MAD MIKE: DRIFTING WITH RX7 & RX8 MAZDA ROTARY'S

Mad Mike is the name! Mad indeed.

MikeWhiddett is the name his mother gave him and, when he was only a toddler, he was racing down steep hills with histrike. By age 6, he rode BMX and raced and competed in motocross before transitioning into the extreme sport of freestyle motocross. After breaking bones and ending up with a few concussions he earned the name ‘Mad Mike'.

In 2007, Mike made the switch to his now famous drifting career, the sport still gave him the rush of adrenaline but, at the very least, with the safety of a roll-cage. Now he's backed by the worlds biggest brands like Red Bull, MazdaMobil1, Nitto, Rotiform, Hollinger, KW Suspension, Turbo by Garrett, Snap-On Tools, PWR Performance, and Wilwood – to name a few! (Phew, what a mouthful.) 

Mike competes in four pro drift-spec Mazda Rotary powered cars all over the world and, just last year, Mike was here in South Africa, drifting the glorious Franschhoek Pass with his three-rotor RX8 called the ‘BadBul’. The badBul pushes about 596kW to its tyres, “You know, it is one thing with drifting to have heaps of power, but we actually have to have that much power to overcome the amount of grip,” Mike explained in an interview with TopCar.

For all the Motor Heads, here are the specs:

Badbul Mazda SP3 RX8

ENGINE: Pulse Performance Race Engineering (PPRE) 20B 3-rotor; Monster Bridgeport; lightened/balanced rotors; cross-drilled eccentric shaft; Pulse Performance Race Engineering (PPRE) apex seals; modified stationary gears; Garrett GTX-45 Turbo; custom merge exhaust manifold; Turbosmart Mad Mike Signature Edition 60mm Power-Gate 60 external wastegate; Redline Performance 6" intercooler; Turbosmart blow-off valve; K&N air filter, custom 3.5″ stainless steel exhaust system; custom fuel cell; 2x Bosch Motorsport 044 fuel pumps; Bosch Motorsport lift pump; high-flow fuel lines; Turbosmart adjustable fuel pressure regulator; custom fuel rails; high-flow injectors; Gilmer belt drives, custom catch tank and overflow bottle; Redline Performance alloy radiator; 2x Setrab oil coolers; intercooler and radiator water sprayers.

And, let's not forget, this car spits flames, OKAY?

Check out the videos below to see both his flaming RX7 as well as a short of him drifting his RX8 through the Franschoek Pass in Sunny South Africa.