Nowadays, girls driving a car is nothing strange, but still there are some who force you to say “wow”. We decided to interview one girl like these and she was pleased to share her story. Probably, most of you heard about great, sports cars driving, Ramona Rusu from the Romania. The conversation was in English, so you can enjoy this girl’s simplicity and admiration for cars by reading this original text or translated to Lithuanian language here.
Please, tell me who are you like every day? Tell me more about you as a person.
Ramona Rusu: I’m a simple person and I get happy from the little things like nature, long joyrides with my cars, family, and a lot more. It’s a very difficult question because I could name many things that are important to me and what define me, but I would still put cars in the first place. Because that’s me, we grow together.
Your garage – what car do you drive. Why? What caused your choice?
Ramona Rusu: I do own more cars, one is Ford Probe that I call my first love with it I did go to “Tunning Shows“.
the Mazda MX5 for “time-attack” races.
The BMW E30 for Drift competitions.
And the Subaru GC8 with which I did make my debut in a Winter Rally competition and which I dream to prepare as a “Hillclimb” car. I chose more brands because they make, and have made incredible cars. Some cars just speak to you, because they are special, have character. If you limit yourself to a certain brand or country of origin, I think you’ll miss out on a lot of good cars!
How did you come into the cars? Why drift?
Ramona Rusu: Well, I will tell you a short story. I was attracted to cars since I was a little girl, I always loved cars that were different, and I always searched for unique cars on the street hoping that when I’m 18 and get my license, I could own and work on my own car. My dream since I was little was an Opel Manta, unfortunately, I never owned this car because before I turned 18 I fell in love, with a Ford Probe! It was my first car and it is still my soul car, I did a lot of work on it, put all my time and love in it for many years.
I started to tune it and one day I was invited to some car shows to show my car, and I did. There I met a lot of car lovers and people from whom I learned a lot, sharing the same dreams. After some years of going to the car shows, there was a drift race in the same area where I was presenting my Ford Probe, and I was amazed how those guys drove their cars because I never saw drifting in real life, just from some Japanese footage. I asked a friend of mine if there was a chance for me to sit in the passenger seat for a lap to see how he drives from the inside. My dream came true… I WAS AMAZED, for me it was like going on a rollercoaster. After that lap, I knew “Great, this is what I want to learn!”
All I knew, I needed an RWD car and one of my dream cars was a Mazda MX5. Soon enough I bought an MX5, welded the differential and started “sliding around”. I must admit, I was very bad at it, I hit the car so many times, but I never stopped trying and pushing myself.
Soon after I realized that it was hard to drift the 115HP MX5 and I started searching online on how to tune the engine, but everything I found was too expensive for my budget so I started searching scrap yards for a turbo and other supporting parts. After finding and buying everything I needed, work started. With those parts and a good remap the MX5 made 183HP, pretty good for a 900KG car. Finally, I started to see smoke from my rear tires and started to go harder on the track. But because the level was so high, I knew that if I wanted to compete, I needed a better car set up. So, later I chose to modify my BMW E30 that I’m still racing now, with the E39 M5 V8.
I don’t just compete in drift races, I also race my MX5 in Time Attack and Rally Sprint. My big wish is to one day compete in Hillclimb races for what I started to prepare a Subaru GC8, but, for now, my budget doesn’t allow that.
Any funny stories regarding the autosport or driving?
Ramona Rusu: Funny stories… That’s hard! But I can tell you for sure the most memorable and happy moment. It was back in 2014 at the finals, after I was called 5 times to the podium, winning the Hungarian Championship in the Street Class, winning the Queen of Europe Championship, and being Vice Champion at the King of Europe SL!
But don’t be fooled, it was not winning that made me most happy… Seeing my mechanic and my friends’ happiness, tears, being proud, that made the moment amazing and I will always have it in my heart as a beautiful memory. All the hard work paid off, I could see it on their faces!
Future plans and ambitions ?
Ramona Rusu: First of all, I do wish to stay healthy and powerful so I can continue what I started. And the rest I will keep a little bit as a surprise so you can follow me on ” RamonaRusuDrift “
Photography credits: DubluQ, Raluca Balaban, CarsAndGirls.hu, Vio Gantner Photography, Szabó Attila, Zoomin’ photos, Paunescu Sebastian, Ciprian Mihai Photography, Laszlo Padar Photography
