I want you to picture something for a second.
Imagine you are standing in a pristine, perfectly
lit automotive garage. Okay, I'm picturing it.
And sitting right in front of you is a Lamborghini
Huracan. Or maybe a McLaren 650S. So we are talking
elite. incredibly expensive European supercars.
Exactly. The kind of machines most people would
treat like fragile museum pieces, like they'd
be terrified of getting a single scratch on the
paint. Oh, absolutely. Now, I want you to imagine
taking one of those pristine supercars, completely
ripping out its original, highly engineered beating
heart, and dropping in... a custom screaming
Mazda engine. Just tearing it apart. Completely.
And then you strap on this extreme ultra -wide
body kit, all so you can take this beautiful
machine out on a track and slide it completely
sideways through a massive cloud of tire smoke.
It sounds like absolute madness, honestly. Right.
Well, today we are getting behind the wheel with
the New Zealand drifting legend who actually
does this, Michael Brandon Wittit, much better
known to the world as Mad Mike. It's the perfect
mental image to start with because it really
captures the absolute audacity of his entire
career. It really does. So today's Deep Dives
is pulling from a detailed Wikipedia archive
that outlines Witte's life, his career milestones,
and of course his legendary garage. Yeah, and
we are going to explore how he went from racing
dump bikes as a kid to becoming a global icon
in motorsport. And we'll be looking at his mind
-bending custom car builds. But we aren't just
going to list them off. No, we really need to
dig into the mechanical absurdity of what he
is actually doing here. Yeah, we're talking about
everything from a 1 ,200 -horsepower commuter
car built for Pike's Peak to the world's very
first five -rotor engine. Which is just wild.
The goal of this deep dive is to understand the
boundary -pushing ethos of Mad Mike and how he
has completely redefined what is mechanically
possible in the world of drifting. You are a
lifelong gearhead who already knows every single
detail of a Wankel engine. Or, you know, you're
just someone listening who is curious about extreme
engineering and people who refuse to play by
the rules. You are going to find a lot of inspiration
here. Definitely. Okay, let's unpack this by
starting at the very beginning. According to
our sources, Mike Wittit was born on January
10th, 1981 in Auckland, New Zealand. Right. But
looking at his early days, his start in racing
didn't actually happen on four wheels. No, it
was two wheels. Yeah, he started racing motocross
from the incredible young age of six years old.
Six years old. That is so young. And he was seriously
competitive, too. By 1997, he actually placed
second at the New Zealand Pro Junior 85cc Motocross
Champs. Wow. So it makes you wonder, how does
a kid on a dirt bike become a global legend in
sliding cars sideways? What's fascinating here
is how that specific origin story, starting on
two wheels instead of four, likely wired his
brain for the exact type of driving he does today.
How so? Well, when you are racing motocross,
especially from the age of six, you are developing
this deep, intuitive understanding of balance,
weight transfer, and traction. Because you're
the one moving the bike around? Exactly. On a
dirt bike, the surface is constantly shifting
underneath you. You have to be totally comfortable
with the machine moving unpredictably. Right.
And you have to know how to control that chaos
using your own body weight and throttle control.
So when you think about what drifting actually
is... Which is essentially intentionally braking
traction. Yes. Intentionally braking traction
and steering a car while it's sliding sideways
at high speeds. It requires that exact same comfort
with instability. That makes total sense. That
early exposure to the high stakes, balance heavy
world of motocross laid the absolute perfect
foundation for his vehicle control. He essentially
learned how to dance on the edge of losing control
before he even had a driver's license. That's
a great way to put it. And that extreme high
energy approach to racing has obviously become
his entire brand. It's literally why he's nicknamed
Mad Mike. Yeah, the archive notes his major sponsorship
with Red Bull. And honestly, looking at his driving
style, the synergy there is flawless. Red Bull
is completely synonymous with extreme high octane
sports. It's a partnership that really gave him
the platform to take his vision to a global scale.
And that vision is heavily focused on what he
builds in his garage, just as much as how he
drives it on the track. Let's talk about that
garage, because this is where the source material
gets wild. Win it. has a deeply defining relationship
with mazda huge relationship he's been drifting
using maza engines since he started back in 2007.
his very first drift car was a Mazda 808 station
wagon. A station wagon. Yeah, which he named
Fursty. F -U -R -S -T -Y. And that actually kicked
off a whole naming convention for him. The B
-U -L names. Right, he uses this B -U -L suffix
for almost all of his major bills, obviously
tying back to the Red Bull identity. Naturally.
But before we get into the specific cars, the
sources keep referencing his obsession with the
Wankel rotary engine. Oh yeah, the rotary. Now
for those of us who just put gas in the car and
hope for the best, what actually is a rotary
engine and why is he so obsessed with it? That
is the crucial question to understanding his
entire garage. So most of the cars you see on
the road use a traditional piston engine. Okay.
