained serious damage during the crash. This was a piece of precious metal, since the Nissan has received an LS1 engine swap.

With the help of a Garrett GT42 turbocharger delivering 10 psi of boost, the 5.7-liter GM-sourced V8 delivered 510 horses, while running an E85 setup.

While we hope to see Jack returning to the drifting scene with the proper Down Under attitude soon, this should serve as a lesson to all those in the process of building a drift car.