As someone who has been attempting this on and off for the last few years, I have done all Race type prestige events on gold except the finale. Took me a while, but nothing really insurmountable, just keep at it and pray for RNG (yeah, traffic is random and some times are very tight, you get a traffic car in the racing line, you might as well restart in the harder races).

Drift I have 0 golds, and most people say that Drfting ones are easier.
I've tried all sorts of recommended builds and I have yet to get a gold on a drift event. I spend the entire race drifting and I'm still somehow always short by a long shot.

same here

I was in the same situation as you. I had to relearn driving (basically) to get all the golds in Drift events. You'll need to turn Drift Stability off, switch to manual and optimize both tuning and ride height settings (have to use the HURUCAN ofc) and THEN you'll have to learn the tracks to a T and maximize points scoring.