Mad Mike Rebuilds His First Car To Take On Pro Drifting In Japan (VIDEO)

Pretty much all of us dreamed of taking our first car and turning it into something from a video game, but very few ever get to see that vision through. 

One luck enough to do so is Kiwi drifter, rotary fanatic and all ‘round nice guy Mad Mike Whiddett, unveiling his rebuilt 1976 Mazda 800 wagon at Tokyo Auto Salon this month.

“This is the car that started it all for me back in 2004, sliding around on the streets getting into a lot of trouble,” says Mike. “We didn’t even know what drifting was, we were just being young dumb kids. It got impounded a lot!”

With a 13B PP rotary engine conversion from an RX-7, an RX-3 nose cone and FURSTY number plates, the wagon become infamous in New Zealand street culture. Like all first cars, Mike eventually had to sell it to make ends meet. 

Fast forward to this year, and he’s bought the car back, rebuilding it into a pro-level drift car. The 13B has been replaced with an aspirated quad rotor, which Mike says will be good for 600rwhp with some nitrous. 

“We’ll be down a fair bit on power compared to some of the other guys in D1, but we’ll have a light, snappy chassis to hopefully give us a bit on an edge,” he says.

Engine management is from Haltech’s full Nexus R5 catalogue, and it sits in a set of Rotiform 15 inch wheels designed by Mike.

It’ll be rad to see Mad Mike going door to door (literally) with Japan’s best in the little Mazda, and you can watch the video below to learn more about the car.