《牛人》Vaughn | 繫好安全帶，大神帶你體驗漂移 #探險 #旅遊 #出行

I'm Vaughn Deaton Jr., world champion drifter, professional fun-haver, the driver of this beautiful Ford Mustang RTR behind me, and also the visionary and owner of RTR. Congratulations. I know a lot of people have said that, but it's always going to be something that I personally can't imagine that. It's just mind-blowing of having a kid that you can guide through and essentially direct his life in a way. Amazing. He's already almost two months old now, which it seems like yesterday he was born. It's definitely like an instant change in you that happens. And I obviously, with him, I would love for him to enjoy the things that I enjoy, so I'm hoping to inspire him with traveling and enjoying and trying new things that maybe he isn't interested. But at the end of the day, it's something that he'll decide if he wants to do what it is that I want to do or not. But you better believe, as soon as possible, he's going to be in a little electric car having some fun. So I guess you're saying that you're putting a little bit more focus on the family? The priorities do shift a bit, right? So when I'm leaving, maybe I would stay an extra day in the city, but now I want to get home as soon as I can to the family. And there is a big challenge of work-life balance, even before having Gunnar. Yeah, you have been doing this for almost two decades now. Almost, yeah. I've been in it since basically 2000 is when I learned of drifting and really sparked that interest in me. That actually relates to a question from the 4China fans. One of them asked, how did you overcome the transition between quitting your former job and becoming a pro drifter? Yeah, so that was a really big decision. I was in the computer industry, I was in IT. I was IT director for an economic consulting firm just outside of DC. I was making good money and that is what allowed me to build my first car and really start competing a little bit. But once I started getting into it, I was just kind of like one foot in my real-life job and then one foot in my passion. It must have been difficult. Yeah, and it was taxing on time, but it also felt like I wasn't giving my all to my job and I wasn't giving my all to my passion. And so I just kind of felt, you know, hey, I'm going to take this risk and absolute worst case scenario, I can always go back to the job, I'm not going to lose my brain. I always suggest to people, you know, keep a very clear vision of passion and reality and you have to find that perfect balance because passion is like a drug and you will do whatever it takes to get and achieve that passion, but sometimes a little patience will go a long way to not overextend yourself and, you know, put yourself out there too much. So balance is key. Then where do you think that you originally found the passion? Like where did you either learn or kind of like, you know, find yourself in the situation where, oh, I really love drifting? Sure, yeah. I mean, it started with my father for sure and my dad was a used car salesman and he always had like cool hot rods, you know, he was a car guy. I got my first, I got a go-kart when I was four and it was a little like junky little yard cart, but it had this little like paddle brake and it would, you pull it and it pushed these metal things down the tires and would lock the rear tires. So I just remember being little and I would just and then pull it and I just liked that sliding feeling. And then, you know, my dad would take me out to the street races or we'd go to like a parking lot and do donuts and I always wanted him to like spin the tires. So when I was 18, I got a rear wheel drive car and I used to just go in industrial parks and slide around and have fun, you know, in open, safe areas, no traffic, things like that. And then I started seeing the sport of drifting and I was so amazed with the sport that you could show your style and personality. I love cars, I love, you know, being creative and being me and it allowed me to do that. And as I started going to some events and not only did I fall in love with the sport, but I fell in love with the people and the culture around it. It's just such good camaraderie and good vibes and very, you know, like-minded people, you know, it's just super, super cool. And I just fell in love with it and that's when I realized it's what I wanted to do. So would you say that you started drifting as a four-year-old? I would say that everything that I've done in my life led up to me having the passion that I do. But there is always going to be risk involved in, you know. Oh yeah. Yeah, I don't necessarily think so much about the risks. You know, I'm a very positive guy so I just focus on the outcomes that I want. You know, I know that there is danger, things can happen, but, you know, I'm really a believer that like the things that you focus on and put your energy towards are the things that will happen. You have to essentially focus your energy on, you know, doing this instead of worrying about, you know, the Murphy Theory essentially, you know, not worrying about the risk. But do you have like a regular practice routine that makes sure that you are, you know, saving, I mean, you know, safe and I guess knowing what you do when drifting? I do CrossFit so I try to, you know, stay as fit as I can and I also focus on eating very well and, you know, making sure that my mind and body are fueled so that when I'm in these, you know, in these instances and I can think as fast as I possibly need to and everything can process and I don't get any brain blocks, you know, because that's when stupid mistakes happen. So not think so much and more so just like be in the moment and trust that everything that I've done and all the training I've done leading up to that point has prepared me. So were you ever injured during one of these crashes? No, I've never had knock on tires here. I've never had any serious injury from a car crash. Yeah, I've knocked myself out a couple times and, you know, like a little bit of like soreness in my neck from racing like maybe my off-road truck and just going through rough rocks and things like that. But, you know, these cars are built safe, you know, I mean the stock Mustang out of the dealership is a very safe car. We take that car and turn it into this, we put a roll cage in it, you know, these things are built because we're driving inches from walls. We know we're going to have to repair them. We know that there's a chance to have an accident, so. Wow, 15 and 16, almost two decades without a major injury. That's correct. Let's keep it that. Let's keep it that way. Let's make it three, four, five. Let's do it. I know that you recently purchased a new Ford GT. Yeah. How do you like that? What an amazing car. You know, I pinch myself every time I walk in my garage and see