New cars that are too hot to handle

The people buying these cars are also changing. Unlike previous supercar collectors who often babied their machines, they tend to drive about 4,000 to 6,000 miles per year -- more than double the average from a decade ago. And they're not getting any more mature: The median age for ultraluxury sports-car buyers dropped to 47 last year from an average of 56 just 10 years ago, according to CNW. And you don't have to be an actuary to know that younger people are more likely to drive aggressively. A spokeswoman for Leland-West Insurance Brokers says most of the supercar claims the company handles each year involve men aged 25 to 40 driving newer high-performance cars too fast and losing control.

'Controllable' speed

Adnan Mehmood, a 32-year-old fabric importer and stock trader from Miami, counts himself among those who don't believe a high-performance car should be pampered. He says he has driven his 2006 Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster faster than 190 mph a number of times on freeways. Mehmood says it's the engineering that gives him the confidence to go that fast. "When you are in the car, it's so stable," he says. "It's such a controllable speed. In a normal car, when you are going 80 or 90, it feels like you are going really, really fast. In the Lambo, you are going 120 or 140, and honestly, it feels like it's stopped on the freeway. It feels like it's not moving."

• MSN Autos: The 500-Horsepower Club

He is awaiting delivery of Lamborghini's new Murcielago LP640 Roadster, which has an extra 60 horsepower and a new suspension design that will help make it one of the fastest cars the company has ever built -- traveling up to 211 mph and from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. "I want to go to 200 mph," Mehmood says.

Veteran sports-car connoisseur Michael Fux says he has a pretty good idea why all these crashes are happening. The 64-year-old mattress entrepreneur from Miami, whose collection includes a Bugatti Veyron, a Ferrari 599, an Enzo and five Lamborghinis, says younger drivers are constantly challenging him to race. "These kids, they don't use their heads," he says. "They think they're back in the old Wild West."

Driving experts say most accidents in these cars happen when drivers take turns too fast for the road conditions or start turning prematurely and then snap off the accelerator to compensate. If the car's back end starts to fishtail, many inexperienced drivers will fail to steer in the direction of the sliding tail or will overcorrect by turning too severely in that direction. Both mistakes can cause a spin. "It's a symphony of inputs and adjustments to keep the car under control," says David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division.

For Anthony Almada, a 46-year-old nutritional biochemist and entrepreneur from Dana Point, Calif., the catalyst was a deceivingly slick road. While driving his $440,000 Porsche Carrera GT on a bend near his home at 80 mph on a slightly wet road early last year, he says the car snapped into a spin. He followed the procedure he'd been taught in driving class and "put both feet in" -- pressing down on the brake and the clutch at the same time -- and hoped for the best. The car broadsided a brick wall and spun at least six times and caught fire. "It wasn't something I could have corrected," says Almada, who climbed out unhurt. "I was going too fast for the road conditions. It's that simple."

Another common mistake: failing to warm up the tires. Standing inside his garage last month at Classic Coach Repair in Elizabeth, N.J., owner Onofrio Triarsi points out two damaged Ferraris -- a red 360 that needs a new quarter panel and bumper and a blue 550 Maranello with similar damage. Both cars had been taken out on racetracks on cold mornings by drivers who had not given the tires enough time to heat up (and thus adhere better to the asphalt). When customers drive off now, Triarsi leaves them with the same advice: "Don't forget the tires."

In some cases, drivers say they got into trouble after shutting off the car's traction-control system to get a more "authentic" sports-car experience. During a test for Car and Driver magazine last spring in Italy, technical editor Aaron Robinson, 37, flicked off the electronic stability control in a 611-horsepower Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano so he could get the vehicle's rear end to flare out around a curve for a photo. But after giving the car "too much throttle and not enough core steering," he says he wound up sideswiping a wall. "Any car with 600 horsepower is intimidating," Robinson says.

Many of these accidents are, of course, just examples of pure recklessness. The Bugatti Veyron owner who crashed in Surrey, England, this year was said to be traveling at least 100 mph on a country lane before colliding with a station wagon. He was cited by police for driving "without due care and attention." The 26-year-old who crashed his 2005 Lamborghini into five parked cars in Santa Monica, Calif., in March was reportedly racing at 75 mph around a 35-mph curve. He was charged with driving under the influence.

Continued: Rentals fall victim

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