The Pagani Zonda styling hints that it's just itching to swap ends at the first opportunity. There are many cars that aren't particularly beautiful, but the Zonda is possibly the only one whose styling says 'Don't say I didn't warn you!'

Usually enthusiasts for a hobby, e.g. cooking, gardening, carpentry, horse-riding etc. tend to be better at their hobby than people who are not enthusiasts.

Over the years my observation is that motoring is an exception, since enthusiasts for performance cars tend to be worse on-road drivers than the average driver. I hasten to add that I wouldn't use the same brush to tar all car enthusiasts, some are very good drivers.

One has to ask oneself why anyone would want to buy one of these ultra-fast supercars if there wasn't some lurking desire or intention to try out its performance from time to time.

Owners of Zondas etc. can take the cars to track days, of course, but even then there's a high risk of losing control if you try to explore the limits of the car's performance. That's probably true of a Golf Gti to some extent too, but you wouldn't be going so fast, ther would be more chance to recover control and if you hit something you'd probably do so at a lower speed.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 29/03/2010 at 11:35

I knew of a millionaire who decided to get the most expensive rally car he could - little experience though. He entered a competition and wrapped it around a tree and died.

Never saw a more embarrassed looking bloke than the one with a crashed Westfield.

Last Summer, he had spun it on the ringroad outside Halfords and it had gone backwards for about 100yds scraping a wall behing the pavement before ending up on it`s side.

Anyone on that 100yds of pavement would have been wiped out. As it was, it was just him standing there, waiting for a breakdown truck and looking sheepish.

I wondered at the time if his licence would be endorsed and to what extent.