Had the opportunity to ride shotgun in a stripped, caged, fully competition-prepped Infiniti G35 coupe in a wide open parking lot at a major car meet a few years ago. Engine swapped with a VK56 V8 (from a Nissan Titan), supercharged. I was very much a drifting skeptic at the time, this was pretty eye opening to the legitimacy as a motorsport.
On the outside it looks and sounds chaotic, but inside the car it is incredibly smooth and kinda surreal. They'd set up a bit of a course in the lot and it was very cool to see the skill and control that the driver had.
Found a pic from 2009. Dunno if this car is still drifting competitively, but it was a Forumla D competitor for a while, which is among the highest level of competition in pro drifting outside of Japan.
[This message has been edited by madd_ag_05 (edited 8/13/2013 9:00a).]