Ford has stated that a drift brake, which is essentially a hydraulic hand brake for the rear wheels, will be available as an extra on the 2024 Mustang. Buyers of the Ford Mustang can acquire a Performance Electronic Parking Brake by opting for the Performance Pack. The creation of this feature included Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin, Jr., albeit the cost is unknown at this time. Ford has resumed releasing a trickle of information on the seventh-generation Mustang as manufacturing nears. The Dearborn, Michigan company has introduced a new braking system that will be useful for aspiring young drifters practising on a restricted circuit. Ford calls it a “drift brake,” but it’s really just a rear-wheel hydraulic hand brake. (We know there’s a joke about a Mustang crashing during a deliberately dangerous but hilarious drift; please wait.) Mustangs with the Performance Pack, which contains the Performance Electronic Parking Brake, also include a drift brake (PEPB, henceforth). The PEPB seems to be a conventional parking brake lever, but operates via an electrical switch. Unlike most modern vehicles, the rear brakes are not connected by a cable. The usual operation of it triggers an electronic parking brake. When the drift brake is engaged, however, it serves a different purpose. The drift brake locks the rear brakes via hydraulic line pressure, bypassing the stability-controlled controller (the unit that controls all brakes when ABS or stability control is active). Professional drift cars have a mechanical lever with a similar function. Why not just use the hand brake like you have every time you’ve driven a Fox-body vehicle since the 1980s? Well, you can, but traditional cable-operated parking brakes work by adding a mechanical system on top of the hydraulic rear sliding callipers or by using shoes in the disc brake’s hat. None of those are designed to be rapidly pulled repeatedly. The video clips were taken from youTube and imported. You could find the same material in a different format, or even more material, on their website. Professional drifters Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and Chelsea DeNofa were featured in a film made by Ford, in which they discussed the finer points of setting the drift brake. The phrase “100 bar” is audibly mentioned once. As this isn’t the first time Ford has employed the wizardry of computers to simulate a hydraulic hand brake, we can safely assume that this is far from the maximum accessible to the drift brake. Drift Sticks for the Focus RS were originally offered by Ford Performance (RIP). A similar lever, this one fixed into the cabin, was employed to perform the same function. The Drift Stick, which is no longer sold by Ford, supplied around 180 bar to the Focus’s rear brake callipers. Ford deserves credit for making an entertaining addition for the avid-driver demographic. Some people will get it horribly wrong at first, so if you get a 2024 Mustang, make sure to get plenty of practise in when no one is watching. Now you have it. K.C. Colwell, executive editor of Car and Driver, covers new vehicles and technologies with a discerning eye for automotive nonsense and, he says modestly, “amazing car sense.” Someone at C/D in 2004 gave him the keys to a Porsche 911 without checking to see if he was licenced to drive. He is also a quick driver, having participated in C/Lightning D’s Lap test every year. Post navigation A Powerful New Formula for the 2023 BMW M2 Orange and production-ready, the Genesis GV80 Coupe Concept is here.