Thinking about comments people made about fleshing out his background, and particularly tying it in with Bludgeon... it's starting to sound cooler...

Consider the following:
+ Drift is a one-three-three-seven swordsman 1337!
+ Drift's toy has the word "Samurai" printed on his doors
+ The Decepticon martial art of Metallikato, practised by Bludgeon, includes the use of the sword and is similar to the Samurai code of honour (Bushido) - of which one of its core principles is loyalty.
+ Drift defected and became an Autobot; thus seen as a traitor in the eyes of loyal Decepticons
+ If Drift holds any such code of honour demanding loyalty, then how does he justify his defection to himself? Perhaps he's somewhat morally conflicted in this area and has a need to redeem himself from his loss of honour (much like Dinobot in Beast Wars). G1 pointed out that under Decepticon Metallikato, dishonour was a fate WORSE than death (hence why Carnivac decided to avenge Catilla by defeating Bludgeon in battle and letting him live with the shame of defeat!)

...the story almost writes itself really.

P.S.: I personally would like to see at least one moment where Drift speaks Japanese. Maybe a scene where he comes to Earth and is in Japan (I dunno... chasing Kremzeeks or something - maybe he scans a Japanese drift sports car there as his alt mode) and has dialogue in Japanese (with captions in English to translate of course). He could make a shocking revelation like...

This is why I hate science fiction!