German Drift Hero MH84 Talks About His Devotion to the Dream

Although I tend to be pretty brave whenever I'm behind the wheel of my car, I sometimes forget Frank Herbert's "Fear is the mind-killer" quote in certain situations. We sometimes look at what other people achieve and think: I could have done that, I could be even better, etc. But suppose you're sitting at home complaining about your situation without doing anything while the other person's pursuing his dream.

In that case, you should consider letting go of your fear and doing the same. Take a risk, double down on your efforts, be consistent with your projects and ideas, and don't lose sight of the goal. And one day, you might look back and shed tears of joy realizing what you've accomplished. By the way, this "pep talk" also aims to motivate me to move forward, but I hope it has that effect on you, too. These thoughts often roam through my mind, but some days, they are more intense than others.

Today, the impulse to do something about my ideas is even stronger, as I just chatted with a very cool pro drifter from Germany, Max Heidrich. Max had set up camp right next to the Speed Industries paddock area at Ferropolis, where I spent four days documenting what Team Switzerland (Tobias Welti and Roger Stockli) was up to during the Iron Drift King festival. The first thing that caught my attention was that Max was driving an S13.5, a hybrid I hadn't seen since Pawel Trela was still actively competing in professional drifting.

All our dreams can come true if we dare to pursue them

While a car's style and overall appearance are important for the sport, how the driver handles things truly stands out. While shooting videos of the action from the grandstands, I quickly realized why Max Heidrich was a local hero at the event. His "no guts, no glory" approach to the sport was electrifying to watch, and I wanted to know more. I was sure MH84 was one of the top contenders for the podium that weekend, and even though he didn't score the Gold Trophy, I'm sure he still won the hearts of thousands of spectators.

I'm always curious to learn more about a pro driver's background and how it all started for him. And I was surprised to learn that Max didn't pay any attention to cars until he was 18. "I was into mountain bikes. In the final year of school, we all have to go through an apprenticeship phase, and I figured I'd work on bicycles. But I somehow switched to cars, and working on them was fun."

"We had a Ford Sierra in our group of friends; it was the cheapest RWD car money could buy. And it just so happened that we lived close to the oldest street circuit in Germany (Schleizer Dreieck) and a few forest roads nearby. We discovered sliding it around was exciting, especially in the wet or winter. It all happened 14 years ago."

"Two years later, I bought a BMW E36." I've said this before, and I'll say it again: drifting is the most fun thing you can do in a car. And once it gets a grip on you, there's no turning back. And for many, it's not just a form of self-expression but also art. Max didn't take long to dive deeper into the phenomenon, as his buddy Christian Kögler had just witnessed professional drifting in Australia.

I blew the engine in practice

The two worked together on building a Nissan S13, and one thing led to another: "We were on a karting track in Berlin when I first experienced a drift car with a welded diff and a bit more power. Then I attended a professional drift event at the Nurburgring, and I was part of his team doing mechanic work, driving the van, and all that. We were already studying what was happening in Formula Drift and D1GP, and I ended up buying an S13 rolling shell for cheap."

"I've since retired it, but it's still in my shop, and I'd love to rebuild it into a demo car someday soon." Fast forward to 2012, Max and Christian went to Poland for the Karpacz Touge drift event. It's an event that will forever be etched in my memory and that of many other fans. I would label it a sort of modern Group B race, perhaps with a slightly bigger degree of insanity. Polish drivers set the standard for European drifting at the time, on par or even better than the Irish guys.

And it's no wonder Max found inspiration in Pawel "The Troll" Trela, as he was a legendary name in the sport. "It took me four years to get the S13 ready for racing. In 2013, I took it to Poznan, Poland. The car was black, and I had a turbocharged BMW M50 engine inside. It ran about 400 hp at 1.4 bars of pressure on a tight budget. Doing battle against Pawel Trela was memorable, indeed! I did alright in practice and even qualified for the Top 32 battles. Even though I blew the engine in practice, it was a crazy experience."

Being competitive in drifting takes more than just practice, skill, and determination. It also requires significant budgets to keep the car reliable to some degree, or at least to have enough spare parts in case they're needed. Max had a tough year after the Poznan race, with multiple engine problems and a crash while driving his teammate's car. That didn't stop him from pursuing his dream of rising to the top, and with a fresh Toyota JZ engine inside for 2014, he scored two podiums in the German Drift United series.

We built a new car

His passion for the sport propelled him to the Drift Masters series in 2015, going up against Pawel Trela again and even defeating him in the process. By the end of the season, Max was the highest-ranking non-Polish driver in the series, as he finished in P9 overall. "In 2016, I raced in Drift Allstars. It was my first time driving in the UK at Lydden Hill, Riga (Latvia), Laitse Rallypark (Estonia), and Mondello Park (Ireland). I started the season on Achilles street tires, and I switched to Westlake semislicks for the Irish round."

"I had never felt the power of a drift car like that before; it was a crazy experience, and there was no going back from that point. That year, I took third place in Mariapocs, Hungary, where James Deane took P2, and Steve Biagioni won the event." Since 2017, Max Heidrich has mainly focused on the rising Drift Masters series in Europe, thus significantly improving his skills in racing against the best drivers on the continent. Drifting on the stadium in Poland for the first time that year was good and bad for him, as he suffered a major crash in practice against FD and DMGP star Piotr Wiecek.

After so many years in his first car, it was time for a change. "We built a new car for the 2018 season, the same one I have today. It was the first time I had Wisefab parts on my race machine, a quick change differential, but it wasn't all smooth, and there were plenty of small issues to fix. It was the first year of the Iron Drift King, and I blew my engine in practice. But my team performed an engine swap overnight, using Marcel Uhligh's powerplant, and I went on to win the inaugural series event after competing against drivers like Bas Mul, Juha Rintanen, and Rick van Goethem."

