If the car had yawed just a foot or two, the right rear and front left would have both hit guardrails on opposite sides at the same time... Probably the scariest moment of my life, not because it was a danger to life or limb but I thought for sure my baby was going to be in the body shop for a couple months.
when i was 16 i took my maverick in dirt fields to practice sliding and correcting. little did i know there was a gas transformer sitting to the side of the field i was on that particular day, and after getting a bit too out of control and fish tailing it to a stop, my passenger door was about 3" away from the gas inlet, and i had a dent in my door that matched the pipe end. coulda ended myself right there by accident. but i still found other, better places to mess around in, and i think it was a good thing. when my 4X4 had the throttle lock up in the middle of a turn and it slid out from in front of me, it could have been a real mess if i didnt know how to correct it. it literally spun me into oncoming traffic, i killed the engine and hard steered to the right to fix it. bounced up onto the median and got it to stop about 2 feet from this guys beamer door. ill never forget the look on that guys face, my headlight blinding him.
as for the drifting, i think its cool. if i could do it (aka afford it) id probably set up some big, useless american old car for it to see if it was viable.