Greek Kid Has Been Drifting Since He Was Seven, Is Now One of the Best

I sometimes think about how cool it would have been if my dad was a car guy, too. But I'm happy knowing we have other things in common, like mythology, science fiction, history, and numismatics. And I've always enjoyed his unconditioned support in everything I have ever ventured into. As I have been going to pro drift events since circa 2008, I have often found father-and-son and even father-and-daughter teams, and I've always admired those relationships.

Start Them Young

If I ever have kids, I might be in the same situation 15 years from now. Anyway, I witnessed an interesting phenomenon as a drifting journalist. At one point, an interesting category of drivers started joining the sport. They were all still in Middle School, and at first, no one knew what to expect. You could see a 12-year-old lining up against a 50-year-old in a drift battle.

And at one point, they became fierce opponents. They were quicker to learn, more enthusiastic, and had no sense of fear whatsoever. If I remember correctly, James Deane started drifting in high school. And now he just made history by becoming the first driver to win his fourth Formula Drift title. But we should be ready for the next wave of young pro drivers.

We haven't heard the last of guys like Adam Zalewski, Hiroya Minowa, or Conor Shanahan. And I have another name for you that you should remember: Stavros Grillis. He's a 22-year-old pro-drifter from the Greek Island of Kos, where Hippocrates (the Father of Medicine) was from. Stavros is a car mechanic alongside his father and two brothers, Ilias and Stergios.

I still remember the day I first met him: I was in Thessaloniki, Greece, for a race that was part of the 2013 King of Europe Drift Series. Stavros was driving a turbocharged BMW E30 and agreed to take me for a passenger ride so I could shoot a video of him. Fast forward to 2024, we met again at the Iron Drift King event in Ferropolis, Germany.

I wanted to drift everything.

Even though I had been watching him online all these years, knowing how much he had improved, I was still shocked to see his driving skills live. And he was kind enough to sit down for an hour with me to tell me his life story. "I have loved cars for as long as I can remember. I was born in the workshop. I was riding a quad at age three."

"At age five, I was already driving an old Honda Civic. I started drifting at seven with an RWD-converted Mazda 323 GTX. My dad had a BMW E30, and I changed to that after the Mazda suffered some damage. It was much easier to drift it than the 323 GTX (it had an M30B28 engine inside). I remember trying to drift with everything I got my hands on, even though I didn't even know what drifting was at first."

As I was talking to Stavros, it suddenly hit me that practicing on a small island in the Mediterranean Sea can't be that easy. Luckily, he has a go-kart track where he can drive, although clearing up the front yard of the family's garage was also one way to go about the process. In recent times, Stavros has also turned to sim racing to practice on tracks that are thousands of miles away, and this method has proven to be quite effective for pro drifters worldwide.

Watching DVDs from the Greek Drift Championship inspired Stavros, and he soon found himself doing demos at the events organized by one of the country's leading drivers, Stathis Papargiropoulos. "I was 10 years old when I took part in those events. Unfortunately, the regulations in Greece did not allow such a young driver to compete in an official event, so in 2013, I went to Cyprus to race there."

I started racing at 11

"I was 11 years old at the time!" For many years, the young driver traveled to and from the third largest Island in the Mediterranean. He scored his first race victory in 2016 at age 14. Everyone was competing with street tires back then, and he could keep up with all the high-power cars despite running a more modest setup. It all changed when people started upgrading to semi-slicks. But once you increase grip levels, things start to break down, and that's what team Grillis had to go through.

Stavros changed to a Toyota Corolla AE86, using a 580-horsepower 2AZ-FE unit. And it was with this car that he took his first European podium at the 2019 King of Europe event in Oschersleben, Germany. "We could race anywhere in 2020 because of the global pandemics, but in 2021, we sent an application for Drift Masters. I attended my first DMGP race in Greinbach, Austria, and qualified 12th out of 55 drivers. Knowing how tough the competition was, I was very happy with the result."

"But I broke the gearbox in the first battle. We had bought it from someone who forgot to mention that it was only good for a maximum of 350 horsepower. We had to wait seven or eight months for a proper gearbox from another company, so there was nothing else I could do that year." In 2022, Stavros and his family made the close to four-day trip over to Ireland, on the other side of Europe, for another round of the Drift Masters series. After qualifying, his first battle was against the WRC Champion, Kalle Rovanpera.

The tires on his Corolla just couldn't take the heat and gave up on the second run, so that was the end of the event for the Greek wonder kid. He had the first big crash of his career in Austria, competing against Alex Golovnya from Ukraine. After rebuilding it, he won another European race in the Drift Kings series on his home turf in Serres, Greece. "At the beginning of 2023, we finished working on our new BMW E36, but the budget was so tight that I could only score a few podiums in the Greek Drift Championship."

Dealing with the pressure is crucial.

"We carried on with some more upgrades and finalized the project at the start of 2024. After a quick test in Thessaloniki, I won a Greek Championship event in Athens. The Iron Drift King was my second race in this vehicle, and I managed to clinch P2 by the end of it. I'd call it my biggest success; I'm happy to be back in a BMW as I feel right at home in it." Despite being so young, Stavros has already competed on over a dozen racetracks in Europe, and I can envision him achieving much more in his career.

You might find it shocking to see him driving the BMW E36 for several reasons besides his drifting skills. For one, the car looks like a BMW M2 and a carbon-kevlar body kit is used to make it look that way. But it has a Toyota heart, pumping out 850 hp and 590 lb-ft (800 NM) of torque using E85 fuel while weighing 2,425 lbs (1,100 kg). While he has to attend military service over the next eight months, we might see him back in International drifting in 2026. By then, the RTMG Performance BMW may be even more formidable than it already is.

But I was curious to learn what project Stavros would build if he didn't have to worry about the budget: "It's a very tough question. I'm a big fan of the BMW E92, which has an HGK body kit and an LS engine inside. However, I'm unsure if I'd be ready to give up the turbo life. The E36 is the best car I have ever driven; the engine response is formidable even without anti-lag. I might just build another E36 from scratch if I had the chance to do so."

After telling me about his favorite battle (against James Deane in Mondello) and his road-going vehicle (a BMW E30 318is), I asked Stavros about the most important lessons he has gotten from drifting. "It's very important to build things step by step. If you have something simple that works fine, don't ruin it. Our E36 is a simple car; it only has the basic things it needs for drifting. If you don't overcomplicate things, it's easier to work on and more reliable."

"Dealing with the pressure of the competition is equally important; you need to stay calm to get good results." I honestly felt like shedding a tear watching this young lad's history unfold, and I admire him and his family greatly for what they have achieved. Having them help Tobias and me at the Iron Drift King was heartwarming as I struggled to find a solution to weld the Chaser's intercooler.

Greek hospitality and kindness are legendary! And I think Stavros is a true inspiration for the new generation! I'll leave you with two videos: one from the Iron Drift King and another from his early days of going sideways.