Vaughn Gittin Jr. is a busy man. A semi-retired and two-time Formula Drift PRO Champion, Gittin still makes cameo competition appearances in that world in the Monster Energy Ford Mustang Spec 5-FD.
In addition, Gittin lined up and competed in the 2026 Baja 500 in Ensenada, Mexico in an Ultra4 Ford Bronco Raptor. And he has not slow up from there.
Gittin is also the founder and mastermind behind RTR Vehicles. Better known as Ready to Rock Vehicles, Gittin and company scheme up, build and research & drift OEM performance parts, tuning packages and specialized editions of Ford vehicles. And that’s exactly what Gittin has been up to as of late, he and his deft RTR Vehicles team just coming hot off a collaboration in developing the 315-horsepower, 10-speed 2026 Ford Mustang RTR.
“Drift optimized” by Gittin and his cast of gearhead characters, the 46 year-old has been out and about and letting his 10 million social media followers literally see what he has been up to.
“Man, I’m just leaving a camping trip with the family to go to an appearance at one of RTR’s top Ford dealers, Tindol Ford in North Carolina,” explained Gittin. “Then I’m waking up in the morning and heading to Holley Ford Fest in Kentucky. It’s just an all-Ford event and festival. We’ll be there doing some drifting with Ben Hobson and just putting on a show and giving some rides and hanging out with my people. I love the culture and the community with this stuff, you know? And I think they love me.
“I just love being out there and preforming and inspiring and giving experiences of what I love to do behind the wheel. I’m just having fun. This is why I got into this in the first place. It’s just fun to be able to be an enthusiast and enjoying our creations.”
After all, Gittin is the self-proclaimed “Professional Fun Haver.”
“That’s it,” he declared with a smile on his face. “And fortunately the type of fun I like has been able to be a career where I can I put smiles on faces. I just love being integrated with the culture on all levels.”
Researched and developed (and drifted) over a four year period before the RTR outfit was ready to let it see the light of day, the 2026 Ford Mustang RTR has been a full-on labor of love for Gittin and crew.
“It’s an absolute dream project,” he smiled. “We just launched it. In fact we just had the media day in Northern California where we really kind of took the cover off it and let media from all over the world drive it. They fell in love with it, seemingly from the headlines they wrote.
“Really, up to this moment, our business model has been that we take a Ford product, like this Mustang or a Bronco, and build parts for it and kind of evolve a Ford-based product into something for an enthusiast that demands more and a different style and a little different approach to performance,” furthered Gittin. “Now I have a vehicle that comes directly off the production line with Ford that we collaborated and designed with Ford. We were sharing engineering duties and sharing design duties and sharing and executing ideas together.
“You know this makes us only the second company in the 60 years of Mustang to partner with Ford on a factory built Mustang,” Gittin continued on. “The other company is one everyone knows, which is Shelby. It’s very rare air. I knew we would get here when we started RTR. I didn’t know how, but here we are.”
Gittin did a deep dive on just what he and his crew went to work on in developing the striking Mustang RTR.
“This car is an all-around and entry level enthusiast vehicle,” explained Gittin. “It’s not a drift car, but we did optimize it to be what I believe to be the greatest drift experience off of a showroom vehicle that you can get. We left no stone unturned. We modified the software and computer systems. We put anti-lag in the car. We enhanced the suspension. Every car comes with a Drift Brake. We stiffened the chassis up. It’s a really incredible package on the performance side.
“When it comes to RTR, style is one of our fortes, and very humbly I say, I think it is one of the most bad ass looking Mustangs that’s on the market today. Also, one of the most important aspects of this product was to make it attainable. This is, without a doubt, the most bad ass attainable turbocharged Mustangs Ford has ever produced. It starts at around $41,000. All of our spec line of vehicles are a bit more expensive and not as attainable.
“This is really that availability for a lot of the younger demographic that don’t have a pile of money to be able to get into the enthusiast culture and enjoy the types of things that I enjoy behind the wheel. It definitely ticks the box for both RTR and Ford and me personally. It really is a perfect case scenario. You know we have a Bronco along the same mindset that’s coming out in January and people can start ordering it here very soon. Yeah, it’s an absolute pinch me moment, you know? I’m excited for the market to get their hands on it and for us to be able to continue creating cool shit for the masses together.
“You know for me right now, I love creating. I love creating vehicles and I love creating experiences and experiences inside existing events. And then I also love competing at the top level. That’s what I’m gong to keep doing and what my team is going to keep doing. At the end of the day, it’s just an honor to be a part of this culture. To be the person I am and where I am in all this is an absolute dream and I just want to keep chasing that dream and pushing it and seeing how far we can go on all fronts.”
Gittin is still making things happen behind the wheel on the competition side of it all.
“Yeah, well right now I have had a really good year,” said Gittin. “We won the Mint 400. Our team won at Crandon. We’ve been sitting second in points in Formula Drift as a team. Me, personally, I won Formula Drift in Atlanta at my first round. Coming up in October is the Formula Drift finals at Long Beach. I’m hoping to repeat what I did in Atlanta there. After that I go home for a little bit with the family and then it’s all eyes on the Baja 1000.
“I’ll be testing for Baja the week before Long Beach. From there I’ll head out for the 1000. I’ll be racing with Ford Racing and Brad Lovell and Loren Healy. We’re the three drivers. The vehicle we are racing will be debuted and shown at Raptor Rally coming up in Lake Havasu. I’m hoping to back up last year’s win at the 1000 and show that Raptor is an incredible platform to not only enjoy the day to day, but to get off into the wild and have some fun.”
Gittin is interested in competing in Trophy Trucks.
“Yeah, funny thing you say that. We have a Trophy Truck being built right now,” Gittin said. “It is a project that is being done at our new off-road facility in Farmington, New Mexico. The truck is a different approach to Trophy Trucks. We think we’ve got a really cool recipe that ‘s going to allow us to be pretty competitive. We’ve got a lot to learn in that space, but between Loren and our entire team from learning from the last 20 years of off-road, we think we’ve got a pretty cool recipe. We’re excited.
“We’re not in a rush. We don’t really have a plan of debut. We’re kind of picking at the project. I think we’re probably going to see it out somewhere next year. We’ll see where it goes.”
