Ford built a drift car in secret

Have you seen the latest episode where MOOG takes his Cheapest XR8 In Australia drifting now he's upgraded basically all of the car? If not, WATCH THIS, then come back here to learn Ford Australia's secret history in drifting.

Over 20 years ago Ford Australia dropped an all-new turbocharged model on Aussies with the XR6T. Powered by the formidable DOHC 4-litre "Barra" engine it quickly became one of the hottest cars on Down Under roads as it made the big four-door Falcon capable of keeping up with Japanese turbo imports. 

The same as arch rivals Holden had the Holden Special Vehicles arm to sell hotted up Holdens, Ford Australia's Ford Performance Vehicles division had been turning out tweaked up V8 Falcons (mostly wearing gauche body kits) and they soon realised just how good an FPV-tuned XR6T could be... and the perfect way to promote this new model was to go where everyone loved a turbo, rear-drive performance car; drifting.

Based off their new F6 Typhoon (sedan) and Tornado (ute) models, the special build was called the DriF6 and was spearheaded by FPV's communication manager, Andrew Maclean. At that time Amac knew young people were getting into drifting like MOOG gets into tofu burritos, so he set about piecing together a car which wouldn't just look the part but could manji with the best Chasers and Cimas.   

However, because FPV weren't digging into Ford's global motorsport budget they had to build their side-winding Falcon as an epic after-hours budget project. Thankfully, the bare bones of the F6 Typhoon made it a P.K Ripper for this work. 

Boasting a 270kW tuned up version of the Barra, the production F6 had a better intercooler and tune over the factory XR6T, plus it scored a twin-plate clutch to go with a Tremec T56 six-speed manual (no auto was offered on BA-II F6s). There were also big Brembos, a new suspension tune, a mild bodykit, and 18-inch wheels to make the F6 one of the best four-door performance cars on sale anywhere in the world at that time.   

So, the DriF6 had some awesome underpinnings. How did it do? Unfortunately, not that well. The absense of any sort of budget meant the lightly modified, former development F6 (which had been used for crash testing before FPV rebuilt it into the drift car) needed a whole bunch of sorting and development that FPV just didn't have the time or funds to do.

After getting a bunch of media opportunities the car was taken to a couple of events where it tried headbutting the concrete walls, and was then sold off by the time the next model came along and had styling updates that made the DriF6 look old.

Where is it now? The good news is the legends at MAXX Performance have bought the car after it somehow ended up in New Zealand. They've brought it back to Australia and are working on bringing it back to its former glory.

Photos of the DriF6 are rarer than chickens with lips, so I've nicked a bunch of pics from the legends at Street Machine. You can read the full write up from Street Machine HERE on their site.