From Sims to Skies: How Maciej Chmurski Chases Speed on 4 Wheels and No Wheels at All

A friend once took Maciej Chmurski for a proper spin — a drift at over 100 km/h — and that was the end of Maciej having a normal hobby.

That moment didn't come out of nowhere. Growing up, Chmurski and his friends watched a crew of older locals — Pevo, Sosen and Nad100 — slide Opel Ascona Bs and old BMWs around their small hometown. The admiration stuck. Decades later, Chmurski's own car pushes 291 HP and 470 Nm of torque, weighs in at 1,250–1,300 kg and is capable of a 150 km/h drift. When he's not on four wheels, he's racing FPV drones — and planning a trip to the Norwegian fjords to do both things justice on camera.

In this story, Chmurski shares how a simulator game and a secondhand BMW launched a real motorsport habit, what it actually costs to build a track-ready drift car and how to get into FPV drone flying without destroying your equipment in the first week.

A Childhood Spent Watching, Then Doing

Chmurski traces his passion for cars to watching those local drivers as a kid — people who were 10 to 15 years older, drifting in whatever rear-wheel-drive machine they could get sideways. He even crossed paths with one of them recently, the man now in his late 40s, who was delighted to learn he had been an inspiration. A video from 2009 still exists of that hometown crew at work.

The early years of learning were communal. Chmurski and his peers would research modifications online — which cars could be made faster cheaply, which parts were worth the money — then attempt the work themselves. Because few people in the area were doing those kinds of mods, word would spread whenever someone was working on a car.

"If someone was modding something, a whole pack of people would visit and come back over the next few days to help, see the machine alive, and test it afterwards," Chmurski says. "A very rewarding feeling, of course."

Different people brought different skills: some were better at welding, others at wiring an engine. It was hands-on learning through necessity — and it laid the foundation for everything that followed.

Building a Track-Ready Car Without Breaking the Bank

Before Chmurski ever touched a real steering wheel in anger, he spent a year saving for a Logitech G27 force feedback wheel so he could practice in Live For Speed, a driving simulator. By the time he got his first chance to drive a real drift car, he says, he already understood how rear-wheel-drive handling worked. The sim had done its job.

His first actual car was a BMW E36, purchased for 1,800 PLN — roughly $480 at the time. He sold the interior, exhaust and other stripped components, bringing the net cost down to around 1,200 PLN. He then added a K-Sport Drift racing suspension for 2,000 PLN and a handful of other cheap modifications. Total investment: under 3,500 PLN, or approximately $930, for a car he could take to Tor Poznan and actually learn on.

For anyone looking to follow a similar path, Chmurski is direct about what works. Rear-wheel drive is the only starting point worth considering — RWD is driftable on dry bitumen from around 200 HP, he says, while AWD would need closer to 350 HP for the same conditions, with very different handling characteristics. He points to the BMW E36 with an M42 engine (the 1.8IS, 140 HP), the Nissan S13 and the Mazda MX5 as good entry-level options, noting that BMWs tend to be cheaper to modify properly than other brands.

"Any car will need some mods," he says — a hydraulic handbrake, stiff suspension and a welded differential for both track racing and drifting. He also mentions the old RWD Nissans known as "missile cars": not much to look at, but cheap, reliable and popular with a large group of drivers at the Ebisu Circuit in Japan.

His current build demonstrates what years of incremental work can produce. At 291 HP and 470 Nm, with torque available from low RPM, it punches well above its weight class. Chmurski has run it against an Audi S6 with 350 HP, a new Camaro with 315 HP and came close to matching an Audi S8 with 520 HP — crediting his car's low weight as the decisive factor.

For current-generation simulator practice, he recommends Assetto Corsa and Project Cars, though he notes neither quite matches the physics of Live For Speed or Richard Burns Rally, his pick for the best rally sim ever made.

Taking to the Air: FPV Drones and the Long Road to the Norwegian Fjords

The same instinct that pulled Chmurski toward motorsport has drawn him to FPV drone racing — and he approaches the learning curve with the same methodical patience.

For anyone starting out, he frames the first decision as a question of control versus stability. A drone fitted with a gimbal offers perfect stabilization and cleaner footage, but a crash — common in the first months of flying — can damage the gimbal itself. His own videos are shot without stabilization, using a GoPro mounted directly to the frame. He suggests the Mavic Pro as an easy entry point if the goal is great video shots without a steep learning curve, and the Butter Kwad build for more adventurous, acrobatic flying.

"When you fly in acrobatic mode, you need a controller where the throttle starts from the bottom," he explains. The drone isn't piloted with simple up-and-down commands — the pilot manages throttle directly, which takes real practice to internalize. His recommendation for beginners is the same as it was for cars: start in a simulator. FPV Freerider is his pick for drone training before risking real hardware.

Learning to fly well takes up to a year at one hour of practice per week, he estimates.

The destination he has in mind when the skills and the tech are both ready: the Norwegian fjords, or somewhere with comparable mountain terrain. "I love flying really fast between obstacles," he says, "and that provides even more epic footage." He's working toward it — more skills, more gear, more time in the air.

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