I have sport paddles that allow me to change gear even though my car is an automatic, as well as a Manual Auto function on my car. I don't know if that helps.
I am wondering, is there proper technique to use when drifting?
You should be drifting your daily driver for one secondly you should be trying to drift a automatic if you really want to get into drifting buy a little cheap 5 speed Nissan 240 as drift car and take lessons from someone who is pretty good at drifting probably go to a local drift event around you hometown your a female it should be to hard to sucker some guy into teaching you how to drift good luck.
Basically drifting is controlled oversteer. Oversteer is where the rear tyres breach their grip limits and come loose from the road. To control it properly, you feather the throttle and steer in the direction that requires the most steering on the fly (for example, if you see and feel that the front tyres are starting to lose grip and you're about to spin, let off of the throttle slightly and steer in the opposite direction). As for the "sport-paddles" (which actually means your car is a semi-auto, not auto), that is easier to use than auto, cause drifting is all about speed combined with style, and auto tends to go for the frugal option and shift up into a higher gear to lower your revs. Generally, your first three ratios (1st, 2nd, 3rd, of course) are the best options for drifting. Keep the revs nice and high so you don't have to work to gain speed while drifting, but rather than using the brakes to control your corner speed you must use correct application of the throttle. Going hard on the brakes will almost certainly cause you to spin mid corner.
Basically drifting is controlled oversteer. Oversteer is where the rear tyres breach their grip limits and come loose from the road. To control it properly, you feather the throttle and steer in the direction that requires the most steering on the fly (for example, if you see and feel that the front tyres are starting to lose grip and you're about to spin, let off of the throttle slightly and steer in the opposite direction). As for the "sport-paddles" (which actually means your car is a semi-auto, not auto), that is easier to use than auto, cause drifting is all about speed combined with style, and auto tends to go for the frugal option and shift up into a higher gear to lower your revs. Generally, your first three ratios (1st, 2nd, 3rd, of course) are the best options for drifting. Keep the revs nice and high so you don't have to work to gain speed while drifting, but rather than using the brakes to control your corner speed you must use correct application of the throttle. Going hard on the brakes will almost certainly cause you to spin mid corner.