Again, though, we’re not talking about dirt tracks per the OP. We’re talking about paved surfaces and drifting. It’s obvious why dirt track, midget and rally racers slide: They use the slide to “chew” into the ground and clear away debris to get better grip. If they didn’t have to do that, they wouldn’t.
You do not have that ability on pavement. Drifting offers no speed avantage around a corner on a paved surface.
A local here saw that ‘tokyo drift’ thing, and so he decided to try it. Rolled his car. Turns out it doesn’t work very well with FRONT WHEEL DRIVE. :wally
You can drift with a front drive car. You just have to figure out how to get the rear end to rotate. Some combination of crappy rear tires and left-foot braking should work. 
Or just drive your Civic backwards… 
I’m still not sure I understand though, Do go around the corner without drifitng, you would presumably have to brake and slow down, turn, and then speed up again, with a drift, would it not be possible to start into the drift, turn the car sideways before you “hit” the corner, and then power your way through the turn without ever braking?
Is it possible? Of course. You see it all the time, including in TFATF. I have a ton of drifting videos on my computer here. Is it the fastest way to drive? No.
Again, though, it really is a bunch of fun.
[QUOTE=NecrosIt seems like there are two issues: Which way is the fastest around a given track, and which way is the least taxing on the car and driver?[/quote]
Well, it’s pretty clear that in theory, for lack of a better term, sliding is always inferior, since the friction drops so dramatically when there is movement between the rubber and the road. You’re not being pedantic; you’ve no reason to know how much I do or don’t know.
The thing is that, like the rally races, reality can impose constraints that don’t match our assumptions. For example, the rally racers need to spin their wheels to to get to the solid earth below the grit. Or, for example, if you and I are neck-to-neck coming into a curve. If you brake coming into the curve, maybe I can hold off braking, get just ahead, drift, block your way, and come out of the turn ahead of you. Maybe, maybe not.
All I was wondering was whether there might be reasons why, for some types cars, it may actually be faster to drift, just as on some types of tracks (rally racing), it’s faster to spin the tires.