UnderdogHandbrake turns have their place... but, their place isn't autocross. (it's more an off-road rally thing)
If I really wanted to swing the back end around, I'd set the suspension up to be "looser" such that when I enter a turn, I'd just lift off the gas to transfer weight off of the rear of the car... then the rear would slide, and when I plant my right foot on the gas, weight shifts back to the rear and stops the slide. That's the proper way to do it in the autocross environment.
But, just like handbraking a turn, it IS an advanced technique. Personally, I think you're a lot better off learning to drive the car IN control before exploring how to drive it at the edge of control and beyond. You have to learn where the limits are and how to reach them without going past them first.
Have fun with your first autocross! Remember, 3-wheeling a FWD car is fine. It's going to do that all the time. But, if people start telling you that they see air under your FRONT tire... you're going to want to dial it back a little bit!
Top heavy cars like the Mirage and the Fiat 500 are going to want to roll over when you get over-aggressive with your steering inputs. The "one-two" punch will get you into trouble. Not trying to scare you, you can have a lot of fun and be faster than anyone expects you to be in a Mirage, but you just need to be smooth with your inputs.
Here's a good example of what can happen:
And this one is an Abarth 500 with lowered suspension actually going over without even that much of an input. Overcorrection will bite you hard in cars like this.
So, the problem with handbraking a turn is that now you're sliding... and when the slide suddenly STOPS (due to a change in pavement, or just naturally grabbing at some point) you've already got the suspension fully loaded on a top-heavy car... if you suddenly spike the cornering load like that, all bets are off!
Even if I was inclined to do handbrake turns (I'm not), I wouldn't dream of doing it in the Mirage. It's too tippy.
Autocross may be different in your part of the world. Here, we rarely have a turn that's less than 28-30 mph, that means you can take it in 2nd gear. All the handbrake would do is scrub off speed and upset the car. Stick with classic racing techniques. "Slow in, fast out", "Brake, turn-in, apex, track-out" just like you would on a race track.
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