In Africa, Drifting is more of a South African thing. A little peek at their urban pop-culture scene will tell you just how much they love to shred tires on their BMW E34s. But there's been a change in the tide, and Red Bull just caught on to that wave in East Africa. After playing host to 2022 WRC, Nairobi is back in the limelight with Red Bull's drift king Ahmad Daham.
Ahmad Daham is not a new name in motorsports. If anything, he's an icon when it comes to the Middle East drifting scene. Apart from bagging a couple of drift championship wins, he's also a Guinness World Record holder.
Ask any 90s parent, and they'll tell you. It took a lot to stop a teenager from trying to be the next Michael Jordan. But if it involved gifting them a real-life modified car, then just about any teenage boy would toss those basketball boots in a bin before you can say, 'Surprise!'
Well, that's how fast Jordanian Ahmad Daham stopped shooting hoops and started chasing drifts on the racetrack.
For the past week, the 35-year-old drift star has been in Nairobi, Kenya courtesy of Red Bull, to promote the sport in the region. His recent drifting stunts in the city have not only caught the curious eyes of the underground street racing community but indirectly legitimized the cultic sport that, for the longest time, has been frowned upon by authorities.
Photo: Brian Kigen
But perhaps what's more fascinating than the drift icon's presence in the city is his legendary Lexus RC F Competition drift car, aka 'Katana.'
Unlike any Lexus RC F that rolls off the factory floor, Ahmad's drift machine doesn't pack the same 5-liter V8 stroker you'd get in a stock car. Instead, it comes with a straight-six swap. While the sheer thought of the switch feels like madness, when the six-cylinder engine in question is a 2JZ, it all starts adding up.
Getting 1,200 hp (1,217 ps) and 1,079 lb-ft (1,463 Nm) of torque out of a Toyota 2JZ straight-six isn't anything you'd pull by rubbing a Genie's bottle. It's a combination of mods, including weight reduction and a pair of turbos. Ahmad's Lexus RC F is 1,100 lbs (500 kgs) lighter than a stock variant at 2,775 lbs (1,250 kgs)
Swapping the stock panels for light-weight carbon-kevlar replicas, getting new wheels (Rays 57CR), brakes, and suspension (BC Racing coilovers, Figs Engineering suspension arms and knuckles), and slapping a pair of turbos onto the legendary powerplant was everything it needed to pump more smoke from the rear wheels than a choo choo train.
Photo: Brian Kigen
Saying Nairobi city folk haven't seen a heavily modified street car blow a cloud of smoke or rip some fatties is an insult. Still, they've never quite seen it done as Ahmad did at the Kenyatta International Conference Center.
He's a Middle East drift king, after all. And if getting a podium to showcase his skills at the most monumental space in the city isn't a show of respect, his presentation was like a classic hot fudge sundae with sprinkles and cherry on top on a hot summer afternoon.
A few pops and bangs of a heavily tuned second-generation Forester STi will gather a little crowd at any car meet in Nairobi, but doing circles around a cone isn't commonplace. And sure enough, after Ahmad was done with his tricks – the crowd couldn't get enough of it.
A local news outlet reported, "So loud was the crackling noise produced by Katana that people attending other events at the KICC moved near the track to satisfy their curiosity."
Photo: Brian Kigen
The 35-year-old drift master also got a taste of the local drift car community in the city. Twenty other local drivers joined him, ripping, drifting, and shredding tires at the customized track.
"I was surprised to learn that motorsports has a huge following in Kenya, especially drifting," Ahmad said during a briefing.
The drift master, who’s put down more than 20 years in the sport, advised curious fans interested in the sport in the region to step up – but first, start with a simulator before getting a real car.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News