MAD i MAX

FACTORY-BUILT, 300KW, TWIN-TURBO, REAR-DRIVE AND SEATING UP TO EIGHT, WE GO ALL ABOARD THE 'DRIFT BUS'

- SCOTT NEWMAN

OH CRAP, NOT AGAIN. The flap-flap-flap of rubber strands hitting the inner wheel arch is the death rattle of yet another tyre. Hyundai’s usually affable technician (let’s call him Safety Pete) won’t be happy at the prospect of having to get the jack and rattle gun out again, but the Drift Bus is merely doing what it was built to: convert rubber into fluffy white clouds.

But let’s rewind to the beginning of the story. On April 1, 2019, Hyundai Germany released computer-generated images on Instagram of an iMax N. Now, the date should provide a clue as to the veracity of those images, but while the Germans were chuckling into their weissbeer, Hyundai Australia was rolling up its sleeves and getting to work. A little over six months later the real-life iMax N ‘Drift Bus’ was revealed.

It was a risky move. The Drift Bus was built in complete secret and there was a small chance those responsible would be loaded into said iMax and sent packing. Of course, history had shown that the idea of a tyre-shredding 300kW eight-seater van could practically blow up the internet, leading Hyundai Australia to give the Drift Bus its public debut at the 2019 World Time Attack event. Now it’s our turn.

The first thing that strikes you about the iMax N is the quality of the build. One-off prototypes can be pretty ropey, even at OEM level, but the Drift Bus clearly wasn’t cobbled together over a weekend in some dingy workshop. From start to finish the project took seven weeks, project lead Geoff Fear saying “the hardest part was to make it look as factory as possible”.

The Drift Bus started life as a humble standard diesel iMax. Like Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins, it had enjoyed a quiet, comfortable existence, yet was about to be thrown into a life of adventure through no fault of its own.