also we probably have a different perspective on what it means to hammer your car. i'm not talking about hammering it through city streets, i'm referring to hammering it through hilly roads in the wilderness where there is only really your own life at risk. assuming this, then someone who spends 100 hours in a v8 racing through the mountain pass but driving sensibly on city streets becomes far less of a danger to other drivers than someone who spends 100 hours just driving on city streets, because one is FORCED to learn skills while the other does so at their own leisure. i know in reality this isn't true and some people will hammer their cars in urban areas. but as long as you put in the effort to learn then i really don't think it matters.
Yeah I can see where your coming from... like I always say to my mum that I recon I could handle situations on the road better then her cos I have pushed my car to its limits and know them and what to do, she does not (She is a VERY slow driver, painfull at times) - and being realistic, all most people ever do is drive normally, which they say means they have more 'experience' for emergency situations, but I disagree with because a monkey can honestly be trained to drive, its a whole new order of skills and expereince to react correctly in an emergency etc.
BUT I think it doesnt take a V8 to achieve this, like I kinda alluded to before, its more about pushing whatever car you have to its limits in a safe place, ideally a track, or in my car at 3am in the morning on a 3 lane road... so you have a good feel for the car and know its characterisitcs such as understeer etc.
PS. Today on my way to uni, 2 cop cars checkin speeds AND 3 RBTS (2 of which had the mobile truck thingy), the two on my side of the road pulled the the cars ahead of me in and I didnt. What I dont understand, is why are they doing it on a Wednesday at 10am!! Surely at like Friday at night or Saturday they would have more succes... maybe they were just making their presence known or somthing