In those engines, you have cylindrical pistons
pumping up and down to create power. But a Wankel
rotary engine is totally different. No up and
down? No. Instead of pistons moving up and down,
it uses a triangular rotor kind of shaped like
a rounded Dorito. A rounded Dorito. I love that.
Yeah. And that triangle spins continuously inside
an oval -shaped housing. Because the motion is
purely rotational, there are fewer moving parts.
So it's simpler in a way. Mechanically, yes.
This means a rotary engine can be incredibly
compact, very lightweight, and it can rev to
incredibly high RPMs. Like motorcycle RPMs almost.
Exactly. And because it revs so high, it produces
a very distinct, high -pitched, screaming exhaust
note, which is a huge part of the sensory experience
of Mad Mike's drifting. I'm looking at the list
of these core Mazda builds, and the specs are
just staggering. You have MED Bu, which started
as a Mazda FD generation RX -7. A classic drift
chassis. But the notes say he put in a 26B quad
rotor, naturally aspirated engine. What does
that actually mean in terms of engineering? It
means he is playing mechanical god, essentially.
Okay, wow. Most consumer rotary cars, like the
standard RX -7, only have two rotors. A 26B quad
rotor means he has essentially stacked four of
these spinning triangles together in a single
engine block. Just line them all up? Right. And
engineering a crankshaft to connect four rotors
without the engine tearing itself apart from
inspiration at 10 ,000 RPM is incredibly difficult.
I can imagine. Mazda themselves really only used
a four -rotor engine in their legendary... 787B
race car that won Le Mans. And he just put it
in his personal drift car? Yeah. And naturally
aspirated just means there are no turbochargers
forcing air into the engine. It breathes on its
own, which gives it razor sharp throttle response.
And he constantly evolves these machines too.
The text mentions that in 2017, he gave Manetti
Buhl a new look, grafting on the front -end bodywork
of an older RX -3. Renaming it Manetti Buhl 7
.3 to acknowledge that wild combination. Then
the list just goes on. Yeah. You have Beatty
B. Yule, which is a Mazda RX -8 featuring a 20B
three -rotor turbo engine. Right. And a Humvee
Yule, another RX -7, but packing a 26B quad -rotor
twin -turbo engine. But then we get to Artie
Buhl. Oh, righty -bule is ridiculous. The source
says it's a Mazda NC MX -5. For anyone listening
who isn't a gearhead, that is a Miata. A tiny,
lightweight, two -seater divertible. Exactly.
And the notes here say he dropped a 26B quad
-rotor twin -turbo into it. How does that even
physically fit inside a Miata? It barely does.
That is the genius of his team. You're taking
an engine setup designed to produce massive power
and cramming it into a chassis designed for a
relaxing Sunday drive. It's comical. They essentially
had to reconstruct the entire front. half of
that Miata, fabricating custom mounts and completely
reengineering the cooling system just to house
that monster. And because he can't leave well
enough alone, he made R .D. Buell Gen 2. Taking
that older NC MX -5 and swapping on the newer
ND generation MX -5 body panels while keeping
that massive twin turbo quad rotor setup. It's
just a relentless pursuit of more power in smaller
spaces. It really is. But here's where it gets
really interesting. He starts building what we
have to call the Frankenstein cars. Yes. This
is where he leaves the Mazda chassis behind entirely,
but keeps the Mazda heart. I'm reading about
nimble. It is a Lamborghini Huracan. An Italian
supercar. It says he put a Liberty Walk body
kit on it, added a Fi exhaust, and has it pushing
800 to 900 horsepower. What is a Liberty Walk
kit? Why would you do that to a Lamborghini?
So Liberty Walk is an aftermarket company famous
for their ultra aggressive wide body styling.
They literally take a saw to the pristine million
dollar fenders of Lamborghini to bolt on massive
widened wheel arches. They cut the car. They
cut the car. Again, it goes back to his complete
disregard for traditional automotive rules. In
the car world, there are purists who believe
a Lamborghini is a work of Italian art and should
never be cut up. Wittit ignores that entirely.
He prioritizes sheer performance, personal vision,
and showmanship over any unwritten rules of automotive
purity. That makes the next car on the list even
more offensive to those purists. Look at McKiamac.
Oh, man. This is a custom McLaren 650S. He adds
a Rocket Bunny body kit. He takes the front of
a McLaren 650 GT3 race car and the rear of a
McLaren P1 GTR hypercar. Crazy. And the engine.
