What car would you buy with $30,000?

Modified Dodge Charger. Better yet a damaged challenger then you can drop whatever you want into that massive engine bay.

clearly a beetle turbo is not a drifting car. I'd get a Nissan 350Z, lower and stiffen the ride, upgrade brakes to 6 pot calipers on bigger rotors (which will also require big wheels) manual transmission is a must and with the stock v6 you can hold some weak slides but i'd put in a supercharger for good measures (I still dont feel too comfortable starting slides at high speeds so a turbo system wont be as good) If I can find a track pack equipped 350Z i could skip on the suspension and brakes. the supercharger is still applied. tires would be changed depending on the type of driving. since the car has already been lowered and I live in canada, i can skip winter tires because it's not usable with a medium amount of snow on the ground. tires would either be a hard compound for sliding, or ultra soft for track driving. aerodynamics would need to be adjustable because drifting and track driving require different setups but i'd get a front splitter, front winglet extensions, side skirts (race specific ones that actually help with downforce at the rear diffuser) a rear wing and in case i actually need to specify, a diffuser.

for weight saving a carbon fiber roof and then regular stripping is enough, (the carbon fiber roof is to lower the center of gravity. for the interior, i'd put a steering wheel that I feel comfortable with and some recaro or sparco racing seats and 5 point harnesses. I'm not too sure if the 350z has a roll cage but it might be a good idea for competition.

all of this should be easily found for less than $30,000

R32 Skyline or a Hilux