Building a world-beating drift car is neither easy nor cheap. Just asked 2010 Formula Drift Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr., whose Monster Energy/Falken Tire Mustang cost literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, maintain, and race. But the fame that comes with winning a series like Formula Drift comes with all sorts of perks, as Gittin quickly found out.

Since winning Formula Drift, Gittin has participated in events like Ford’s Octane Academy, as well contests like the Falken Tire Mustang Giveaway. But perhaps cooler than either of those events is the fact that Gittin had a chance to design and build his own Mustang, the RTR-X…and HPI Racing turned it into a toy.

Yup, Gittin now has a scaled-down replica of his ‘69 Mustang-based RTR-X drift car. We followed the build of the RTR-X with a lot of enthusiasm, and now HPI has scaled the awesomeness of that Mustang down into a unique, R/C car that can race and drift nearly as well as the real deal.

Don’t believe us? Just watch the video. Sure, it may lack that visceral Mustang growl, but that doesn’t make these stunts or tricks any less cool. The scaled-down Mustang RTR-X is serious business on the track, though even as a custom job it costs just a fraction of what Gittin’s full-scale Mustang costs. But hey, that was a cool video, was it not?