Video: NASA's MRV is a drift god

Reckon buying a ropey old Mazda MX-5 is the best way to get the hang of low-speed drifting? You're wrong, it would appear.

That's because NASA has just shown us this video of its Modular Robotic Vehicle (MRV), and in the process dropped all of our jaws to the floor and made us involuntarily squeak.

An aesthetics-free electric vehicle which hasn't yet topped 15mph lies at the very opposite end of the scale to a LaFerrari FXXK. But watch the MRV in action and try in vain not to be utterly hypnotised by what it is capable of.

Its seemingly instant transition from regular driving to obtusely angled drifts is the giggle-inducing by-product of a design targeted at traversing Mars. The planet, not the nougat-filled chocolate bar.

All of the MRV's controls are operated by wire, so it can be controlled remotely, while each of its wheels comes with 180-degree steering and a liquid-cooled electric motor.

They can each turn independently, allowing for all manner of eye-boggling abilities. Think a Renault Twingo turns on a sixpence? This turns entirely in its own footprint. And thanks to its backwards-driftability, the MRV is capable of perhaps the most stylish parallel park you've ever seen.

Look closely, though, and you'll see it's not technically drifting at all. Its wheels are always supplying controlled propulsion, their strange angles providing extreme manoeuvrability while giving the slightly mind-bending appearance of some supremely talented skidding. Not that it's any less cool for that, mind.

It's clearly in its early stages of development, as the Halfords-tastic steering wheel and open-air bodystyle - not ideal in the fairly lethal atmosphere of Mars - surely testify. A 40mph top speed lies in its near future.

That's something we very much want to experience ourselves, ideally in an empty supermarket car park rather than the wastelands of Mars. You do too, right?