Driven to drift

Peyton Young ’27 engineers a hobby into an automotive career.

Words by Erika Holter

Peyton Young '27

When a car starts to skid, most drivers panic; they might try to grip the wheel and slam the brakes, trying to regain control. 

Peyton Young ’27 has trained herself to do the opposite. She leans into it, turning the wheel, hitting the throttle, and sending her car sideways through the turn — a driving technique otherwise known as drifting.

Recalling her first exposure to drifting two years ago, Young says she was “immediately flabbergasted.” At the time, she didn’t yet know what drifting was. She was at a local car meet, an informal gathering of auto enthusiasts, when she wandered into the pit area of a track. It was there that a vehicle caught her eye. Standing beside it was a woman driver. “I told her, ‘Your car is so cool,’” Young recalls. “And she said, ‘I have an extra helmet if you want to hop in.’” 

Minutes later, Young was in the passenger seat, strapped in, and trusting a stranger. As the car launched into its first drift, everything changed. “The excitement, the butterflies, the feeling of being sideways, the speed,” she says. “I had never experienced a thrill like that before.”

A mechanical engineering major, Young has long had a passion for cars. What began as simply driving her trusty 2021 Camaro V8 SS to car meets soon became something more immersive once she discovered the motorsport of drifting.

She began attending drifting events regularly, carving out a role by shooting photos and videos for drivers. But soon it wasn’t enough to watch from behind a lens. When the opportunity arose to buy her own drift car, she didn’t hesitate.

Enter her 2000 BMW E46: well-used and far from showroom condition, with its patchwork of multicolored body panels, bold stickers, and even a disco ball. Young had to put in significant hands-on work to make her car drift-ready.

She spent months adding suspension components to lower its center of gravity, angle kits to aid steering, and hydraulics to allow the rear brakes to lock. Since car maintenance and modifications are essential to drifting, Young taught herself everything from the ground up — researching online, leaning on friends, and applying theories from her engineering courses. “I had no idea what I was doing,” Young recalls. “I would watch videos or call my mechanic friends and ask, ‘Can you just show me the first time, and then I’ll do the rest?’ I call myself ‘YouTube certified.’”

Young spent nearly every day for six months modifying the car between classes. The process laid the foundation for both her confidence behind the wheel and her growing mechanical skill set.

For Young, drifting isn’t just a weekend pursuit, it’s become a defining part of how she approaches her future. While she initially developed an interest in cars long before college, it was her real-time experience with drifting that solidified her path in mechanical engineering. Her coursework, in turn, has played a critical role in helping her advance as a driver and builder. “The car aspect is definitely what drew me to mechanical engineering,” she says. “But I’ve used a lot of what I’ve learned in my classes to help with fixing and improving my car.”

She is a member of TCNJ’s car club, Roar Performance Motors, a growing community of about 50 students who gather in campus parking lots to share ideas, compare builds, and discuss all things automotive. “It’s really cool to see how many people are into cars here,” she says. “You just start talking to someone in the parking lot, and suddenly you’ve found your people.”

During drift season, which typically runs from April to November, Young’s schedule is jam-packed. She spends her weekdays repairing, upgrading, and troubleshooting, with weekends reserved for the track. Some events last a single day, while others stretch across full weekends. She also attends events like Formula Drift, North America’s premier drifting championship series, where she continues to study the sport as a spectator and push herself to improve. She aspires to compete at the local level.

Recently, Young made a change to support that goal. While she remains proud of her well-worn BMW E46 — with its mismatched panels and unmistakable personality — she has since purchased an unmodified 2006 Nissan 350Z — a faster, more reliable platform she can build from square one as she continues to improve her skills. And one that she hopes to make just as distinctive as her first.

One thing has become clear the more she’s immersed herself in drifting culture: It’s still a space largely dominated by men. While that might intimidate some, Young sees it as an opportunity to stand out. “There are definitely fewer women than men in motorsports,” she says. “I think some of it comes from the stigma. It can feel like you don’t fit in. But, personally, I like that I’m different.”

Through her emerging presence in the drifting scene — including local media coverage — Young has found herself unexpectedly being a source for other women looking to get involved. “I’ve had a lot of girls reach out to me, asking how to break in,” she says.

Her answer is simple: show up and ask questions, just like she did.

Young hopes to pursue a career in the automotive industry, potentially designing vehicles or manufacturing high-performance parts. Her experience in the drifting community, combined with the technical foundation she’s building at TCNJ, has already given her a head start. And while her long-term career may take her into automotive design labs or production facilities, she has no plans to leave drifting behind.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” Young says. “Drifting never fails to amaze me.” 

Photos: Hannah Yoon