ABOUT
Ömer Rahvan Bağdatlı was born in Istanbul in 1988. By combining his software expertise with the automotive passion he has carried since childhood, he has become a digital designer and programmer who today delivers projects on a global scale in the world of sim motorsport and digital automotive modeling, working hand in hand with international teams.
Education and Early Career
After completing his primary and middle-school education across several schools — Beylerbeyi Lütfü Erçin, Küçükçekmece Remzi Yurtsever, and Özel Sultan Fatih Koleji — he finished high school at Özel Sultan Fatih and Özel Güneşli Koleji. He stepped into professional life in 2006 at the Esenyurt Municipality IT Department. During the seven years he spent there, he continued his studies in parallel and graduated from Istanbul Aydın University with a degree in Computer Programming.
The Roots of an Automotive Passion
His interest in cars traces back to family days in front of the screen, alongside his father and older brothers, during the era of V10- and V12-engined classic Formula 1. Events he attended with the support of family friend Mürşit Unat — such as the Audi Driving Experience and Porsche GT3 Cup — turned that passion into a professional vision. Rallying, which carries elements of every motorsport discipline, and the WRC career of the legendary Colin McRae left a particularly deep mark on him.
In 2008, he stepped into the modified-car world with the Chery Alia Lusso (A516) he had just bought. He even chose his university based on its proximity to the Florya Beşyol Industrial Site, the heart of Istanbul's automotive culture. The time he spent there laid the foundations of strong friendships and an industry network that extends all the way to today's organizations such as Apexmasters.
Software, the Metaverse, and “Rahvan R1”
After his career in IT, he widened his vision and began developing an MMORPG-style game on the Second Life metaverse platform. This period shaped not only his career but also his personal life, and it was through it that he met his wife. Focusing on working from home due to his wife's health, the game he developed remained his primary project and source of income for a long time.
His entry into the virtual drift world also happened on this platform. Seeing through a programmer's eyes how primitive the existing car physics engines were, he developed the “Rahvan R1” physics engine — a highly realistic backbone with advanced drift capability. The same name later became his identity on social media, and the engine itself has grown into a standard experienced every day by hundreds of users.
Assetto Corsa and Professional Modeling
Over time, he carried his virtual drift experience over to Assetto Corsa. The detailed physics framework the game offered allowed him to fully express his potential as a programmer. He brought the 3D wheel and body-kit models he designed for both personal use and sale to the global market through CGTrader. This is what put him on the radar of Tsujigiri, one of the UK virtual drift scene's well-known teams, and officially marked the start of his professional car-modding career for Assetto Corsa.
Carbon Drift Team (CDT) and Global Collaborations
As his designs gained international attention, the orders for wheels and body kits multiplied. One of those projects came from his current partner, Luke Veersma. With their visions aligned, the two of them jointly revived Carbon Drift Team (CDT) — a team Luke had founded but which had since gone dormant. CDT today is both an ambitious force in virtual and real-world drift competition and one of the most respected names worldwide for 1:1 replica drift cars in Assetto Corsa.
Notable Projects and Partnerships
He has had the opportunity to work directly with the leading names of Apexmasters, Drift Masters, and Formula Drift, as well as with industry-defining global brands. Among the legendary figures he has worked with are, first and foremost his own drivers Çağlar Küçükdumlu and Harun Karabulut, and also James Deane, Conor and Jack Shanahan, Lauri Heinonen, Kalle Rovanperä, Dave Egan, Mika Keski-Korpi, Clint Van Oort, Adam Zalewski, Hiroya Minowa, Masayo & Shinji Minowa, Kevin Piskolty, Kevin Pesur, Odi Bakchis, and Johnathan Hurst.
Some of his industry-shaping works include:
- 1:1 Simulator Cars: He developed the 3D models and driving physics of the simulator cars used by the elite drivers above during their training, built to match their real-world cars one-to-one in quality.
- The Shanahan Brothers' Launch: When the 2025 Drift Masters Italy round was cancelled, they jointly carried out the official global launch of the Shanahan brothers' new liveries through the replica cars he had modeled for Assetto Corsa.
- STRÖM Wheels: He designed the brand's virtual models in 1:1 fidelity to the real wheels (also used in major productions such as Torque Drift and Forza). He continues to manage the brand's official virtual showroom. He personally created the new body-kit design for the Ström Wheels S15 and organized its livery process.
- Brand Integrations: By recreating DND Performance Interior products and TireStreets's Accelera 651 tyres in 1:1 detail for Assetto Corsa, he enabled both brands to publish them through their own official platforms.
- Corporate Partnerships: He has run various project collaborations with industry-leading firms including Sikky Manufacturing, Tri-Ace Tires, Eforsim, and Türk Telekom.
He is currently actively leading the development of many as-yet-unannounced, large-scale and visionary projects that aim to integrate the virtual and real-world drift motorsport scenes even more closely with one another.
SPECIALTIES
Sanal motor sporları, Assetto Corsa araç modelleme, 3D modelleme, fizik motoru geliştirme, drift simülatörü, livery ve body-kit tasarımı, yazılım geliştirme