it because never in my life did I think that I would have a car like that. But when I got the opportunity to buy the Ford GT, when I was told that I was chosen from my application, I was just ecstatic. And then I had to figure out how to pay for it. And I, you know, I sold a lot of things that I had around and made it work and made the big investment. And I got to tell you, it's the most unbelievable driving experience I've ever had. I mean, I've driven some amazing things, but from just the car and what it does and offers to the driver is something phenomenal. I mean, Ford is doing an incredible job with all their vehicles, but the GT was just like a next level, you know, it's like a spaceship on the road, honestly. So it's very cool. One of my favorite things to do is give people rides in it, let them experience it because it's just such a special car. Would you modify it? I've put some RTR wheels on it, but it doesn't need anything more. I mean, it's just absolutely perfect. So would this one be a Ford Mustang RTR? Yes. So RTR is my company. And we make turnkey Mustangs that would be available in the showroom at Ford dealers. And we make awesome race cars. The vehicles that we sell and make available are, like you see over here, this is our RTR spec 2. But all of our vehicles that we build start as an RTR of some sort. So my race cars are based off of our Ford Mustang RTR spec 5. And RTR stands for Ready to Rock? Yeah, RTR stands for Ready to Rock. For me, it's a lifestyle. It's my approach, right? Ready to Rock to me means ready for anything. You know, say it'll be a regular vehicle that you're going to personalize, which part do you think you care about the most? There's two things. The first one is wheels. It's got to have a cool set of wheels on it. For me, I need a vehicle that can perform. For instance, I have a Ford Raptor at home. Ford Performance did a great job with the performance. There's not much I need to change on the performance. I did change the wheels. Wheels and tires. Because I know there's a lot of Chinese sports fans who kind of worship this motto by Kobe Bryant of, you know, we're here because it's 4 a.m., because he practices, you know, works out and all that before everybody's awake. Do you kind of believe in that mentality? Absolutely. I mean, work ethic is what earns the results. So for me, it's just like the whole, like everything that it takes to be a professional athlete, the business, the skill, you know, the mindset, like those are things that I focus on. And, you know, my work ethic is, you know, the reason why I've been able to climb to the top is because my work ethic is, I believe, better or more than others that aren't there yet. Similar to Kobe Bryant. You know, his mindset. You have to work hard if you want the results, and I just had that built in me. It's honestly not even something I try or consciously do. It's just me. Now that we're kind of in the technicality area, I'm going to put like maybe three for shotgun questions of like just drifting, I guess, technical problems that I got from the 4China fans. So one of them is, how do manual and auto transmission differ when drifting? Yeah, so manual transmission, obviously you're in full control of what gear the car is in at all times. The other benefit to manual transmission, you have a clutch. Ford, the new Mustangs have a 10-speed transmission, which is very cool. Very fast shifting, paddle shifters, and you can put it in manual mode, so you can control the gear. So both of them work very well, but you lose the clutch. So you're not, you don't have the capability to do the clutch kicks and bring the RPMs up. You have to just more focus on your throttle modulation and never get into a situation where you need to dip the clutch or kick the clutch. So both of them work. For me, drifting, manual is preferred. Here are some other fan questions. They like to call you either JR or sometimes they call you the master, because that's the thing that Chinese young people do. They call people da shen, or in roughly translated, the master, or if you translate directly, a god. Interesting. Right. For people who are really... Well, thank you. Thank you. So they have a question. What's your next match? What's the master's next match? So my next battle is Long Beach. So we have our Formula Drift season opener this year in April. It's downtown streets of Long Beach. It's our yearly season opener, and it's a really, really good, fun event. So I'm looking forward to it. We've been making a lot of changes in the off-season to increase the performance of our Mustangs. The sport is just on a crazy progression. So this year we're coming and we like to think that we're resetting the bar, and we're going to bring the power this year and really, really bring something for our competitors to try to fight for. I mean, it sounds like you're taking initiative, too. Oh, yeah. And we've been working very hard. You mentioned some of these, but what do you think are the must-have attributes of a professional drifter? Passion. Confidence. And the ability to accept failure and defeat and all of it. How do you compare drag racing and drift racing? I'm asking this because there used to be some drifting events in China, some that you attended before. A lot of them are getting replaced by drag racing. So how do you compare the two? What do you think is the biggest difference? Sure. Well, I think, obviously, drag racing is just going in a straight line. Drifting is left to right and sideways. And frankly, drifting takes more talent behind the wheel. Anyone can jump in a car and go in a straight line. Now, I'm not discounting drag racing in any way because at the higher levels, there are quite a handful to hold on. But I think it really just comes down to what people enjoy. If you're getting the fulfillment of trying to shave those tenths of a second and leave the light and get that better reaction time and get those little increments and that fulfills you and the feeling is good, keep drag racing. If you're looking for something more and you want to challenge yourself more and you really want to start working with your suspension and tuning your car and having that kind of enjoyment. Do you have any plan to go to China for a drifting performance or drifting match for all your Chinese fans? Yeah. You know, I went to China a lot from about 2011 to 2014-ish. And I really enjoyed it. And it was a World Drift Series and I had WDS and they haven't been running events and frankly, there just hasn't been opportunity to go over there. I would love to come back and do something and have some fun and a very, very happy New Year. I hope that you guys fulfill all your dreams, good health, good wealth, and whatever you want to do in your career and life. I hope you're able to work hard enough to make it happen.