ONE of the world’s best drift racers has spoken of the exhilaration of using the 'crazy' Magic Roundabout for his latest stunt.

Plumes of smoke could be seen as ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett sped twice around the town’s landmark in the early hours while a Red Bull film crew captured the footage for a video celebrating Swindon.

During his stellar career he has drifted a car up a mountain range in his native New Zealand and powerslid across a frozen lake in Japan.

But now he has added another feat to his CV by becoming the first ever person to drift a car around the roundabout, which was closed to the public for filming between 3am and 5am one day last month.

“This is one of the craziest roundabouts I’ve ever discovered,” he said.

His challenge was to burst onto the quirky roundabout at high speed and then drift his way through the various obstacles, including traffic islands, drains and elevation changes.

A special car was needed for the job, which is why Mike chose his BadBul - the 800bhp-plus Mazda RX8 that he won Red Bull Drift Shifters event with in 2014.

The bespoke car is reportedly worth around £225,000.

Mike added: “This place is crazy, there are so many islands and obstacles.

"It's a real challenge to come flying into this roundabout as fast as we can, drift around it and then head straight back out the other side.

“For the entry into the roundabout, we come in in fourth gear, so it’s high speed.

"We come flying around a big long section and I wanted to make that really dynamic and really fast.”

Police officers and security guarded the area and County Road was among the roads partially closed off as people gathered to get a glimpse of the action, including taxi driver Chris Hale who said it was ‘incredible’.

“For car setup, when you come into something like this, we actually take grip out of the car,” Mike added.

“For competition, we want the car to be as fast, as explosive and to have as much grip as possible. But when you’re doing these sorts of activations, even the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you take grip out of the car so that there’s less stress on the drivetrain.

“The last time we used the BadBul was for Red Bull Drift Shifters 2014, and we came away with the win.

"We brought it over to the UK for the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed just to bring something unique to the event, and a change from the past two years where we’ve had the RX7.

“This thing runs a three-rotor, big Garrett GTX45 turbo that boosts well over 800bhp at the tyre.”

As the Adver previously reported, some residents living nearby are outraged the council agreed to the filming, which woke them up at 3am.

Swindon Advertiser: