The Persian Gulf has the most hardcore boy racers in the world, and their hobby is drifting. This is the art of driving very fast through a controlled slide, with the front and back wheels slipping in different directions around a corner.

In Japan, it’s a serious motorsport. In Saudi, Lebanon and Dubai, it’s done by rich kids in sportscars on public roads.

There are dozens of extraordinary drifting videos from the Gulf on YouTube; half-million dollar Porsches sliding in and out of traffic , cars doing 720° turns along roads lined with pedestrians . Nobody wears a seatbelt, and plenty of people get hurt .

The very bizarre video above , showing Saudi boys apparently street skating - sliding along the road in flip-flops - has been watched well over a million times on YouTube, but it's not clear what's really going on. Is it real? Is it a video editing trick? Nobody seems to know.

In 2007, Saudi authorities cracked down . A naval officer known as Abu Kab killed three boys while drifting at 75mph, and was sentenced to death (the sentence was later reduced ). In the small town of Niaria, near Riyadh, officials have warned they will publicly lash and shave the heads of anyone caught driving recklessly. Meanwhile, drifting is leaking into the mainstream , with brands such as Red Bull and Chevrolet sponsoring legal races.

There are lots of Arab Drift videos in this collection at Oobject .

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