2) Is very true. I crashed my first car aged about 7 on a friend's farm - old volvo estate, slammed it diagonally into a tree doing about 30, and rolled it down a bank. Terrifying, but a very, very valuable lesson in terms of just how much energy a few tonnes of metal at 30mph carries.

I walked out of it unscathed, but was a kid made of rubber. Dare say these days I'd have smashed ribs and so-forth from the same - at the least.