Let's get one thing straight (or not): loving power oversteer doesn't make you good at it.

In fact, what makes this special cornering condition so great is knowing it's something you will only sometimes get right. It can only be achieved reliably, after practice, by an expert in the right car.

Let me define my kind of power oversteer. I'm not talking here about the special sport of drifting: that's a different thing. Skilful, for sure, but its object is to produce lurid clouds of smoke, slowly and in an exaggerated attitude that has little to do with cornering speed.

The cars' engines, traction systems, differentials and suspension set-ups are all uniquely configured in a purpose-built drift car that has nothing to do with circuit racing.

My version involves the use of oversteer as a tool for fast cornering; a means of getting a car quickly and neatly around a corner. It's the sort of thing you see in 10,000 rally videos or (in my case) in those old-time movies of Jim Clark and drivers of his ilk powersliding their Lotus Cortinas at racing speeds to beat the mighty Jaguars and V8 Fords around Brands Hatch or Crystal Palace.

Ideally, it means that somewhere near a corner's apex, the car assumes the new direction it will need for the straight that's coming under full control and is then encouraged to stop sliding dead at precisely the ideal to bolt down the following straight or to be flicked the other way for an S-bend.