Also, something worth mentioning for those new to high horsepower vehicles and the like:

Your available horsepower is dependent on your RPM, so if you're driving something that is notorious for being tail-happy, and you aren't in the mood to get tail-happy, keep it in the highest gear possible to keep the RPMs down and keep the amount of power on tap low. Less chance of spinning out. I mean, if your engine puts out 450 horsepower at 6000 rpm, and 200 horsepower at 2000 rpm, keeping it in the gear that keeps it at around 2000 rpm will make it infinitely more difficult to break loose at full throttle. (On a side note this is also why driving a high horsepower automatic in automatic mode is scary as hell because it can kick down like a beast, so in those events, if paddleshift/manual shift mode is available, always use it to lock the car into a higher gear!)

Also, the lower the gear you are in, the easier it is to chance the car's weight bias when hitting the gas (punching it at 20mph in 1st or 2nd will cause the car to "bounce" back on the rear easier, and letting off allows the weight to shift back to the front with even more vigor), so keeping it in the highest gear also helps with that. If you're on a bumpy ass road, or simply not sitting correctly with the heel planted on the floorboard, it's easy to get your foot on the gas pedal to synchronize with the car's pitching back and forth (since if your foot isn't planted, it'll be moving opposite the cars movement, since your foot is freely floating, and this is very very bad).

Keep it in appropriate gears and RPM ranges until you have the time behind the wheel to "tame the beast", some cars that spin out wildly in 1st/2nd can be driven hard in 3rd/4th/5th at those speeds and will be super duper stable, no need to keep it in those scary gears and RPM ranges.