RTR Intensifies! Is the 2024 Mustang the Most Drift-Ready Production Car Ever?

• April 5, 2023
• Story By
  Mike Garrett

We are just a few days away from the beginning of the 2023 Formula Drift season on the streets of Long Beach, and that means it's time to get excited about some of the new machinery hitting the track in FD this year. 

And among those cars are a growing squad of RTR Spec-5 Ford Mustangs, now based on the new seventh-generation 2024 Mustang. 

Among the drivers piloting those Mustangs will be none other than RTR founder and drift legend Vaughn Gittin Jr., who will be jumping back behind the wheel for a partial competition schedule this year.

With the upcoming launch of the new 2024 Mustang, the RTR competition cars have gotten an update to reflect the styling of the next-gen Mustang, complete with a new wide-body design and turbofan wheels.

New Look, New Toys

Needless to say, we'll be excited to see the new-look 1,300hp RTR Spec-5s smoking their Nitto NT555 G2 tires in FD this year. But we are equally pumped for the 2024 Mustang street car.

That's because in addition to other improvements from the outgoing S550 cars, the new Mustang will be sporting a "drift brake" right off the showroom floor. And Ford naturally called on Vaughn and his RTR teammate Chelsea DeNofa to help dial it in.

Co-developed with RTR, the idea of the drift brake to replicate the performance and feel of the hydraulic handbrakes used on dedicated-drift cars. 

And though its electronically actuated and adjusted, it uses a traditional and driver-friendly analog lever. 

The drift brake will be available on both EcoBoost and GT Mustangs equipped with the Performance Pack, and can be paired with both automatic and manual transmissions. The brake's settings can also be adjusted to suit both beginners and experts (all on a closed track of course).

While the idea of "drift brake" might sound like a gimmick that won't get much real-world use, we love that Ford has gone ahead and done this.

Especially in an era where a car having a hand-operated parking brake at all has become a rarity.

We may indeed be heading towards an electrified future without handbrakes, clutch pedals or screaming V8s, but we are glad to see that Ford is planning to keep the party going as long as it can.

And given his moniker as the "Professional Fun-Haver" we are certain that legendary Mustang driver Vaughn Gittin Jr. feels the same way.