All major German manufacturers (except Porsche) electronically limit their cars to 250 km/h, as an unofficial nod to safety.
Maybe he meant through fourth gear. Once you get the tires all gummy and slick in 1st and 2nd you could probably spin 'em all day long.
Or maybe he meant ‘catching rubber’. Lots of cars can chirp the tires if shifted hard into fourth gear, not enough to produce smoke though.
I really don’t see how a higher performing car is anything other than inherently safer than a lower performing car. It’s acceleration that is capable of getting you out of trouble, keeping your car on the road and giving you control. Fast cars do crash, and perhaps their owners are more likely to drive them less responsibly because of the car’s image, but believe me – I’d rather have the roads full of Maserati driving assholes than have to dodge another Honda merging into my lane at 55 miles per hour.
One person darting 20 miles per hour faster than everybody on the freeway is doing the rough equivalent of navigating a stationary sparse parking lot at 20 miles per hour. One person entering the freeway 20 miles per hour slower than everybody on the damn road is doing the rough equivalent of attempting to navigate a stationary sparse parking lot at 20 miles per hour in reverse with their eyes fixed straight ahead, except this doesn’t really work and the entire road has to flow around them until they speed up.
Seriously. Next time a silver honda merges in front of me when I’m going 70 and they’re going 45 I just might get “distracted by something” and plow two tons of american steel into their fucking “safest on the market” tin can. 
The Maserati driver has to learn someplace, right?
I can get my little silver Honda up to proper speed (110 km/h) in the space of almost every single on-ramp I’ve ever been on.
Blame the driver.
Disagree. If I drive at 22 mph around someone who drives at 2 mph, startle him and make him jerk his steering wheel, his car will make a minuscule movement
If I drive at 140 mph around someone who drives at 120 mph, startle him and make him do the same steering wheel movement as above, I will make him shoot off the road at 120 mph.
Of course it’s not equivalent, there’s also the fact that kinetic energies involved are vastly different. But in my mind it’s a useful model because being startled and reacting incorrectly is not considered normal driving behavior (in fact it’s them actively fucking up in a very major way), but passing is fairly normal (and although passing faster than the speed limit is against the rules, it’s still normal).
No matter how fast you are passing somebody it is your duty to anticipate them being a moron and to leave room for error that is appropriate to your speed and theirs. However, it is a mutual responsibility to not react suddenly and inappropriately, and it is a mutual responsibility to not suddenly create a dangerous situation that others are forced to react to.
Your scenario breaks the model the same way any other scenario involving sudden and inappropriate behavior, an epileptic seizure, road failure or a major unforeseen mechanical failure breaks most driving models. We are taught to drive by avoiding hitting anything in front of us or to our sides. I have never seen anybody react to being passed like that and if you feel you could yourself I suggest you find a way to make sure you don’t. Regardless if some jackass successfully navigates around you going 220 miles per hour and you get startled and slam into a wall, it’s not really his fault. If you continued doing what you were already doing which is also what is expected of you in such a situation, an accident would not have occurred.
In my scenario, an unsafe driver merging going too slowly in front of me creates a situation where I must act or an accident is going to occur. I am not expecting him to navigate around me in what’s essentially reverse from his point of view because weaving in and out of lanes to avoid hitting a large number of cars is probably several orders of magnitude easier if you are going 20 miles per hour faster than traffic as compared to going 20 miles per hour slower.
In other words:
I pass you going 20 mph faster, you get startled and crash into a wall – mostly your bad, but partially my bad for doing something you were not expecting but were not required to react to.
I merge in front of you going 20 mph slower, you rear-end me – entirely my bad ethically – I intentionally created a situation that you were forced to react to lest you crash, and you were unable to. Legally in most states it’s entirely your bad for rear-ending me, but that’s a completely separate issue.