[custom_adv] Donning a helmet inside a pearl silver sports sedan, Rana Almimoni skids and drifts around a Riyadh park, engine roaring, tyres screeching and clouds of dust billowing from the back. For Saudi women, such adrenaline rushes were unimaginable just weeks ago. [custom_adv] Speed-crazed women drivers are bound to turn heads in the deeply conservative desert kingdom, which overturned the world's only ban on female motorists in June as part of a much-hyped liberalisation drive led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. [custom_adv] Almimoni, 30 and a motor racing enthusiast, is defying the perception -- or sexist misconception, depending on who you ask -- that only dainty cars in bright colours are popular with women drivers. [custom_adv] "I adore speed. I love speed... My dream car is more than 500 horsepower," said Almimoni, slamming the accelerator of her silvery sleek Kia Stinger inside Riyadh's Dirab motor park.Almimoni said she was awaiting an expected government decision that would permit women to obtain a "racing licence", which would allow her to hone her passion in motor-sport competitions. [custom_adv] That includes drifting -- oversteering the car to slip and skid or even spin, and other high-speed daredevilry -- which is illegal in public but tolerated in the controlled environment of Dirab park, whose private owners insist on safety. [custom_adv] Many new drivers seek inspiration from Aseel al-Hamad, the first female member of the kingdom's national motor federation, who got behind the wheel of a Formula One car in France in June to mark the end of the driving ban. [custom_adv] The crackdown triggered a diplomatic brawl with Canada after Ottawa demanded the "immediate release" of those detained. [custom_adv] "It's a dubious advancement in gender parity: women are now coming under arrest for their rights activism just like the men," said Diwan. [custom_adv] Donning a helmet inside a pearl silver sports sedan, Rana Almimoni skids and drifts around a Riyadh park, engine roaring, tyres screeching and clouds of dust billowing from the back.