He rips out the British V8 and drops in a 20B
three -rotor Mazda engine. I mean, you can't
just buy P1 GTR parts out of a catalog. No, you
absolutely cannot. The McLaren P1 GTR is a multi
-million dollar track -only hypercar. Track -only?
Yeah. To get those parts and fuse them with the
650S chassis and then power the whole thing with
a Japanese rotary engine is just automotive anarchy.
It's insane. Think about the philosophy here.
He is taking the lightweight, high -revving,
chaotic soul of a Japanese drift car and marrying
it to the aerodynamic, mid -engine, highly clinical
chassis of a European hypercar. The ultimate
hybrid. He is treating these elite supercar platforms
exactly the same way he treated his first Mazda
station wagon. They are just a blank canvas for
his own madness. And we haven't even mentioned
the crown jewel of the garage yet, the M8AZ 787D.
7887D. Right. The source material highlights
this as a custom -built drift car based on the
legendary Mazda 787B race car we mentioned earlier.
But the engine is what makes it historic. Yeah.
It features the world's very first five -rotor
engine. Not a three rotor, not a four rotor.
Five. How much harder is it to add that fifth
rotor? It is an absolute mechanical nightmare.
As we discussed earlier, linking four rotors
is already pushing the limits of physics due
to crankshaft flex and timing. To add a fifth
requires entirely bespoke machining. Because
it just doesn't exist. Exactly. Everything from
the ignition timing to the fuel delivery has
to be invented from scratch because there is
no blueprint for a five rotor engine. Nobody
had ever done that before. So he just did it
himself. It proves that he isn't just a driver.
He is pushing the literal boundaries of mechanical
engineering. I'm looking at his current project,
though, and it seems like he's stepping away
from the drift track entirely for a second. The
car is called Bullet. Yes, Bullet. And it says
it's based on a 2022 Mazda 3, like the commuter
hatchback you see at the grocery store. That's
the one. But under the hood, it is packing a
26B quad -rotor Wankel engine, pushing a mind
-boggling 1 ,200 horsepower. That is like strapping
a jet engine to a shopping cart. What is this
car actually being built for? It is being built
specifically to race in the famous Pikes Peak
International Hill Climb, specifically in celebration
of the race's 100th anniversary. And if we connect
this to the bigger picture, this is a massive
evolution for him as a driver. How so? I mean,
isn't it just driving fast? Not at all. Drifting,
at its core, is a judged sport. Like figure skating.
Exactly. It is about style, the angle of the
car, the amount of smoke, and controlled chaos.
You are graded on how spectacular you look while
sliding. Pikes Peak is the exact opposite. It
is a legendary, terrifying hill climb up a mountain
in Colorado. There are 156 turns, and you climb
to an elevation of over 14 ,000 feet. There are
no style points at Pikes Peak. It is about raw
speed, absolute grip, and precision. Plus, the
air gets incredibly thin at that altitude, which
starves engines of oxygen. Oh, making tuning
a 1 ,200 horsepower rotary engine an absolute
nightmare. A total nightmare. And worst of all,
there are massive drop -offs with no guardrails.
Taking a 1 ,200 horsepower rear wheel drive monster
up that mountain requires a completely different
clinical mindset. Like you said, it's like a
figure skater suddenly deciding they want to
compete in downhill speed skiing. That's a great
analogy. The skill sets might overlap slightly,
but the risk and the goal are totally different.
But let's look at his actual trophy cabinet,
because all this custom building has actually
resulted in some serious hardware. Oh, for sure.
According to the archive, he has a massive global
footprint in Formula Drift. He competed in the
US Series in 2010, 2015, and 2016. Right away
in the US, he was named the most improved driver
for the 2010 season, finishing 10th at the Las
Vegas Motor Speedway. And his success is truly
international. In Formula Drift Asia, he finished
first at the Wonder World Amusement Park back
in 2009. Nice. But his biggest competitive achievement
came in the Formula Drift Japan Series. He was
consistently strong there. He finished first
at the Okayama International Circuit in 2016,
first at the Okibuki Motorsports Park in 2017,
and then he completely conquered the series in
2018 by winning the overall Formula Drift Japan
Series championship. The sources highlight a
massive milestone there, too. He is the very
first professional Mazda driver to ever clench
a professional drifting championship. Which is
huge validation for his loyalty to that rotary
engine. Yeah, sticking with Mazda really paid
off. And his home country recognized him, too.
In 2014, Winnit was the first New Zealand drift
driver to receive an award from Motorsport New
Zealand for Outstanding Achievement. It is a
really impressive resume. But to truly understand
the Mad Mike moniker, we have to look outside
of his primary sport. We have to talk about the
off -road wildcard chapter of his career. Oh,
the stadium super trucks. This may be my favorite
story in the whole archive. It's so good. So
2015, Winnett meets Robbie Gordon, the founder
of the stadium super truck series, while they
are both at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Okay.
