If, like us, you've already started mourning the impending loss of the internal combustion engine, you should at least find solace in the fact that pure-electric vehicles can deliver plenty enough performance, so long as automakers are onboard. Vehicles like the Tesla Model S Performance, the Porsche Taycan, and the forthcoming Ford Mustang Mach-E suggest that at least a few manufacturers are, indeed, onboard.

Regarding that last model mentioned, you could be forgiven for assuming that Ford perhaps isn't wholeheartedly behind the idea of producing a real, proper performance vehicle, but you would be wrong. Allow this recent video from YouTuber Carolina Guy put your mind at ease.

The video was taken, apparently in secret, from the cover of some trees at the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research, and it shows a Mustang Mach-E with about half its bodywork missing drifting and hooning around on the tarmac. The sound is definitely worth a mention; while we'll be as sad as anyone to see the sun set on the classic American V8 burble, this particular Mach-E sounds properly sick in its own right.

Is that the electric motors, or straight-cut gear whine we're hearing? You know what, it doesn't matter. It's epic.

Now, we're left with the question: just what are we looking at? We aren't sure, but we have some ideas.

Looking at the electric crossover, it's clear that the wheels and tires would never tuck neatly beneath the factory bodywork, and the massive cooling setups at the front and rear look too big to fit as well, so this clearly isn't a Mach-E variant that's already been announced and/or revealed. On the other hand, customer deliveries haven't started yet, so this must be a Ford-sanctioned project, at the least.

That narrows the list of likely suspects down considerably, and we think there are two likely possibilities. The first is that this is a forthcoming Shelby-ified Mustang Mach-E with extra power, cooling, and track-width to make it a force on the race track. The second is that it's a one-off build being carried out by Ken Block's Hoonigan and/or Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s RTR for some future promotional project, like a Gymkhana video.

Given the insane track-width this Mach-E appears to be running, we're leaning toward the latter, but your guess is as good as ours.