Everyone’s favorite Antipodean rotary head, Mad Mike Whiddett, is constantly trying to find new and exciting cars to rotary swap and burn tires with. The guy has made dozens of Mazda Doriftos, and after a long time sticking with chassis from the same manufacturer, he’s started branching out to more exotic hardware. Last fall he unveiled the wild five-rotor 787D prototype, and this year for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, he’s developed a partnership with Lanzante to build a rotary-powered drift McLaren. Yowza!
During last year’s Goodwood event, Mike met with the Lanzante folks and a quick conversation about turning one of their mega-buck hypercars into a drift machine became a plan. With just 100 days on the schedule from delivery to Mike’s shop to shipping out for Goodwood 2024, the heat is on to turn this hybrid track-only monster into a rotary-powered sideways tire burner. The first two parts of the story have been posted to YouTube already, but there will be more to come.
The process has been quite intense, as there’s very little of the original Mclaren remaining. The original drivetrain has been ditched for a four-rotor with a turbocharger and an X-trac sequential gearbox, which also meant the whole car needed to be re-wired and powered with a Haltec stand alone car management system.
I’m guessing that without a hybrid system or a big V8 engine, this car will probably shed quite a few pounds. Considering the P1 GTR was just 3,175 pounds ready to drive, Mike’s creation will be nice and lightweight. That said, there’s no way they can make a four-rotor engine that can push out the same 986 horsepower as the McLaren had stock, right?
Will this car, dubbed the MADMAC, be as fast around a track as a stock McLaren P1 GTR? Definitely not. Will it be a better drift car? Almost assuredly. I can’t wait to see it run.