Drift Van: Hyundai Builds 402 Horsepower Twin Turbo Bus with Room for Eight
Hyundai has been doing some great things with its N-badged enthusiast vehicles in recent months, with the critically acclaimed Veloster N earning a lot of attention here in North America. Over in Australia though, things have gotten even crazier where a team of engineers have given the N treatment to a fullsize passenger van and then taken it drifting—because why not?
The so-called "Drift Bus" is based on the Hyundai iMax which is full size cargo/passenger van with a rear wheel drive layout that has never been offered in the US, and as this small team of Aussie gearheads has shown it has plenty of potential for fun.
To help get the big van going sideways, the factory turbodiesel engine was swapped with a twin turbocharged 3.5 liter V6 that has been massaged to make 402 tire-smoking horsepower and it sends its power through an eight-speed automatic to a limited slip diff in the rear.
The team also lowered the van's center of gravity and gave it a more aggressive look with a set of custom adaptive dampers, fitted a set of N-spec brakes and then covered with them with a 19" wheel and tire setup.
As you can see in the video Hyundai put together, the big van does the sideways thing quite well, and it has room to take eight passengers along for the ride. We especially like how they also painted the iMax in the signature "N Blue" color.
While this is a one-off project built for fun, it wouldn't surprise us at all if there was an actual market for something this wild. After all, it may be far removed from a traditional sports car but so too are the high performance crossovers so many car companies build this day. If given the choice, we'd take the van all day long.
Looking for more news from the department of cool vans not sold in the US? Check out Toyota's latest luxury machine from Japan.
