The Nappy Boy Automotive 2025 Ford Mustang RTR Convertible: T-Pain is Skirtin’ in a ‘Vert

If you want a works level drift car, there really are only two camps you can talk to: Papadakis Racing and RTR Vehicles. With his connections in the industry, T-Pain is no stranger to the world of drifting and knowing one of these two would make perfect sense. Now, during Formula Drift Road Atlanta, we see that his next drift car of choice is a 2025 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D convertible. Let’s look at this unique drift car with an equally unique driver owning it.

Before We Go Further

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T-Pain is Drifting

For those unfamiliar, T-Pain has a long history of enthusiasm in the automotive industry and drifting. Around 2018, he took a lesson in drifting with none other than Chelsea DeNofa, former RTR Team driver now but at the time was under Vaughn Gittin, Jr’s Ford-branded banner. Since then, he’s owned several drift-oriented vehicles like a BMW 3-Series E46, a Mazda RX-7 FC3S, a Nissan 240SX S14, and a Mustang RTR Spec 2. That last one was from 2023 and had a solid roof over his head, but it looks like his next competition level car will be dropping the top. Literally.

The Office

With plenty of experience under his helmet, it was time for T-Pain to get something that matched his skill level. But, unlike RTRs usual choice of a hardtop 2025 Mustang, the Grammy winning artist instead chose a convertible. Once the chassis was in the hands of the RTR Vehicles team, it was stripped of the gubbins and rebuilt as a Spec 5-D Formula Drift Pro car. Nearly all the interior is stripped away to make room for the FD-spec roll cage and required remnants of the dashboard. The steering column is replaced with a competition spec version with an MPI Fun Haver wheel in place of the airbag equipped Ford piece.

A digital instrument panel does remain, but it’s nothing like the original Blue Oval unit. This is a Haltech uC-10 digital dashboard with a Haltech CAN Keypad that controls ancillary functions like the lights, wipers, fuel pump, and other related electronics. Locking up the rear wheels is a DriftHQ hydraulic handbrake that sits just to the right of the steering wheel while a Tremec shifter is just below that. Finally, the seats are replaced by a pair of Recaro race seats and a six-point harness holding he and his passengers in the seat.

The Convertible Still Needs a Carbon Diet

Even without the roof and the associated gear needed to raise and lower the top, weight needs to be shed off this Mustang RTR. From the hood, fenders, doors, bumpers, and decklid, everything is replaced by carbon fiber. This includes the custom set of “speedhumps” that do double duty as ducts to drive air into the rear-mounted radiator and other heat exchangers that reside in the trunk area. These carbon parts are then shot in a bright pink exterior that fades into the natural carbon weave and a street map of Tallahassee, Florida–the hometown of T-Pain.

Further, the wheels are a set of 18-inch Aero 5 wheels that are used on the FD Pro cars, but the tires for his car are a set of Falkens with Azenis RT660+ units in 275/35R18 wrapping the fronts and Azenis RT615K+ tires in 295/40R18 rear. These Falkens are kept planted to the road with a FD-spec suspension setup from BC Racing.

This Isn’t a Toy

To further drive home that this simply isn’t just a show car for T-Pain to play around in, the original 5.0-liter V8 has been upgraded to its logical conclusion for drifting. Rather than rely on displacement or turbos, the Nappy Boy Automotive RTR Spec 5-D is equipped with a Whipple Gen 5 3.0-liter Supercharger system. This includes an air-to-water intercooler with its heat exchanger joining the radiator in the back. When tuned to its maximum potential, this droptop RTR comp car can hit 1,000 horsepower, well within the same power as the FD Pro cars that RTR supplies to James Deane and Ben Hobson for the 2025 season.

Again, this isn’t a toy and T-Pain has every intention to drive his new competition car around the nation at various drift and other automotive events during the 2025 season.