Wet parking lot in Las Vegas serves as an interesting place for an off-road racing F-150 to go drifting.
This week’s Freaky Friday video comes to us from the YouTube channel of Evan Vendetti and it features a Ford F-150 prerunner showing off its drifting skills. We have showcased a great many prerunner trucks doing what they normally do, like racing through the mud and snow or flying through the air, but the modified F-150 in today’s video is the first that we have seen drifting on a paved surface.
The Machine
The truck in this video is a 10th generation Ford F-150 that has been transformed into an street-friendly prerunner. Up front, this half-ton features an HM Racing long travel kit and out back, the owner went with a Deaverleaf pack with giant shackles, all of which makes plenty of room for the big off-road tires on aftermarket wheels.
In order to make sure that there is enough body-to-tire clearance with the new suspension and tires, the owner has installed flared front fenders and flared bedsides, along with a tubular front bumper with off-road lighting and a twin-tire rack in the bed. All of these items make this a great truck for a day of racing through the desert, but as the video shows, it also makes for a unique drift truck.
Slip Slidin’ Away
In the video above, this Ford F-150 prerunner is drifting in a fairly tight parking lot in Las Vegas. It looks as though the lot is freshly paved and it has clearly just gotten done raining, leaving a slick, wet surface behind. The lot is littered with “islands” that create some concerning obstacles, but the driver of this high-riding Ford does a great job of sliding around the parking lot, carefully avoiding the other vehicles and the many curbs.
Remarkably, an F-150 built to race through the dirt is surprisingly successful of drifting and for comparison, the video ends with a Toyota making a sad attempt to drift around the lot. Ultimately, the Tacoma just magnifies how well the big Ford slips and slides in the tight parking lot.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
