I won't bore everyone here with tales of the grocery-getter I drove at 18.

Before I could drive, our family lived in Europe for a number of years. There, cars were always driven HARD by your definition. There are a lot of two-lane, twisty back roads, and to get anywhere in any sort of time you needed to push it.

Back then (early 60's) imported Detroit iron had to be heavily modified. Brakes were the weakest part, and unacceptable as they could barely stop the car once from 80 mph, let alone twice or three times in succession.

Then, the Europeans were indignant to find a car that couldn't bury the speedometer needle. Why mark it 120 mph if it can barely touch 100?

Box-stock Detroit cars could not even begin to keep up with the duty cycles of the lowly VWs, which were designed to run all day at WFO (Wide ... Open) throttle. Of course, this netted about 75-80 mph on a good day, but it buried the speedo and they could do it all day and all night.

"Freeways" like our Interstate system here do not really exist. Here, you can drone from breakfast to lunch to dinner on cruise control and not have to turn more than twice. There, even the famed Autobahn and Autostrada are not much longer than a run from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

BMW and Mercedes especially seemed over-designed compared to Detroit cars.

My $0.02 is go ahead, drive it hard now and then when conditions allow you to. Enjoy how it responds. Replace the parts that wear out.

Live long and prosper.

BCingU, Jim