Hand Controls, an LS1 and No Handbrake: Christina Vithoulkas's S13 Drift Car

Most drift cars are built around one question: how does the driver get the rear tires to let go? In a typical S13 the answer is a hydraulic handbrake, a clutch kick and a right foot. Christina Vithoulkas has none of those tools. She drives her LS1-powered Nissan Silvia with a Bluetooth accelerator strapped to her hand, and as she told Street Machine, there is no handbrake in the car at all.

Street Machine ran her story in its Iron Maiden reader section on Aug. 4, and it is one of the better drift builds of the year because the car exists for a reason bigger than the car. Vithoulkas, a content creator, public speaker and former freestyle motocross rider, is described by the magazine as Australia's first paraplegic female competitor in drifting.

A dirt bike paid for it

The timeline is the first thing that jumps out. Vithoulkas told Street Machine she was offered a drift passenger ride in March 2020 and fell for the sport on the spot. The same people introduced her to paralyzed drifters online, something she said she did not know was an option. Two weeks later she bought a 1993 Silvia S13 shell.

She funded it by selling the dirt bike she crashed in 2018, the crash that left her paralyzed. Vithoulkas told the magazine she never wanted to let the bike go, but putting the money into the next passion made it worth it. For someone who says she used to launch 17-meter (roughly 56-foot) jumps, a V8 drift car was the logical replacement for the adrenaline.

Then came the slow part. The car took three and a half years to build, and only after it was finished did she actually learn to drift. That is backwards from how most people come into the sport, usually in a cheap stock car that gets modified as the driver improves. Here the car was ready before the driver, which is why the setup matters so much.

What Dean Rossiter built

The S13 was built by Dean Rossiter, and the recipe is classic Australian drift car with a few twists. Power comes from a cammed LS1, the 5.7-liter GM V8 that has become as common in Silvias as the factory SR20 in some paddocks. Street Machine puts output at 369 hp at the rear wheels.

Behind the engine is a TH400 three-speed automatic rather than a manual, which is the key to the whole build. With no clutch pedal to work, an automatic lets her control the car with the hand throttle and steering alone. The rear end is a locked Nissan differential with 4.3 gears, so both rear wheels turn together and the car breaks traction predictably.

The chassis side is a who's who of local drift suppliers. Shockworks coilovers handle the suspension, the front brakes were upgraded, and the car rolls on 17-inch Watanabe replica wheels. Rex Kelway made the wheel tubs, Cage Kits Aus supplied the roll cage and bash bars, and a GKTech strengthening kit stiffens the shell. The purple and blue wrap over black paint is a callback, too. Vithoulkas told the magazine it is her favorite color combination and the same scheme her dirt bike wore.

Drifting with one hand on the throttle

The driving part is where this build gets interesting for anybody who has tried to link a corner. Vithoulkas described herself to Street Machine as two years in and still a beginner, and said she is the only one drifting with a Bluetooth accelerator on her hand and no handbrake, so she has to hope she has the right line.

Without a handbrake, a driver cannot easily pull the rear back into a slide or tighten a line mid-corner. Everything has to be set up on entry with weight transfer, steering and throttle. That is the hard way to learn, and the plan is to make it easier: she told the magazine an 8HP transmission is coming, with the handbrake wired into it.

Her first drive out of Rossiter's shop was not a calm one. Vithoulkas told Street Machine her thought at the time was, roughly, what have I gotten myself into. The first time she drifted it, she said, she knew she would be okay. Since then she has driven eight tracks around Australia and given around 100 passenger rides, and she has been an invited guest driver at events including World Time Attack Challenge. She credits her partner Jesse Baker and BSC Performance & Dyno Tuning for much of how the car performs today.

The second car is the real goal

What makes the build matter beyond the spec sheet is what she wants to do with it. Vithoulkas told Street Machine her current goal is public speaking and sharing her story so other disabled people know they can drift with hand controls. She also said she would love to ship the Silvia to the United States for drift events.

The long-term plan is a second car, set up specifically so disabled people can try drifting. That is a bigger idea than any one build, and it turns a purple S13 with an LS1 into something closer to a rolling proof of concept. Grassroots drifting has always sold itself as the most welcoming corner of motorsport. A hand-control car that anybody can climb into would put that claim to the test in the best way.

For now, the S13 is doing exactly what it was built to do: going sideways with a driver who learned in a V8 car, without a clutch, without a handbrake and with one hand on the throttle. Most of us would have a hard enough time with all four limbs.