Mat Armstrong smashes Gallardo

Bish, bash, bosh... into a hedge, taking out a telegraph pole and a lamp post.

I've been there, without the telegraph pole or lamp post. In my case it was a 168bhp TVR on tyres with less tread than my shoes, a flash of red mist coming off a roundabout and some daft acceleration around a bend.

In my case I ended up backwards into a grass bank on the M4 slip road at Slough. A crack in the GRP was the least of my worries. I was more concerned with any attending police taking too much interest in my bald Bridgestones and the fact that my car had "Speed Matters" emblazoned down the side of the car.

YouTuber Matt Armstrong has famously had an 'incident' in his 1000bhp Gallardo. A character of his notoriety was never going to keep that quiet so he's embraced it and detailed the whole incident on his YouTube channel last night. From the moment he crashed, his phone camera was on, recording it all for posterity.

In his case, it was a damp road, 'sub-optimal' choice of tyres (semi-slicks more suited to track days) and a cheeky upshift unsettling the car.

Fortunately for him, when he lost control, he hit the pole with the front wing of the car... a few feet along and he'd be making no more videos.

Mat's a very positive character and has laughed the whole thing off in his usual cheery manner, noting how lucky he is and admitting "I can't drive".

It should be food for thought for all of us enthusiasts however. Particularly those of us who have driven "a lot of fast cars" as Mat has. I include myself in this. Experience behind the wheel of supercars actually teaches you not a lot. Pushing boundaries and making mistakes teaches us - and most of us are still here to tell the tales. That's no way to learn of course, you wouldn't learn to operate a crane or an HGV by trial and error.

Those of us in the enthusiast community often talk as if we're honorary members of the advanced driving club, achieved through miles driven. Unfortunately this isn't an air miles scheme. To truly belong, you need to study.

Hypocritical of me? I'm booked in on Wednesday for my first DMAP session - I must admit to myself that the balance of my road-mile account is irrelevant.