Drift: What your mind does after some real good weed.

1. meaning, intent

2. a controlled sidewards skid

3. to leave

it would seem that most people trying to define the term drift here are either people who look at drifting in somewhat of a negative view, or people who think they know all about drifting because they watch initial D alot.It would also seem that all,if not most of these people are americans.
take it from someone who knows drifting, not because it's popular in their country,and not because they have seen it on a cool looking cartoon. drifting in australia is not very big, and that's the way we like it. i have drifted effectively,and i have also written off a car in the proccess of drifting once. from the over use of the word "ricer" i can tell that most of these people take drifting as somesort of an ego trip thing,and that drifting in america is quite big, thus making many people think they are down because they go to the battles and watch the cartoons.try it for real and see how you go.
DRIFTING IS: The art of driving a car sideways through a corner whilst maintaining effective wheelspin.
it started underground.keep it that way.

An advanced driving technique used mainly for show in which the driver maintains oversteer through balance of throttle and steering inputs. It is the latest trend to be slowly taken over by automotive posers (Ricers). Because of this, you see many "dRifT ThUgZ," who are no more than idiot posers who watch too much Initial D and think yanking the E-brake around the street is a drift. Go Away.

to follow a persons conversation as their mind drifts to a different yet somehow connected thought

A controlled loss of control

In racing, it is the clipping of the apex of a turn to attain higher corner exit speeds. This achieved by breaking the tire traction limit and putting the car into a controlled skid. As the vehicle slides, the weight shifts from each tire to another, and causes the car to circle around and clip the apex.

Popularized by the anime "Initial D."

A motorsport in which a car is sliding lateraly through a turn of a series of turns. During a drift (not a powerslide), the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction of the turn (example: Front wheels pointing left during a right hand turn). Drifting takes place under total control of the vehicle. Drifting is the slowest way around a corner because of the extra friction on the wheels slows the vehicle down (friction=slow).

Types of Techniques to induce a drift: Hand Brake Drift is the most common and a beginner technique. This is done by approaching a corner at the desired speed, downshifting while keeping the clutch in and pulling the hand brake quickly and stongly for a moment while turning into the corner. Let down the hand brake and release the clutch and counter steer. Just because this is a beginner techinique, doesn't mean that proffessionals can't use it.
Power-over: not going to go over this one because it don't like it.
Shift Lock: Down shifting very quick without heel-and-toeing which causes the wheels to lock suddenly and momentarily to induce the drift. Sort of like the Hand Brake.
Clutch Kicking: I learned on this as well as Hand Brake. This is done by "kicking" (hence the title) the clutch to send a jolt or shock throught the powertrain which causes the rear wheels to slip. I don't exactly know why.
Braking Drift: This is one of the weight shift techinques. It is done by shifting the weight to the front of the vehicle which is followed immediatly by the gas which makes the rear wheels to lose traction.
Feint Drift: Another weight shift techinique. This is done by turning very quickly away from the turn a little then swinging or flick it back into the corner to get the rear to lose traction. Hit the gas and continue with the drift.
Kansei Drifting: Don't know how to do this so i will take straight from wikipedia: "By letting off the accelerator while cornering at very high speeds, cars with relatively neutral handling will begin to slide, simply from the weight transfer resulting from engine braking. The drift is controlled afterwards by steering inputs from the driver and light pedal work, similar to the Braking drift."
There.
Thats about it. Have fun. I'm not going to go over the cars used because you can basically use any rear wheeled drive vehicle. All-Wheeled drive cars are able to drift but due to their pulling of their front wheels, will pull out of it. Same with Front-Wheeled cars.

I personally would not know what a true drift is because I live amongst a bunch of idiots who think not dying after taking a turn at forty is a drift.