Ferrari Mailing List: Require Driving School? Yes or No?

[Steve Cook (stevec]

Here's a rhetorical question I thought of after my first _unintentional_
power oversteer in the 355.

 

Yesterday afternoon, midway through a left hand turn, I put on a bit too
much power and the backend broke loose. I caught it easily and corrected
without a problem (even with a grin on my face). But that's because I've
gone through numerous Driving Schools, auto-crossed for many years and
did a couple SCCA open-wheel races. 

 

I thought, gee, I hope that doesn't happen to my wife if she's midway
through a corner, she would have lost it and spun.  It doesn't take much
to get the back end loose without traction control.

 

That's where my question came from - what about all the inexperienced
drivers buying super/high-performance vehicles with little or no
experience driving them - (like pro-footballers in the UK ;).  Cars are
getting more and more powerful, and there's only so much a computer can
do to control your traction at 100+mph.

 

So now, the question: Should Ferrari _REQUIRE_ new buyers to take high
performance driving lessons before selling them a supercar?

 

I think yes, unless the buyer can show necessary skills, they should
require buyers to take performance driving lessons. Although they would
legally need to say it's not responsible for giving them
over-confidence...

 

Discuss...

-steve