Cummins Miata drift car build to raise funds for HHS automotive program

Jacob Gettins loved high school and, in particular, his automotive class. So when he and some friends decided to build a drift car and film it for their YouTube channel, Pistonhead Productions, they didn’t just want to get local businesses involved, they wanted to get students involved, too.

Gettins had been talking to his former high school teacher who was worried about the way classes were getting combined and compressed. “He was worried that it would continue, so I met with the new automotive teacher and pitched the idea of a build that the kids could be involved in.” The ultimate goal: to use the car to raise funds for the automotive program at Huntsville High School (HHS).

For the uninitiated, a drift car is a type of race car that runs hard and fast, ‘drifting’, or sliding sideways, around corners. “The idea is to get as close to the car in front of you as possible and he’s trying to get away from you,” says Gettins. “You can do that by trying to go faster but you still have to be sliding, or you can try to get more angle so it’s harder for him to match.” Drivers are judged on how well they manage the slide.

Drift cars are custom-built for their specific purpose and aren’t street legal. A massive engine – which in this car is a modified Cummins diesel generator engine – and bare-bones interior lend themselves to speed as does the nitrous oxide which gives a boost of horsepower when needed. Dual brakes ensure the car will have no problems stopping. Extra bracing at the base of the frame supports the weight of the engine and transmission, which is from a Ford Super Duty truck. “Everything except for the body has been custom made to do this,” says Gettins.

Many local companies jumped on board for the project with donations of manpower, money or tools. In addition to Northern Upfitters, CRS supplied tools for the build, Moose Delaney’s catered the build weekend while Muskoka Roastery provided coffee, and The Sarjeant Co. offered financial support.

The build started with a Miata that the HHS students stripped bare, only to discover that the frame was too rusted to be of use. So in came a second car donated by a Miata specialty shop in Oakville, Dave’s Garage. “I have to give a huge shout out to the students. I dropped (the second car) off that was partially stripped and said to them, ‘What you did in three weeks I need you to do in less than a week’.” They did it, and the welding and machining shop built the crash bars for the front and back of the car, too.

Then came the difficult task of turning that shell into a drift car. Using an engine and transmission built by Northern Upfitters, Gettins and some friends – about 15 of them in total – got together at a Port Sydney detailing shop and put it all together in one weekend. “It was the longest 48 hours of my life,” laughs Gettins. The car wasn’t quite ready, but it was close. Gettins spent a few days the following week buttoning up some loose ends and then put the car on a trailer to head to a show in Michigan. They didn’t even start it until after they had arrived at the show.

“It was good and bad,” says Gettins. “A few of the parts during the build weekend didn’t fit so they weren’t going to allow us on the track. But we did get it running at the event for the first time. Some of the people from the diesel community I met online came out to give us a hand to get it started. One of the guys noticed that we had wired something backward and switched two wires and pressed a button and the thing started up for the first time. It was amazing to get it started and running at such a big event.”

The car recently had a successful showing in Atlanta and Gettins has a list of shows across Ontario that the car will appear at – some just for show and some as demos. But the ultimate goal is SEMA – an automotive specialty trade show in Las Vegas in November. “It’s the biggest automotive show in North America. We are hoping to raise more money to get it there – events like that draw hundreds of thousands of people – to raise as much money as possible for the school. Even if I have to fund it on my own dime, I want to take it to Vegas and I want to go to SEMA.”

The fundraising part of the build is in the form of a draw to win the car. Tickets are available with a suggested donation of $20 or more. “We usually do giveaways with them. It’s donate-what-you-can with a suggested amount of $20, but there’s no purchase necessary so if people just want a ticket to enter that’s no problem. We hope that people will donate, though, whether it be time trying to help out or monetary donations.” All of the proceeds beyond the cost of the vehicle will go directly to HHS. Tickets are available at Northern Upfitters and Moose Delaney’s or online at Indiegogo.

After school starts next week, Gettins hopes to take the drift car to HHS so that the students can do some further work on it – because they’re run so hard, drift cars need constant maintenance – before the draw in November.

“I enjoyed automotive shop in school,” says Gettins. “If I can continue to help out and let other kids enjoy it, then all the better.”

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