Video: 1,000PS Corvette C6 with a Mazda RX-7 rotary engine

28th June 2024

Simon Ostler

The magic of drifting is as much in the creativity of the competitors as it is in their exploits on the race track. For many of the drivers that compete in drift events, it’s a passion more than anything else, an opportunity to express themselves in more and more spectacular ways. The most obvious of those is the car they drive, and in the case of Axel Hildebrand, he’s put together something rather special that we had the chance to see in action at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.

It's a Corvette C6 with a substantial difference. The 6.2-litre LS2 V8 engine has been taken out and replaced by a screaming triple-rotor inspired by ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett’s crazy RX-7. As a total conversion from Corvette road car to bespoke drift weapon, it was a job that took around five months to complete. The body has been fully replaced in carbon-kevlar, there’s a new differential, a huge turbocharger with potential to boost power up to more than 1,000PS (735kW), and a new high-angle steering setup

Hildebrand’s first proper drive in his new creation was at the Festival of Speed, so the pressure was certainly on as he and his team learned on the job. It’s an extreme piece of kit, but on the evidence of what we saw on his preliminary runs up the Hill, the work and the effort had been worth it.

We dread to think what his tyre bill must look like, though. He reckoned over the course of the Festival of Speed weekend, where putting on a show with plenty of smoke is the top priority, he’d be getting through a set of rear tyres on every single run.

Seeing it in action at the Festival of Speed was unsurprisingly exhilarating. Watching fly up the Hill, rotary engine exposed, and leaving a trial of smoke in its wake, was a highlight of the weekend.