They get to talking, and Gordon gives him an
opportunity to race at the Sands Sports Super
Show. Wittit ends up driving E .J. Viso's number
five truck. And keep in mind, a stadium super
truck is huge, heavy, and has a massive high
center of gravity. It is the exact opposite of
a low -slung Mazda drift car. Exactly. But he
jumps in anyway. He starts second in the first
race and manages to finish fourth. A highly respectable
debut. But then the reality of motorsport sets
in. In race two, he suffers an engine problem
and has to retire from the race early. Right.
So he's had a good finish and a mechanical failure.
Then comes the final race of the weekend. Whitted
is pushing this massive truck as hard as he can.
And what happens? He literally rolls the truck.
He flips it. He flips it over. But, and this
is the best part, he keeps going and still manages
to finish the race in seventh place. That sequence
of events perfectly encapsulates exactly who
he is. Totally fearless. He is relentless. He
is highly adaptable, jumping into an entirely
foreign, top -heavy vehicle format and immediately
competing near the front. And most importantly,
he is completely unfazed by disaster. Yeah, because
he keeps driving. Rolling a truck is a race -ending,
terrifying moment for most drivers. For Mad Mike,
it was just a bump in the road on his way to
a top -ten finish. It is that exact fearlessness
that makes him so compelling to watch. He just
dusted himself off and crossed the finish line.
Speaking of being compelling, there's a really
funny, almost meta moment in the Wikipedia source
text that we reviewed for this deep dive. Oh,
the warning tag. Yes. Right at the top of the
page, there is a warning tag dated February 2016.
The tag states that the article may not meet
Wikipedia's notability guideline for sports and
athletics and asks for more sources to prove
the topic is notable enough to even be in the
encyclopedia. This raises an important question,
and it's something I want you, the listener,
to really think about. How do traditional institutions
measure legitimacy? Right, because here's an
athlete with massive global backing from Red
Bull. Someone who is engineering world first
five rotor engines, someone who literally wins
international championships and cuts up million
dollar custom supercars. Doing things nobody
else is doing. Yet a traditional encyclopedia
framework struggled to categorize or validate
him because drifting, at least back in 2016,
was still viewed by some traditionalists as...
an alternative or underground motorsport. It
wasn't seen as a real sport by the establishment.
Exactly. It shows how traditional organizations,
whether it's classic sports governing bodies
or encyclopedias, often lag behind the actual
cultural impact of modern extreme sports. They
couldn't figure out which box to put him in without
realizing that he was completely redesigning
the box himself. Perfectly said. So what does
this all mean? When you look at the entirety
of Michael Witt's career, it is a massive testament
to the power of specialized knowledge, constant
iteration, and a total refusal to be categorized.
Absolutely. He took his early balance skills
from dirt bikes and translated them into a revolutionary
drifting career. He ignored automotive purists
and combined European supercars with screaming
Japanese rotary engines. And he's taking all
of that hard -earned knowledge to the terrifying
cliffs of Pikes Peak. It makes you wonder, how
can you apply a little bit of that boundary -breaking
innovation to your own projects? Where are you
following the purist rules when you should be
dropping a rotary engine into the mix, so to
speak? It's a great mindset to adopt. It is about
understanding the fundamentals of your craft
so deeply that you earn the right to break the
rules completely. Earn the right to break the
rules. I like that. Now, before we wrap up today's
deep dive, there is one final lingering detail
from the source material that we haven't deeply
discussed yet, and I want to leave you with it.
The MADSAB. Yes. Tucked away in his long list
of custom cars is a vehicle called the MADSAB.
It is a Mazda Loose sedan, but it isn't set up
like a normal stripped -down race car. It is
specifically built and set up to take three passengers
at the same time. Think about the visceral experience
of that. Think about putting three regular people
into a machine designed to slide completely out
of control at high speeds, filling the cabin
with the sound of a rotary engine and the smell
of tire smoke. It would be terrifying. How does
physically sharing that raw, terrifying thrill
with an audience change the way we understand
and consume extreme sports? It's one thing to
watch a master at work from the grandstands.
It's another thing entirely to be strapped into
the passenger seat while they do it. It transforms
the sport from a purely visual spectacle into
a shared psychological experience. It completely
breaks the barrier between the athlete and the
observer. Something to mull over as you go about
your day. Thank you for joining us on this exploration
of Mad Mike Wittet and his incredible rotary
-powered world. It's been a wild ride. Keep questioning
the rules. Keep looking for those surprising
connections. And most importantly, keep digging
into your own curiosities. We will catch you
on the next deep dive.