Burnouts are fun if you have unlimited tire budgets. Drifts are showy, but, on the track, every time you see smoke, you know somebody's pissing away lap times and probably flatspotting the soft r-compound gummy slicks. NOT GOOD DRIVING! The only time I ever did donuts after a race or drifted a car on dry road was when I knew this was my last run on this set of tires anyway. As an old-time road-racing afficionado, I've never cottoned to showoff stuff. It's like the '60s American muscle cars that can lay rubber in every gear going straight, but can't out-corner a stock Corolla. In the late '60s I got a '67 Sunbeam Tiger (a Carroll Shelby factory mod of a 4-cylinder English Sunbeam Alpine (kind of like a Triumph Sprite class), replacing the 1425cc lawnmower 4 with an 8 cylinder Mustang 289 in it (the earlier Sunbeam Tigers had 260s in them). I loved coming up to a light beside a Camaro SS, GTO or Boss Mustang, blipping the throttle just a touch (didn't want to give too much away away) and when the light went green, we took off. They couldn't even see my license plate after 100 meters - same power, half the weight. Shelby designed these "poor man's AC Cobras" for Sunbeam for several years just before he went to Ford to do the Mustang Cobra. They were imported by Chrysler with the, at that time, record Chrysler 50,000 warranty and I got mine cheap when a Chrysler dealer went bankrupt. Greatest stealth monster ever. Even the cops thought I was driving a 4-wheel sewing machine and didn't give me a second look unless they got close enough to see my rollbar, custom racing seat, and 6-point harness ;). Taking your car out to an empty parking lot after the first time or two it snows each winter and spinning it around back and forth, practicing skid recoveries and circles for an hour is a real gas & doesn't wear down your tires - and it's better than practicing on a wet skid pad - but it's also a good thing to refresh skills each year for a real road emergency, not for showoff. In the end, a car is most importantly for driving (looks and fancy trimmings are secondary) - and driving against other trained competition drivers on a great road course is the ultimate test of a driver's skills. No show-off stuff, only extreme smoothness & technique called for if you want to podium or keep setting faster lap times. You know very quickly who you are better than and who's better than you.
