Drifting is a driving technique where the slip angle of the rear end of the car is greater than the front, and the front wheels are pointed in the opposite direction of the turn. While the car may look out of control, the driver is in full control of the drift.

Drifting originated in Japan on the mountain roads where street racers wanted to go round corners as fast as possible maintaining a high exit speed.
Today drifting is a competitive sport where drivers compete to see who can keep their car sideways for as long as possible. The top level of this sport is D1.

The cars used for drifting are usually rear wheel drive as this allows the driver to get the back end out more easily. Some of the most popular cars for drifting are : Toyota ae86 (known as the Hachi Roku in Japan) and star of the manga/anime series initial d. The Mazda rx7 (has starred in many films including initial d and the fast and furious Tokyo drift. Other popular drifting cars include the Nissan silvia/180sx, Nissan skyline, Toyota altezza, Honda s2000, Nissan 350z and Nissan 240sx.
Techniques for inducing a drift

Handbrake drift – While the clutch is depressed the handbrake is pulled, inducing rear traction loss. As soon as traction is lost the driver releases the clutch, depresses the accelerator and counter steers. This is supposed to be the easiest method of inducing a drift and is a good place to start for the novice drifter.

Powerslide
This drift is performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy over steer. The excess power causes the rear wheels to lose traction inducing the drift.

Shift lock
This drift is initiated by downshifting very quickly. This causes the rear wheels to lock momentarily. This technique can be very damaging for the engine as the ecu is unable to rev limit when the engine is oversped by the rear wheels.

Clutch kick
This is done by pushing the clutch in and releasing very quickly. This sends a shock down the powertrain which causes the rear wheels to slip.