Drift Cars: Chevy-Powered Aston Martin Vantage Repurposed for Sideways Action

Sultan Al Qassimi is one of the top-level pro drifters that have emerged from the Middle East in the past ten years. He's got an extreme passion for fast cars, and he's basically driven anything cool on four wheels. When he first made an appearance in Europe, he was driving a Nissan S-chassis, which was still making use of a good old SR20DET turbocharged 2.0-liter engine.

But back home, he was building a monster of a 180SX, fitted with a turbocharged V8 engine. Although he has experienced multiple engine layouts, the torque figures of V8s have always appealed to him, as it just provides so much more driveability to a drift car.

Sultan has got a whole collection of drift cars, including a bridge-ported Mazda RX-7 FC3S, but the most spectacular of his builds is something you might have never expected to see in real life. He actually took a working Aston Martin V8 Vantage and converted it for active drifting.

Now, the V8 Vantage isn't the most expensive model in the Aston Martin lineup, but you can still expect to pay upwards of $30,000 for one which isn't in great shape. With this being a luxury model, the standard weight is around 3,600 lbs (1,630 kg), which isn't at all ideal for something that's supposed to go sideways at speeds in excess of 100 mph (161 kph).

So as with any other professional drift car build, things started off with an extreme weight loss; all the creature comforts and any other unnecessary features were ditched, and carbon fiber was used in as many places as possible.

Of course, the stock engine wouldn't cut it either, as 400 or so horsepower is just not enough these days, with most top-level drifters aiming for the 1,000 horsepower mark or even higher. Sure enough, Sultan decided to swap in one of the most popular choices, a Chevrolet-built LS engine. While at it, he also slapped two turbos for added power and torque - as well as lower decibel levels, due to noise restrictions around tracks in Europe.

With an LSA block to build on, this drift spec Aston Martin Vantage is now pushing 725 horsepower to the rear wheels on just 14 psi (1 bar) of boost. Surely Sultan can decide to turn up the boost at any time and add a fourth digit to that figure. As with most pro builds these days, a sequential gearbox was introduced in the equation as well.

The rear end also comes with the highly coveted Winters quick-change differential, which allows for fast setup changes at the track. We asked Sultan what kind of parts the car tends to break the most, and he said: "So far, mostly cosmetics and nothing mechanical". Well, that just goes to show that a high-quality build will withstand any kind of abuse, and we're sure those custom solid chromoly shafts might just never break down on him.

The car has been brought to Europe, where it even competed at Gatebil, where Sultan managed to initiate drifting at ridiculous speeds, all the way up in 5th gear. That definitely sounds like 120+ mph (193 kph) from where we're standing. Although no one has ever experimented with this chassis before, it seems like he even managed to get a second-place finish at one of the Emirates Drift Championship events this year, just before the pandemic-caused lockdown.

As with any other turbocharged V8 drift car, this thing eats up tires like there's no tomorrow, and we would imagine that an average of around ten sets of rear tires are obliterated every single race weekend. It sounds like the perfect machine to test out new products if you're running a tire company.

Given the whole project was very well thought from the very beginning, this gives the car the upper edge against other builds when switching race tracks. That's because it is capable of quickly changing in between setups to be perfectly adjusted to the given layout.

While this drift spec V8 Vantage does seem to be a bit of a handful when the tarmac is wet, we asked Sultan what the most interesting fact about his project is: "James Bond has one haha. But in all seriousness, the car is one of a kind and is a joy to drive. With the factory mid-engine setup and aluminium chassis, this thing has got racing in its DNA, so it was meant to be good on the track!"

As far as we know, this just might be the only pro drift spec Aston Martin in the world, which does make it quite a special project. Most likely, we'll be seeing some more impressive builds coming from the Middle East in the next few years.