This is a V8-powered BMW 3 Series packing around 400 horsepower.
Stripped out, stanced, this aging drift machine is prepared not only to approach corners at crazy angles,
but also take on the drifting world's pyramid.
It actually came close to conquering Europe once, three years ago, and all that thanks to its tamer.
A lively and gracious petite called Ramona Rusu.
One year after her 2012 European Drifting Championship debut, she entered the Top 3.
Then, in 2014, she was crowned Drifting Queen of Europe and also became
the vice-champion in the King of Europe competition.
It was a crazy, health draining, sleepless year paved with success.
Ramona is the hard working, humble type that pursues perfection in everything she does,
and doesn't usually stop until she's pleased.
To film her drifting around a narrow go-kart circuit, the only one available at that time,
needed persuasion work.
"I don't have enough track to show you what I can really do",
She anxiously said to me after the first run, before grabbing the gear lever with both her hands,
engaging first, and going for another tire-shredding run.
Overcoming her native shyness in front of a camera, she agreed to meet with us
and talk about her career past, present and future.
Oh, and of course, her love of cars.
Everything started with some tuning shows for my Ford Probe.
After I tuned it and prepped it, I was invited to a tuning show to see what it's like.
The car won a prize; I really liked this world of tuning.
And during one of the later shows, in Cluj, there was also a King of Europe drift event going on,
where I was watching the racers,
and - besides the static performance to which I was accustomed to -,
I saw action.
I really liked how the pilots raced,
and, while I was watching the show, a friend told me
"Do you want to have a go with someone? Because I know I guy over there"
And I was like "Wow! Of course!"
And I met a driver, I climbed in his drift car, and this guy ran a lap with me in the passenger seat.
I had a huge smile on my face,
to which the man saw that I was enjoying it and said to me "Wait, wait! Don't get out!",
because I wanted to get out of the car,
"Stay a little longer, because we'll have another go"
And I was mega-enthusiastic. It felt like a carousel for me.
Host: That's how I felt today with you at the wheel
When I finally climbed out of the car, I said to him:
"I'm going to be here, on the track, next to you, in the near future. I love it!"
He laughed and told me, "Yeah, everyone says this!"
In that evening, on the journey back home from Cluj to Arad,
I thought... ok. What car could I get to enter a drift competition?
And one of my dreams was owning a Mazda MX-5 Miata.
I searched the web, and, as luck would have it, I found one right in Arad.
We went to check it out the next day
Host: wait, you're saying this was done from today to tomorrow?
From one day to the next, yes.
In the morning, I went to see the car, without money or anything.
I thought that I would borrow the money, I saw the car.
Host: you basically wanted to get that car, right then
I wanted the car, to make it my street ride, to start working on a car,
on the engine part, not only on the looks.
I mean, the car would be competitive.
With the advice of the driver that took me for a drifting joy ride, with whom I kept in touch,
He told me what I should do to the car.
First, I have to weld the differential,
so the car could easily drift and be controllable.
And I went to Baia Mare, where the drifter was, and where he had a mechanic.
And I got there with a diff in my hand, just like this,
and I got it welded.
I came home, then went to a private parking lot, where I tried to do doughnuts.
Because that's where it all starts.
And I called the guy and told him
"Yay! I'm doing doughnuts!" I'm drifting, actually...
And I went to my first drifting competition, because I thought that if I can do doughnuts
and a few figure-eights, I can get on the drift track.
And I went with missie (points at the Mazda)
In every corner I would spin out.
Of course, being the only woman on the track, everybody was watching
and they were laughing and saying "She's a woman! What can she do?"
And this aroused the ambition in me, because I wanted to show everybody that I can do this.
From one stage to another, because I didn't have a place to train,
I slowly got more and more accustomed, but the level of the competition was rising really fast.
Host: with this baby
Yes, but then it was stock and Sorin - he's the strong point in all of this - was going through a salvage yard
to search for some parts.
Host: Sorin, the mechanic?
Yes.
And when he got there, he thought "What if get this turbo and everything around it and make a Turbo Mazda?"
And that's how we got an ECU, we made an ECU map for it.
We had a software that made 183 HP at first,
with which I went drifting.
I started to know the car better and better and to perform better on the track,
but both my level and the car's lever were low.
So I started thinking to switch from the Mazda,
because everybody was telling me that the car is too short and too aggressive during weight transfers,
and that I shouldn't keep knocking on this door because it won't open,
and change something.
I saw that most of the drivers, 99% of them actually, drove BMW E30s,
most of them V8s or 2.5-Liters.
And I said to myself that the V8 that I bought for the MX-5 should go into an E30.
Host: so you started with the standard V8, then upped the capacity, which got to...?
5,000 cc, V8, M5, yes, from the E39.
We set it up countless times,
and found ourselves in Bulgaria to set it up properly.
Host: but now it's ok?
Now it's ok. After many trips to Bulgaria and back to Romania, we found another tuner
and those guys made the car how it is today.
From 2013, it has worked the same, it's perfect.
Host: how many horsepower does it have?
Now it has 426 HP, something like this.
Host: for a body that weighs...
1,000 kg
For me, right now, every stage was a new experience, whether or not it was a podium finish.
For me, it was something. A highlight.
But the highest point where we got together was the European Drift Championship.
I won Queen of Europe in 2014 and became champion,
and in the King of Europe Street Legal championship I became vice-champion.
In 2014 I also became Drift Champion in Hungary.
All of these competitions were pretty stressful for me, I can say,
because I was concentrated on just one thing: to win, I want to win.
I competed enough, I learned enough, it's time I show what I've learned so far.
And then I took a little break, because I wanted a bit of spare time
for other projects.
But I didn't quit drifting.
I still entered stages, but I didn't go for a full championship.
I competed in other types of racing as well, not only drifting
I went to a lot of time attack events,
and...
Host: with what car?
With the Mazda. She's the poor one that gets beaten all the time.
Host: so, with the Mazda you can go in a straight line, so to say
Sort of
I mean, every motorsport discipline,
even on the motorcycle side, where maybe I could go sometime, I hope,
I like, because each one gives you another feeling, another type of adrenaline rush.
Each one has its craziness, so to say.
Even when you drive without drifting, you need to concentrate,
and when you drift, you have other points to reach.
You have to check different points everywhere, because drifting isn't just about going on a track by yourself.
The goal would be rallying.
Rallying, I think, has it all.
Surely it has it all.
Host: so it's possible that we might see you in the Romanian rally championship
or, even better, in the WRC at some point?
Or maybe on two wheels, or, I don't know, acrobatic flying pilot
Rallying, maybe.
Host: you have to say that you're also an airplane pilot
No, I tried.
I'm not a pilot yet. I tried, I had flying lessons, and it's nice.
But expensive.
Like everything else. Every passion in this world is very expensive.
All in all, Ramona's biggest challenge is prioritizing her dreams.
She pursues a career in rallying, but also wants to restore her 1970s Corvette
and maybe roam the world with it, who knows?
She doesn't have all the money in the world to sustain all of her plans for now,
but her strong willed-character overcomes every shortage.
An important lesson I've learned as a guest during my short visit into her fuel-driven, crazy world.
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