I've owned my R34GTT with red P's for the last 4 months now and I'm loving every second of it. In the morning I wake up just to drive it to uni. During class, I watch the clock until I can drive it home.
It's a great car with plenty of power for a P plater. The NEO head gives pretty good fuel economy too, so young people like us can afford to fuel it. There's also enough room in the back to fit a couple more mates in every now and then, cause once you get a Skyline, everyone wants to ride with you.
I've got a mate with an '06 WRX STI and I can't really tell the difference between the two. The thing that stands out the most is that my car is limited to 180kph lol. Not to mention his was double the price.
Personally I've never drifted or smoked it up in my R34. Before I purchased it, like you, I had the intention to. But once I owned it I didn't want to damage my car because it had become my pride and joy. Not just a powerful toy to thrash about. Sometimes I think that it would have been better for me to get an AWD for my track racing.
But since the laws are a little more lenient here in WA, I'm not as confident on how an N/A would go. If you want a car to go all out on the track then have you considered a Honda Type R or VTEC? With P plate restrictions I reckon you're quite limited in terms of N/A performance cars. In my previous VTEC power to weight felt great and there was a nice little kick when the cams switched over. Shame that most of them only come in FWD besides the S2000 (and NSX but that's a little more costly of course!).