y original tires were great to drift around turns but I could never drift with their replacement Pirelli Cinturatos.
You are right Ray, no one can drift radials as well as cross ply, the car in the video most likely has cross-ply tires.
The following is cut & pasted from a SascoSports page and explains the difference well (had a visual graph too but that wouldn't copy & paste for me)
"The side force generated by the radial tire
increases with increasing slip angle on the tire
However, with increasing side force, after the
maximum side force has been reached, the radial
tire's side force drops off. This is the characteristic
of the radial tire, and is apparent to the racing
driver by a sudden loss of traction at the limit of
adhesion.
The bias ply will also develop its side force as the
slip angle increases but at a slightly lesser slope.
The peak of the bias ply curve may be the same
as that of the radial tire, but the slip angle will be
greater. However, at the limit the bias ply does not
have a real peak, but rather a plateau. Increasing
slip angles do not cause a sudden drop off of the
side force, but usually the side force is maintained
at quite large slip angles. Therefore the driver with
bias ply tires has a much larger range of slip
angles to feel what the car is doing. The result is
usually a driver who will go faster and who will
have more fun."
I love cross-plys on the track but much prefer radials for normal street driving.
Dave