Fifteen years ago, a guy from Maryland took a camcorder and a bone-stock Ford Mustang GT to Japan and filmed a series of YouTube videos on drifting and local car culture. Back home in the States, a handful of people—including INTC producer Mike Perlman, then 15 years old—watched those videos and asked, What the hell is going on here?

By that point, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was already an accomplished professional drifter, an off-road racer, and a self-proclaimed “professional fun-haver.” Fast forward a decade and a half, and Gittin’s hands-on approach has helped drifting be taken seriously in America—and he’s done so much more.

For INTC’s 50th episode, Gittin joins us to talk about the nuance and difficulty of drifting, building a career in motorsport, and how our very own Ross Bentley changed his life!

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

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Who We Are + Spicy Merch:

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Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Where to find us:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.