"I immediately spent the $10K I won for a new engine so I could race in the round of the Drift Masters at the Hockenheimring." Max struggled to keep up with the big names in Europe year in and year out without significant financial support on his side and with little to no practice. Racing at the highest level with that kind of stress would wear anyone out, but he couldn't even imagine stopping from further chasing after his dream. Last year, he only missed the Swedish round of the Drift Masters series, as it was just too far away from him, but he still finished the season in 20th place with one event missing.

I have been using the same turbo since 2017!

I was curious about his favorite European tracks: "I enjoyed the Brno GP track in the Czech Republic, but also Mondello Park and the venue in Riga. But Ferropolis is equally amazing! For the future, I'd love to drift in Long Beach, Irwindale, and even the Grid Life event at Laguna Seca!" I recommend you watch a few videos of Max in action, but let me give you some stats about his car before you do that. I was surprised that his 2JZ is still a 3.0-liter (non-stroked) unit and left the factory as a GE (non-turbo) model.

Max is running the same Borg Warner EFR8374 turbo that my buddy Mike has on his FD RX-7, and I was further shocked to learn that he hasn't changed this turbo since 2017! At 1.6 bars of boost, the 2JZ cranks out 880 hp and 782 lb-ft (1,060 Nm) of torque. As you'll notice on most pro drift cars these days, the S13.5 uses a G-Force G101A 4-speed gearbox, and it has been handling that power without any problems since 2020. Max uses Link ECU engine management, and his brother built the rear end using carbon-kevlar parts.

I had another shock learning that the guy driving the V12-powered Mercedes-Benz wasn't just his teammate but also Max's brother. But more on that in a future story. "Racing against my bro was one of the most exciting memories from this year's Iron Drift King festival. He has been helping me for the past five years, building my car and acting as my spotter for Drift Masters. It was his first event in the Mercedes-Benz, and we had a really cool battle, even though he spun out at a certain moment."

"My battle against Juha Rintanen on Saturday was tough, too. There was only a small difference between us, but I won eventually. I was slightly lucky going up against Sebastian Fontijn as he suffered a tire debead in his chase run. The battle with Mikkel Kraus was quite intense; he hit me hard. It felt like he was trying to drive over me, and I also won that. I worked my way through to the semifinals, where I had an all-out battle against Clint van Oort. We became good friends competing in Drift Masters and always have some intense tandems for the audience."

We need a tire rule!

Max eventually took third place overall at the Iron Drift King this year, even though he drove part of the event with his 2JZ engine running on only five of the six cylinders. That's a feat I would have never thought possible, at least not at this level of competition where everyone seems to have at $100,000 invested in their vehicles. As always, I wanted to learn more from his experience as a pro driver, trying to get his opinion on what organizers should change next to make drifting better for drivers and spectators.

"The first thing that needs to happen in European drifting is a tire rule. You have to control the tires and the compound. We need to have a limited size-to-weight ratio like in Formula Drift. Otherwise, it's starting to get out of hand. Everyone is pushing crazy grip levels. In some series, you only have two practice runs, and the mistakes decide the outcome. The battles would be really good if we all ran the same tires. What IDK did at this event was a big step forward for the sport, as we only had two brands supplying the tires for everyone."

I could have gone on and on talking to Max about his drifting antics, and I realized how involved he has become with the sport. Even though he's just 32 years old, he has a lot of experience behind him, and he also has the skills and will to become one of the best drivers Europe has ever seen. Even though the IDK has made efforts to substantially increase the payouts for winning drivers, a full season requires some big budgets. The lack of financial support from major companies or even official entities is bound to hurt the progression of any rising star, regardless of his potential.

Drifting is my life

I have seen so many phenomenal drivers quitting the sport for financial reasons that I'm used to being heartbroken learning about their decisions. Pawel Trela has retired for several years now, and I hope things won't be the same for Max Heidrich. "My main goal is to keep drifting in my life, regardless of what comes next. I have a little kid to look after now, and I can't neglect my family. I have to figure out how to continue being part of a sport, even if it means starting to build pro-drift cars for other drivers or teaching people how to drive."

"Drifting is my life; I enjoy using my skills to fabricate parts and express myself through driving. I made so many friends by being part of the sport; there's so much more to it than people can see at first glance. Things will be a bit slower for me competition-wise in 2025, but I hope I'll be back stronger than ever after that." Even though our discussion lasted only about an hour, Max surprised me with several of his answers. As I gave him a hypothetical scenario for building a pro drift car with an unlimited budget, I learned he'd go straight for a 2JZ-powered Nissan S15.

But doing things to the highest level isn't quite possible when running a budget of less than $60K a year. It doesn't allow too many spares, practice time, or tires. It's at a point where not qualifying at an event is a curse and a blessing at the same time: you spend the money to get there, but at least you have more tires for the next race. I was curious to get his estimate on a really good budget required to climb to the top of professional drifting in Europe, and he mentioned he'd need about $150K and at least another 100 tires over the 200 he used in 2024.

In conclusion, I wanted to summarize our interview in a few sentences, asking for a lesson we could all learn from. And his words were as inspiring as his driving: "No matter what you come across or how many problems you encounter, you just have to keep pushing through. I never had a big budget, and I'm not part of a rich family. I worked for everything I had and never had the budget I needed at the start of the season. But I somehow always made things work. If you have a dream or a vision, just keep fighting for it, and don't let anyone convince you that it's impossible to accomplish that vision."