How do you build a McLaren P1 drift car?

As you’ll have seen, Red Bull athlete and sworn enemy to all tyres ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett is currently busy heading a project to build a drift hypercar out of a McLaren P1. TopGear.com will be bringing you exclusive insights into the build and getting you up close and personal with the ‘MadMac’ once it’s finished. In this update, we meet Dean Lanzante, boss of McLaren specialist and all things fast’n’carbon, Lanzante.

“The big thing was if we started with a P1 GTR, you have to lose the hybrid, the active aero, the active ride – very pricey bits of P1 – to turn it into a drift car,” Dean explains. So Lanzante built a different kind of hybrid: effectively the caged tub of a 650S GT3 clothed in P1 LM panels.

“Mike’s had a body kit fabricated by RocketBunny in Japan: it’s like the car’s been cut down the middle and pulled out. The whole car is a lot wider than a P1 or even a P1 GTR.”

Lanzante fitted a bespoke cooling system and a new pedal box before sending the car to Mike in New Zealand, where it’s been chopped, modded... and seen its 3.8 twin-turbo V8 swapped for a rotary Mazda engine. No P1 will ever have sounded like this one.

But – despite Lanzante’s reputation for road-legalising track specials like the McLaren P1 GTR – don’t expect to bump into Mr Mad taking his P1 to the shops sideways.

“It won’t go on the road – it’s too far removed [from a road car] for that” Dean reassures. “The biggest thrill this car can give is a passenger ride at Goodwood. It isn’t going into production – it’s a one-off engineering exercise, and a real privilege for [an athlete] of that calibre to reach out to us to work with us.”

So, we asked Dean, what’s next in the build diary. Is that Lanzante’s job done and dusted?

“It comes over here in a couple of weeks for testing. We’re working on some lower gear ratios, but mainly it’s just all about the shakedown.”

Next time you see the car, it’ll be shredding its rear tyres on the Duke of Richmond’s driveway. Look out for updates on TopGear.com...