{"id":727080,"date":"2026-06-10T09:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727080\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:19:15","slug":"mad-mike-whiddett-reveals-plans-to-turn-f1-car-into-drifter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727080\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mad Mike\u2019 Whiddett reveals plans to turn F1 car into drifter"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>Whiddett has been a staple of the New Zealand drifting scene, beginning with a Mazda RX7 dubbed \u2018MADBUL\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>He became synonymous with the Wankel engine and famously turned a McLaren P1-podied, rotary-powered 650S GT3 into a drift car he calls \u2018MADMAC\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Among his other \u2018MAD\u2019 creations is a Mazda 787B-inspired prototype he calls the 787D and a Lamborghini Huracan \u2018NIMBUL\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Now he\u2019s taking on what he says is his biggest challenge yet \u2013 a Leyton House March 87P.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one is even going to remember MADMAC after this,\u201d said Whiddett.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s being a bit rude to MADMAC. It\u2019s pretty special, but this is going to be pretty wild.<\/p>\n<p>Buy tickets to the 2026 betr Darwin Triple Crown. <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketekau.pxf.io\/5kYxK3\" style=\"color:#de482e;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m quite nervous, to be honest. This is going to be by far the most challenging thing we\u2019re about to turn into a drift car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 87P was the first car that Leyton House entered in 1987 for its first F1 season.<\/p>\n<p>It was a hybrid of a modified Formula 3000 chassis married to a Ford DFZ Cosworth V8.<\/p>\n<p>However, the car never made the start of the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix due to an engine failure.<\/p>\n<p>It was replaced immediately by the March 871 and the March 87P ultimately never saw competition again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey came off Formula 3000 and transformed the car for Formula 1,\u201d Whiddett explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery photo you see of these cars, they\u2019re different, because they were trying different stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watch the first part of Whiddett\u2019s video series documenting the build at the top of this story.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/287093\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/287093.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whiddett has been a staple of the New Zealand drifting scene, beginning with a Mazda RX7 dubbed \u2018MADBUL\u2019.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,6490,85],"class_list":["post-727080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}