These days, if you don’t drift, you don’t exist. The sideways stuff has become so popular that even Porsche, a carmaker that’s all about precision driving, has included drifting in its driving lessons. Naturally, every important car mag wants to have juicy slip angles on its cover, be it made of paper or of 1s and 0s. While many automotive editors know their way around sliding a car, when it comes to the more serious stuff, they turn to the professionals.
Professionals like Mauro Calo, a precision stunt driver (now that’s a cool name for an occupation) who’s done many of the wild tire-smoking scenes you’ve seen on Top Gear. The man has also worked with other big names, from magazines such as autocar to companies in the film business.
Mauro has recently decided to share some of his daily office chores with us. He knows people have less and less time for reading books on such topics, so he’s given us an Youtube video.
From the simpler front-wheel driven stuff, such as some Suzuki SX4 S-Cross ice sliding and the easy-to-drift cars like the M4, to heavyweight machines such as the Pagani Huayra, it’s all here. Other spicy moments include drifting a Singer 911 or jumping a Huracan, but the way-too-heavy M5 is also present.
Since the artistic result of drifting is in the eye of the beholder, the stunt driver also grabbed a world record, just to make sure his performance is well documented. You might remember about 2011’s world record for the greatest distance for a vehicle drift.
Back then, a guy managed to drive a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG sideways for a continuous 2,308 meters (7,572) feet. Well, that man was Mauro.
His job is getting more difficult by the day
People obviously congratulate envy Mauro for his job, but, truth be told, his tasks are getting more difficult every day. Everybody wants to see drivers looking ahead through the side window these days, but modern cars are become more grippy with each new generation.
These days, performance vehicles want to go fast while staying on the grip. Sure, you can trick them into going sideways, but the engineering and tire advances means it takes more effort to do so.
Still, we’re pretty sure the guy is enjoying his stunt work, with the exception of the times when he has to go though knee-busting motorcycle crashes like he did a few years back.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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