Ford said the 2024 Mustang would have a “drift brake,” a hydraulic hand brake for the back wheels. Customers who want to buy a Mustang must choose the Performance Pack with the Performance Electronic Parking Brake. Vaughn Gitlin Jr., the Formula Drift champion, helped make this feature, but we don’t know how much more it will cost. Ford has kept giving out information as the seventh-generation Mustang gets closer to being made. A company in Dearborn, Michigan, just came out with a new brake feature that will help young people who want to learn how to drift practice their skills—on a closed track. The rear-wheel hydraulic hand brake is called a “drift brake” by Ford. (There’s a joke coming up about a Mustang that loses control during a wild drift.) The drift brake comes standard on Mustangs with the Performance Pack. The Performance Electronic Parking Brake is also part of the Performance Pack (PEPB, henceforth). The PEPB looks like a standard hand lever for the parking brake, but it is an electrical switch. Unlike most modern cars, there is no cable connecting the back brakes. Instead, it usually engages an electronic parking brake when it is used. When the drift brake is turned on, it does something different. When the drift brake is used, the stability-controlled controller, which controls all brakes when ABS or stability control is on, is bypassed. This causes hydraulic line pressure to lock the back brakes. Similar systems are used in professional drift cars but use mechanical levers. Why not use the hand brake, like you have done since the 1980s, in Fox-body cars? You can, but older parking brakes are controlled by a cable using a mechanical system on top of the hydraulic sliding rear calipers, shoes in a disc brake cap, or a tiny caliper that works independently. All of them are kept from being pulled quickly and repeatedly. Pro drifters Vaughn Gitlin, Jr. and Chelsea Denorfia discuss drift brake changes in this Ford video. At some point, someone might say, “100 bar.” Hydraulic line pressure is implied. Still, since Ford has already used computers to simulate a hydraulic handbrake, we assume it’s not even close to the drift brake’s total capacity. Ford Performance had the Drift Stick for the Focus RS in the past (RIP). It did the same thing, but a different lever bolted into the cabin controlled it. Focus rear brake calipers received 180 bar from the Ford Drift Stick. Ford no longer sells the Drift Stick. Ford should be praised for creating a fun feature for the enthusiast market. If you get a 2024 Mustang, please practice at home before trying to show it to a crowd because some people will initially get it wrong. So, that’s it.
