Update!

Zane Heath’s lovingly-restored DRIF6 FPV BA F6 drift car is up for grabs! It isn’t cheap at $185K, but it is a one-of-one with significant history that has been restored by some of the best late-model Falcon minds in the biz.

The story to here

Long before young ’uns had swapped out overpriced S13s for AU Falcons to throw sideways at drift days, a small team from Ford Performance Vehicles unintentionally foreshadowed the trend with the DRIF6, an after-hours deal thrown together by the FPV engineers in 2006 in the name of fun.

First published in the May 2025 issue of Street Machine

The car that would become the DRIF6 wasn’t picked fresh off the FPV assembly line to be built as a pristine, high-end machine. Beginning life as a 2002 BA Falcon, it had been used for a stack of hot-weather testing in rural Australia before being shoved in a corner after a ‘kangaroo crash test’ mangled a good portion of the front passenger side.

Looking to build something cool for Ford’s annual family open day, the FPV boffins dug the car out in 2006 and decided to turn it into a drift car, using scrounged parts from R&D leftovers, sponsor handouts, and what they could make themselves for next to nothing. When you combine that ethos with a stripped interior, extra gauges, race buckets, and an aftermarket wheel, you’ve pretty much got the same recipe that drifters all over the world have used for decades to create their cars.

Powered by a turbo Barra six from an F6 Typhoon, the completed DRIF6 was used as a PR car by FPV after its open-day debut – like when we took a fresh-faced Gary Myers to Oran Park to have a crack at sending it sideways for the June 2006 issue of SM (see more, below). Aussie drifter Adam Newton also campaigned it in the Australian Drifting Championship that same year with decent success.

Despite initially being a throw-together build for fun, the DRIF6 certainly made an enduring impression. Mention the car to any revhead in their mid-30s today and watch their eyes light up: “I remember that thing; it was rad! I wonder where it is now?”

The good news is that unlike most prototypes and test mules, DRIF6 did not meet its maker when Ford took FPV in-house after Prodrive gave up the brand and ceased Aussie operations in 2012. In fact, the car made a trip halfway across the world, finally returning to Australia last year and into the hands of its current owner, Barra and Falcon connoisseur Zane Heath from Maxx Performance.

“When this car came out, I was like 17, and I remember reading every book thinking it was the coolest thing and I had to have it,” says Zane. “Tyler Henderson, a mate of mine, bought it and took it to New Zealand. He had it for about five years, and then he contacted me, told me he was going to sell it, and I had to jump on it. I never would’ve thought I’d be able to get my hands on this thing, and now I’ve got it.”

Before it made it to New Zealand, though, Prodrive took the car back to the company’s UK home base in 2012, along with other assets. It was eventually donated to UK charity organisation Mission Motorsport, before finding a home in NZ with Tyler. The car had also allegedly been sent on a PR trip to China when it was still under Ford’s control, so DRIF6 might just be the most well-travelled Falcon out there.

Now back in the land of its birth, DRIF6 has been restored by Zane over the past 12 months as a fun side project. “The goal was to restore it as close to original as possible, with just a few tweaks to modernise it,” he says. “So, there’s no Haltech or massive high-mount. It’s the original turbo re-cored, along with a better fuel system, a Process West intercooler, Shockworks coil-overs and a re-map on E85.”

In 2006, DRIF6 produced a claimed 380kW (510hp) and 700Nm (516lb-ft) at 16psi on 98. Zane has improved that with modern tech to make 450rwkW (603hp) on E85 with 20psi of boost. He finished DRIF6’s resto just in time for a grand debut at the Geelong All Ford Day in early April, and now he can enjoy owning one bloody cool piece of Ford Australia history.

“I will track it at some grip days at Sandown, and maybe slide it around a bit, but I obviously don’t want to wall it, so I’ll have to be careful there,” Zane says. “But you’ll see it back out there again going sideways soon.”

SIDEWAYS GLANCE

Back when DRIF6 was a freshie in 2006, Street Machine was invited to a track day at Oran Park by FPV’s then-PR man (and former MOTOR editor) Andrew Maclean, who was the driving force of the project alongside the FPV engineers. The idea was to put DRIF6 through its paces alongside more established drift cars and see how it fared.

We decided to take along a then-fresh-faced Gary Myers to have a steer. The burnout hall-of-famer was quick to point out that the car didn’t have the immediate punch of his legendary GM176 burnout Mustang, but he reckoned there was still plenty on tap to fry the rears as the Barra came on song.

The day resulted in a cracking yarn that appeared in the June ’06 issue of SM, and you can read it here.

ZANE HEATH
2002 FPV F6 TYPHOON

THANKS
Tyler Henderson for tracking down the car and selling it to me; Process West; Injectors Online; Dalta Autosports; Tom at Atomic Automotive; Sequoia Media; Shockworks; Patto at Enhanced Vehicle Solutions, Ben at Top G Fabrications; Race Coatings; the boys at Maxx Performance; my wife Rachel for letting me purchase it.