This is the world’s first McLaren built for drifting and it’s absolutely bonkers

This is the world’s first McLaren that has been specially designed for drifting and it’s one of the wildest vehicles out there. 

Drifting legend ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett created the one-off vehicle and showed it off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2024. 

The vehicle, nicknamed MADMAC, was actually created using two McLarens to ensure the best possible drift. 

Somewhat incredibly, Whiddett and the team from Lanzante managed to create the car in just 100 days. 

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The one-off vehicle was made using two different McLaren cars

McLaren might not be the first car you think of when it comes to modifications, but there are some folks out there willing to take a bit of a risk. 

Lanzante, the company that worked on this project, has previously converted several McLaren Senna GTRs into road-legal vehicles.

And let’s not forget this team of engineers that were able to make this fully functional McLaren P1 out of Lego.

New Zealand driver Whiddett was another guy happy to take on a challenge – having previously made a drifting Lamborghini Huracan, he decided to give a McLaren the same treatment and the result was incredible. 

He worked alongside Lazante to create the car, which was a custom mix of a P1 GTR and a GT3 650s.

“We like to think that we build some of the most extreme cars,” Dean Lanzante told Red Bull. 

“But Mike saw this as a challenge to take things up a level or two.”

The drifting machine was created in just 100 days

To create the one-off car, Whiddett and mechanic Alec Bell had to work out how to convert a vehicle that was designed to go very fast in a straight line into one capable of spinning sideways. 

To achieve that goal, they took out MADMAC’s 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 McLaren engine and replaced it with a 1,000-horsepower, two-liter, triple-rotor, turbo-charged rotary engine. That’ll do it. 

They also replaced the steering and brakes to make it a top-notch drifting machine. 

Not only that but they got the whole thing done in just 100 days. 

“This is my craziest challenge to date, turning a custom Lanzante-built McLaren P1 GTR into the world’s wildest drift hypercar – in only 100 days,” Whiddett said at the time. 

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be cutting into a multi-million dollar McLaren with no rules and then unveiling it at one of my favorite events on earth – the Goodwood Festival of Speed.”