xcel
05-16-2006, 09:36 AM
Money does not buy taste, nor does it buy driving ability. (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060516/AUTO02/605160301/1148/AUTO01)
John McCormick - Detroit News - May 16, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Ferrari_Wreck.jpg
Ferrari was totaled after racing a Porsche and losing control, crashing into an innocent car.
Money does not buy taste, nor does it buy driving ability. The latter has become increasingly evident with the growing number of exotic car accidents.
Some of these high profile crashes are humorous examples of what happens when a person with plenty of money, but inadequate driving skills, gets behind the wheel of an ultra-powerful car. Instances of such well-heeled idiocy can be seen on the web, at sites such as wreckedexotics.com.
Now and again the outcome of these wrecks is not so funny, when the lives of the driver, or others, are lost. But whether or not there is a fatality involved, the question raised by these incidents centers on a need for driver training.
Any car driven badly can be a problem, but the chances of disaster seem to multiply as horsepower increases. And compared to only a few years ago when 300 or 400hp seemed like a lot of power, the number of cars today with engine output over 500hp is up sharply and destined to keep growing. These are cars with extreme rates of acceleration, top speeds often in excess of 200mph and sometimes very demanding handling qualities.
Two recent incidents have thrown this whole issue into sharp relief. Firstly there was the affair of a Ferrari Enzo (a particularly rare supercar), which was crashed at very high speed on a public road in California. Fortunately neither the driver, nor anyone else, was injured in the accident. The story caused a stir because of the strange behavior of the driver, a Swedish electronic games entrepreneur, who has subsequently been arrested by the police for fraud.
While the Enzo crash did not cost any lives, sadly the same was not true of a crash involving a Porsche Carrera GT, another extraordinary exotic with similar performance to the Ferrari. The Carrera accident occurred on a race circuit during a track day for owners of such cars. Both the owner who was driving and the passenger, whom he had invited for a ride, were killed when the Porsche slid out of control and hit a barrier.
Both accident victims were in their 30s and very wealthy. Subsequently, the wife of the passenger launched multiple law suits against the driver, the race track, the track day organizers and, significantly, Porsche for selling an "unsafe car."
More details of the case are explained in an interesting legal column in the June issue of Sports Car Market magazine. But one of the claims made against Porsche is that the Carrera GT is "too difficult a car to handle at high speeds for the average driver without instruction."
In other words, Porsche should not have sold the car to anyone without ensuring that the buyer was given adequate driver training.
Obviously the same observation could be made about a number of supercars on the market today. Two Detroit-grown examples that come to mind are the Ford GT and the widely rumored Corvette SuperSport, an extra powerful version of the current Corvette that is expected to launch in the next year or so.
None of this is exactly news to automakers; Porsche has been offering a driving school for its buyers for some years. Other manufacturers, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes do the same. But so far there has been no legal requirement that a buyer must complete special training before driving off in his or her 200mph exotic.
As an enthusiast driver with a keen interest in fast cars, the idea of more legislation in this area is an anathema. On the other hand when innocent lives are put at risk by the stupidly or ignorance of people who happen to have a great deal of disposable income, then there is a good argument for change.
John McCormick is a columnist for Autos Insider and can be reached at john.mccormick@detnews.com
John McCormick - Detroit News - May 16, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Ferrari_Wreck.jpg
Ferrari was totaled after racing a Porsche and losing control, crashing into an innocent car.
Money does not buy taste, nor does it buy driving ability. The latter has become increasingly evident with the growing number of exotic car accidents.
Some of these high profile crashes are humorous examples of what happens when a person with plenty of money, but inadequate driving skills, gets behind the wheel of an ultra-powerful car. Instances of such well-heeled idiocy can be seen on the web, at sites such as wreckedexotics.com.
Now and again the outcome of these wrecks is not so funny, when the lives of the driver, or others, are lost. But whether or not there is a fatality involved, the question raised by these incidents centers on a need for driver training.
Any car driven badly can be a problem, but the chances of disaster seem to multiply as horsepower increases. And compared to only a few years ago when 300 or 400hp seemed like a lot of power, the number of cars today with engine output over 500hp is up sharply and destined to keep growing. These are cars with extreme rates of acceleration, top speeds often in excess of 200mph and sometimes very demanding handling qualities.
Two recent incidents have thrown this whole issue into sharp relief. Firstly there was the affair of a Ferrari Enzo (a particularly rare supercar), which was crashed at very high speed on a public road in California. Fortunately neither the driver, nor anyone else, was injured in the accident. The story caused a stir because of the strange behavior of the driver, a Swedish electronic games entrepreneur, who has subsequently been arrested by the police for fraud.
While the Enzo crash did not cost any lives, sadly the same was not true of a crash involving a Porsche Carrera GT, another extraordinary exotic with similar performance to the Ferrari. The Carrera accident occurred on a race circuit during a track day for owners of such cars. Both the owner who was driving and the passenger, whom he had invited for a ride, were killed when the Porsche slid out of control and hit a barrier.
Both accident victims were in their 30s and very wealthy. Subsequently, the wife of the passenger launched multiple law suits against the driver, the race track, the track day organizers and, significantly, Porsche for selling an "unsafe car."
More details of the case are explained in an interesting legal column in the June issue of Sports Car Market magazine. But one of the claims made against Porsche is that the Carrera GT is "too difficult a car to handle at high speeds for the average driver without instruction."
In other words, Porsche should not have sold the car to anyone without ensuring that the buyer was given adequate driver training.
Obviously the same observation could be made about a number of supercars on the market today. Two Detroit-grown examples that come to mind are the Ford GT and the widely rumored Corvette SuperSport, an extra powerful version of the current Corvette that is expected to launch in the next year or so.
None of this is exactly news to automakers; Porsche has been offering a driving school for its buyers for some years. Other manufacturers, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes do the same. But so far there has been no legal requirement that a buyer must complete special training before driving off in his or her 200mph exotic.
As an enthusiast driver with a keen interest in fast cars, the idea of more legislation in this area is an anathema. On the other hand when innocent lives are put at risk by the stupidly or ignorance of people who happen to have a great deal of disposable income, then there is a good argument for change.
John McCormick is a columnist for Autos Insider and can be reached at john.mccormick@detnews.com