You've got to be skidding

Lucas Black (left), star of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, is coached by drifting expert and stunt co-ordinator, New Zealander Rhys Millen.

Drift racing is the ballet of motorsport. Too flowery for such a petrolhead pursuit? Then how about the gymnastics of car racing? The break-dancing of the automotive world?

Whichever way you look at it - through a cloud of burning rubber smoke usually - drifting is both so hot right now and an artform.

And, in so far as making a car drive fast, sideways, and lap after lap, New Zealander Rhys Millen is one of the best in the world.

The former rally driver and son of motor racing driver Rod Millen has helped take the sport to the big screen as stunt co-ordinator on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

The film's setting is appropriate because drift racing originated in Japan about 15 years ago, and has just started to catch on in the US and New Zealand.

But what exactly is drifting?

On a visit home, the US-based driver demonstrated drifting at Pukekohe race track. From what I can tell, you slide through a corner rather than turn through it. His car was graceful - almost peaceful - as it slid round a long, flowing bend at the back of the circuit.

However, Millen has a more thorough explanation: "You're overpowering the amount of grip you have from the tyre by excessive throttle control."

Say what? "So," he continues, "at that point you're essentially manoeuvring the weight of the car with the throttle. Your steering at that point is a counterbalance to control the tyre speed and the weight of the vehicle. So steering, which is critical to control the slide from spinning out, is kind of the third factor in the sport."

Unlike other motorsport, drift racing is judged. These judges are looking for the speed, angle, and line the driver takes through a corner and around a set course.

"The judges want to see the most committed amount of driving while sustaining control. It's not so much driving to give it flair, it's very fluent and balanced. To see a top level driver go through the course is like ballet," he says, smiling.

"A good driver in any type of motorsport has great balance. [In drifting] you're moving the weight of the car in an unnatural state compared to most forms of motorsport. So if you have that feeling and balance then you can manipulate that weight and that balance to your advantage."

Millen is the US drift racing champion but the street drifting action in Tokyo Drift is far removed from the structured competitions he races in.

However, he's used to movie sets after driving the General Lee in last year's atrocious The Dukes of Hazzard movie.

Yes, it was a terrible film, but the driving and stunts were great and, as stars go, the General stole the show.

While The Dukes of Hazzard required a hill-billy approach to driving, Tokyo Drift is all about precision, style and class.

The movie follows street racer Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), who is sent to live with his father in Tokyo to avoid going to jail in the US. He soon discovers drift racing. After losing a race to DK (aka the Drift King), Boswell has to delve into the Tokyo underworld to find a way to pay back his debt.

To ensure the sport was not misrepresented in the movie, director Justin Lin had drift racing doyen Toshi Hayam on hand as technical consultant.

Millen is particularly proud of one stunt in the movie where DK's car drifts around a corner and uphill into a car park. "There was a $100 bet on that one," he laughs. "But I did it. I did it."

Initially they planned to tow the car up the incline with the actors inside. "They showed it to me and I said, 'Why don't we just slide up there?' The director was like, 'There's no way that can be done'. I said, 'You wanna bet?' "

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) was used sparingly in Tokyo Drift and that's something Millen is also quietly proud of.

"Fast & Furious 2 was ridiculous for the amount of CGI action and I hang my hat on this movie as a good, 90-plus per cent of it is real driving."

Surprisingly, for all his turbo-charged talk, Millen is not car mad.

"For me, cars are more about the reward of the drive. It's the personal reward for having the ability to have that car control. That's all that it is. I don't go to car shows and I don't hang out and talk about cars. I drive a nice car, and it's nothing flashy with wings. It's just smooth and nice to drive."

Plus, during his brief trip home, he was just as happy going fishing and helping build a chicken coop at his father's Coromandel property.

"I'm a farm boy at heart," he says.

Just don't let him drive the ute.

* The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift opens on June 15