BMW’s Munich plant isn’t exactly a place you’d expect to see tire smoke — but that’s exactly what happened when Elias Hountondji of the Red Bull Driftbrothers, brought his new BMW M2 Drift Competition inside the factory. The short film, shot on-site at BMW Group Plant Munich, follows Hountondji sliding the 1,100-horsepower M2 through the production line while the car itself is being assembled. Panels, bumpers, doors, and even the hood are installed in real time as the car keeps drifting through the sequence.
Drifting Through The Production Line
The stunt was orchestrated down to the millimeter. Hountondji slides the M2 between robotic arms, tool stations, and forklifts, sometimes with just millimeters to spare. Grip levels changed constantly across the plant’s mixed floor surfaces — from smooth concrete to polished epoxy — forcing him to adapt the throttle and steering on the fly. One of the best moments is a magnesium “wall tap” that sends sparks flying across the factory floor while the car stays fully sideways.
1,100 Horsepower, Built to Drift
The M2 itself isn’t remotely standard. Built by the Driftbrothers’ own 229performance workshop, it uses BMW M’s S58 twin-turbo straight-six, tuned to deliver more than 1,100 horsepower and around 1,250 Nm of torque. The car has been built from the ground up for professional drift competition and will make its racing debut in the 2026 Drift Masters European Championship.
Under the hood, the S58 engine has been heavily reworked for sustained drift abuse. There’s an enlarged cooling system, a reinforced and modified engine block, additional chassis bracing and strut supports, and countless other upgrades to handle extreme heat and lateral loads. Every modification serves a purpose — keeping the car reliable even when it’s spinning tires at full throttle for minutes at a time.
After its factory run, the BMW M2 Drift Competition will be displayed at BMW Welt in Munich from October 23 to November 5, 2025.
The Driftbrothers’ BMW Connection
The Red Bull Driftbrothers have been working with BMW M for several years. They first partnered in 2021 to develop a pair of BMW M4 Competition drift cars powered by the same S58 engine. Those cars were campaigned in the Drift Masters European Championship and became a showcase of BMW’s M engineering adapted for competitive drifting.
Their M2 Drift Competition is the next evolution of that partnership — smaller, more powerful, and built with lessons learned from years of racing and development. With this latest project, the Hountondji brothers continue to impress us with their skillset, and the G87 M2 works best for that. [Photos: BMW M / Fabian Kirchbauer]
