Taking a note from the likes of Ken Block and other Hoonigan motorsports professionals, Formula Drift driver Vaughn Gittin Jr. teamed up with Monster Energy and Falken Tires to produce “Fire Drift.” At just under four-minutes long, it’s the perfect kind of car video to watch during lunch or on a commercial break. But it took a lot longer than four-minutes to set up the fiery drifting-goodness of this video.
So while it is Vaughn Gittin Jr. that was undeniably the star of Fire Drift, it’s nice to see the guys and gals behind-the-scenes getting a little recognition for their efforts in making Gittin look so cool.
With a name like “Fire Drift”, you can bet there were a lot of pyrotechnics involved in this project, and a lot of shooting and re-takes. The scene with the flaming tire rolling past Vaughn Gittin looks a whole lot cooler in the final edit and in slow-motion. Then again, drifting around a massive flamethrower at full throttle looks a lot cooler at full speed.
This five-minute behind the scenes video is full of nifty little insider things like that, and it really adds to what we feel is an already awesome video. At the end of the day though, all this work was so Vaughn Gittin Jr. could ultimately launch into what may be the world’s first (intentional) flaming drift/jump. It took a few takes, but Gittin ultimately nailed it, and we hope to see a sequel to Fire Drift sooner rather than later.