The 270bhp, 550kg, rear-wheel drive Ariel Atom Mugen sounds like the ideal drifting machine. It isn’t. Steve Sutcliffe explains why the gratuitous powersliding you’ll see here wasn’t easy.

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Don’t aim for pedestrians! 1. Approach from about 50 metres out and keep the parking spot on your right. In first gear bring the car up to around 3500 revs. When you reach the empty spot between the two cars put your left hand on the steering wheel at nine o’clock and spin it round to six o’clock. 2. As soon as you begin to turn the wheel pull on the handbrake. Then correct any oversteer with the steering wheel. 3. You can also approach from the other direction. Just reverse your hands on the wheel, start at three o’clock and turn anti-clockwise. That’s it. Simple and effective. However it is easy to overcook it so you may want to practise a little before trying this anywhere near real cars or pedestrians. To do this you’ll need four traffic cones. Lay them out just over a car length apart in your large empty area. Two on the outside edge representing the road side of the parked cars and two on the inside to mark out the area where pedestrians walk and manslaughter charges apply. For hairpin bends we use the same principles. From whatever speed you’re doing drop down to second then first gear, turn into the corner, clutch down, apply the handbrake so that the rear wheels lock and the back end comes round. Once you’re pointing in the right direction it’s clutch up and back on the power. Taken from the book How to Drive a Tank, more stunt driving techniques can be found here: www.frankcoles.com If you’re interested in receiving a free Kindle/ebook edition, just drop me a …