The RTR drifting team hasn’t determined the cause of the fire because of the damage done to the engine bay
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by Brad Anderson
2 hours ago
- James Deane’s Mustang caught fire during a media day late last week.
- The blaze destroyed the car’s powerful V8 and charred much of the engine bay.
- Deane’s team rebuilt the car and he went on to win last weekend’s Formula Drift event in Long Beach.
Drifting is a dangerous business and one of the world’s most accomplished drifters, Ireland’s James Deane, discovered this while driving his Ford Mustang RTR at the Formula Drift event over the weekend.
The on-track action started with media day where members of the press had the opportunity to jump into the passenger seat of some of the cars on the Formula Drift grid. Deane took out a few media members during the day but things went wrong when YouTuber and fellow drifter Kevin Darwish went for a ride along.
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Footage from inside and outside the Mustang shows that while Deane was mid-drift, flames erupted out of the Mustang’s engine bay. He quickly slammed on the brakes and both he and his passenger jumped out before the flames grew.
Deane says that the fire burned the line used for the nitrous system and that it was shooting nitrous directly at the fire. While safety crews were able to douse the flames, they couldn’t do so quickly enough. The entire engine bay was destroyed by the flames and much of the engine was melted. It doesn’t make for a pretty sight and both Deane and his team were forced to take the car back to the shop to try and repair it.
Amazingly, the team was able to rebuild the car for the weekend. Deane thanked them in the best way possible, winning the drifting event after a final battle showdown with Simen Olsen.
The RTR team isn’t sure what caused the fire because so much damage was done to the engine bay.