- Now, I'm not a drifter at all.
(high energy rock music)
(tires squealing)
(upbeat piano music)
Well, Carl, normally I am a man of too many words
but right now you have me speechless.
- That's a good thing. I like that.
- So, so I look at it, I'm like, okay
I'm not sure exactly what it is and that that's it.
What is it?
(bouncy music)
- It's mean, its basically, just your old regular BMW.
There's not too much different to it.
- Oh, okay.
- It was a BMW 325, 1995
and it's, it's got a few work that has snowballed
- You didn't buy it like this?
- I did not buy it like this.
It was just a four seater old beat up BMW,
that I actually saved from a scrapyard.
- I know this very well, the LS, we've got.
- The LS 4
- Starting at the front
We've got twin turbo LS, and this is another.
- Love 'em
- This once dignified German sedan, is now the Death Cart.
An ironic name considering it's elaborate exoskeleton.
In 1995, BMW 325 cut down to its most basic elements
with a massively turbocharged LS motor
a T 56 Magnum transmission
and the differential out of a BMW M5.
And it runs on corn juice, that's E 85.
It's a full scale go-kart
and it's a hundred percent street legal
- The frame, It's full NHRA certified.
It is safe as you can get, everything about this car
it's certified to go quicker than eight seconds legally.
- Wow. And then speaking of legally
you also have had the police take it apart.
- Yes. Actually, when it was first done
I purposely drove to the Ohio State Patrol office
and they're like, Can we help you?
I was like, Actually, I want you to inspect my car.
They're like, Really?
I was like, Yeah, please inspect it.
They went around it and they said
You're 100% legal except for a loud exhaust.
Like I even have license plate lights on the car,
everything, I use the turn signals, even though it's a BMW.
- Yeah
- That most people don't know that
stock BMWs do have turn signals.
- They do actually.
- Yeah.
(light electronic music)
- The point of this car is to have fun.
That is what it started out with, is to just have fun
with your friends.
Then it kind of evolved from a street car to a drag car.
We're like, Oh yeah, we'll have a nice really fast drag car.
Then I'm like, well, it's got lots of power.
We can do all kinds of burnouts with it,
and with burnouts comes drifting.
So we started going to some sanctioned drift events
and even pros have told us like,
you know what this is actually decent,
if you can get an angle kit adapted to this car.
I was like, Of course I can.
I have a Sawzall and a welder.
We'll make it work
- And a weekend free
- And a weekend free.
And two days ago we finished it up.
The only testing we did was driving it onto the trailer.
(engine roaring)
(tires squealing)
- Carl takes me on an orientation run
through downtown Detroit, and it is no surprise
that everywhere we go, the death cart is an event.
(fast-paced electronic music)
After giving the lunchtime crowd a bit of midday theater
we head off to Flat Rock Speedway
so I can test it out for myself.
- Simple enough. There we go.
That is surprisingly tame.
You know, it's actually not as loud
as I was expecting it to be.
It's still got this weird, like, I can hear both sides
but they're two different exhausts
from two different sides of the motor.
Something totally new for me.
(fast-paced electronic music)
(roaring car engine)
I love it.
I, I think that he's built a very fun vehicle.
So he said it can handle.
Let's see what you do.
(roaring car engine)
And it can.
I'm not a drifter at all.
I, I respect what drifters can do.
I'm not gonna try showing you that I can drift a,
a car that is capable of drifting.
That's not, that's not gonna work.
- Yeah. But there comes a time
when you just have to go for it.
The death cart was begging me to do it anyway.
(fast-paced electronic music)
(roaring car engine)
(tires squealing)
(fast-paced electronic music)
- You know, it was fine.
I just was like, I'm stopping.
So it was still in gear and everything like that
so I don't, I don't know what that was, but
- It's bust, oh, here, look, there's parts of it.
- Yeah
- So, this is the bottom parts of the brace.
There's five of these bolts that go in
and with all that grip and clutch kicking it
those tires are trying their hardest not to spin.
So when you clutch kicked it, so much torque.
The diff said, I'm gonna head out.
That's the one spare part I didn't bring today, is the diff,
but you said it's still moving right?
- Yeah, yeah she's
- And the diffs working and it's already broke,
so can we break it more?
- I defer to you.
- Well, see you would fit right in with our team.
We have a motto saying:
"no half sends," if you're gonna do something,
go out and do it.
- So now what?
I got 12 tires in the trailer, a jack, a gun,
and it still moves.
You should probably just finish off what you started.
(upbeat electronic music)
(impact driver whirs)
(tires squealing)
(fast-paced electronic music)
Lost the belt.
- You know, the coolest part about doing something like this
is that the guys behind me,
you don't hear a single one of them upset.
We're all having a blast.
And that's, that's truly the spirit
of why we're doing what we do.
Not, I mean, not just me breaking parts
but the whole concept of pushing a car beyond stock form
building it, tuning it, adjusting it, the,
the natural life cycle of that is
and does include breaking it
and then being able to build it even better.
And that's the passion that all the guys behind me share
is that you get this camaraderie, this passion.
And that's why I love being part of this.
And that's why I love unearthing
that and showing that on this series.
It's the spirit of, I think, just American ingenuity
being able to try and do different things.
And so I hope for the next episode
I don't break another car.
That's not my intention.
I wanna show off what these guys, can do,
but, well, who knows.
(tires squealing)
(mellow electronic piano music)