Volvo V40 Drift Car With BMW M5 V8 Is Just Crazy

We've been following the work of Swedish drift car driver "Fast Mike" for a good couple of months. But until recently, the video footage wasn't as epic as the build itself. There's nothing like a family hatchback with its wheels pointing the wrong way next to your grandpa's wagon and an E46.

Most people won't even know what the Volvo V40 is and why it's not a natural drift car. You see, this compact hatchback has its roots in the Ford era and is based on the same platform as the old Focus. Unless we're mistaken, it's still in production in Belgium, but we drove it several years ago.

Our contact with the car involved the Cross Country package, AWD and a 2.5-liter 5-cylinder turbo engine pumping out 250 horsepower. But you can't make a professional drift car with a longitudinal engine layout. From our understanding, the factory mill has been swapped out for an M5 V8 engine, not from the current car or the one before it, but "borrowed" from the E39.

It's now a 5-liter (S62 is a 4.9-liter) V8 with a couple of Garrett turbochargers helping it generate 721 horsepower and 934 Nm (688 lb-ft) of torque. Besides the engine swap, the V40 also needed a ZF gearbox from a diesel 5 Series, the E60's rear suspension and drivetrain plus an M5 diff. The front suspension is a heavily modified version of the one in the Volvo 940. If you pop the hood or open the trunk, you'll notice there's not much of the original car left.