may be a case of high-performance car
& a low-performance driver
I did donuts & controlled slides & power slides
(It wasn't called drifting then)
in parking lots late-night or out in the boonies as a kid
I never hit anything
I was raised around gocarts, mini-bikes, motorcycles/dirtbikes
& dune-buggies etc. I was very familiar with power-sliding
& doing donuts or drag racing
I was known to do it in town every so often, get sideways
pretty stupid stuff, amazing what I did when I was young
I did learn to control a car very well though
even if it was stupid childish behavior, it was fun as hell
sort of a right of passage for a young male car guy/gearhead
There was a place in Pittsburg Ca. in the late 70's
that had a skid-pad set up for police training
I & a few buddies would go there & have a blast
it was wide open, no fencing, no light posts, no walls etc.
back then most tires were rock hard, mostly bias-ply crap
would last a year or so
even with US abusing them 'often'
the next era was T/A radials kind of expensive to waste
but still did it every so often
later saved that stuff for the track