Witness A Ferrari Crash Today On Freeway 280

[ImolaOrange03]

So I'm cruising down 280 freeway in California just before Sand Hill Road turnoff. Everyone's going faster than me. It's kinda crowded but not too bad. Along comes this Ferrari F430 and blows by me in the slow lane doing maybe 80ish. He's zigging and zagging around cars as he passes the crowd. Next thing, I notice a couple BMW's joining in the chase and off they go, trying to keep up with it.

Well, a funny thing happens next. Not to far ahead, maybe half mile I see a puff of smoke and I say damn...a car crash, car fire? What could that be? Well, lo and behold.... it was the Ferrari. Debris scattered about 100 yards and everyone approaching the crash site began to slow down and changed lanes to avoid the debris. As I go closer, I could not recognize the car at first as the front end was completely smashed in. Not until I got alongside did I realize that it WAS the Ferrari. He had clipped some car when he was trying to pass and that caused him to spin and hit the concrete divider. Had to be going excess of 75 when he hit the wall. Ferrari was TOTALED!!!! I pulled up alongside of him as he got out of the car. He was a kinda chubby guy, in his mid 30's and I asked him if he was alright. He said he's fine but I felt he had to say that...saving a bruised ego. After all an impact with the concrete wall is no piece of cake. So I continued on and I was going to take some photos of the car but I was struggling to hold back my laughter that I had to drive away. He'll probably feel the bodily pain within an hour or two after such an impact. I hope he's really ok. The Ferrari is toast. His insurance will cover the cost of the Ferrari. Didn't see the BMWs around. Maybe they turned off and were coming back. I didnt stick around as a massive traffic jam was happening.
Luckily for all those cars, the Ferrari didn't spin and hit any other cars. Accident might have been worse than what it was.

Money comes easy with some of these computer guys but these hotdogs really need to learn how to drive those super fast cars. And you don't learn it by racing on the freeway. It's not like a computer game.

 

[liftnot]

Had to be going excess of 75 when he hit the wall. Ferrari was TOTALED!!!! He was a kinda chubby guy, in his mid 30's and I asked him if he was alright. He said he's fine but I felt he had to say that...saving a bruised ego. I was struggling to hold back my laughter.......I didnt stick around as a massive traffic jam was happening. .......Luckily for all those cars, the Ferrari didn't spin and hit any other cars. Accident might have been worse than what it was.
Money comes easy with some of these computer guys but these hotdogs really need to learn how to drive those super fast cars. And you don't learn it by racing on the freeway. It's not like a computer game.

Well, every so often you have guys on Prime boasting how fast and what they were doing at speed on the freeway w/o getting caught or did not cause any accident. It is so tempting when you have so much power and feel the need for speed, but not doing it on track, will end up in this kind of situation. Luckily just his ego is hurt, not other people's lives going at that speed. If you have that kind of car but w/o the skills, you would see that often on the freeway in Calif. as they want to show off. If you have that kind of car AND w/ the skills, you would show off your skills on the track cuz you know you are fast against the clock vs against Prius or BMWs.

I was doing 80 on a light Sunday on I-5, a Lambo passed me and disappeared so quickly, he was going at least doubled my speed w/ little traffic around. Yes, these dot com/computer/etc type have more money than God but with no driving skills or etiquette. IMO, It is more fun to drive a slow car fast than driving a fast car slow. If I had his power, I would want to use it and show off too when I was younger. There is a reason why so many exotic cars have crashed on public roads. I want to show off cuz I can and I will even I know its dangerous and I may look like a d-bag.

 

[steveny]

I witnessed a similar accident with a much worse outcome. In my teens I was living alone in Austin Texas. I was bopping down the highway in a pos Chevy vega. This would have been right around the time the new vette came out in 1984-85. This guy flys by me like I'm standing still. He's got hot chicks hanging out the top of the car. I'm thinking, someday, someday. About a minute goes by and up ahead I see a puff of smoke. I roll up on the scene and they'd hit a pylon supporting an overpass. No survivors, only pieces of corvette and bodies.

 

[RYU]

I may have met this Ferrari Driver's brother last night. I just dropped off my friend (Tim, you know Jon K.) from spending the day at Buttonwillow tuning the car and me working on tuning myself (beat my previous best time ). On the drive home I was going slow at about 65mph minding my own business. A 80's G-Body Monte Carlo (it could have been a GNX) was doing the typical taunting and wanting to run. He had his BFF Civic brother following him with much too many LED DRLs. For 5 miles they try to pick a race. Eventually, I got tired of the nonesense and made some space for him to pull up next to me. I look over, he looks over. I drop to 3rd. Let the exhaust valves open up and he goes for it (I kept it at 65mph and upshifted to 5th). To his credit his car was fast (in a straight line) but about 100ft up a big plume of white smoke comes from under the car. I think he threw a rod right thru the block. His dumb friend followed him and i'm sure was sprayed in oil. What pissed me off was all the oil he probably sprayed on the fwy. Thankfully he was in the slow lane. I'll call it into CHP to make sure there's no oil in the fwy.

Anyway, I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD. Darwin wins again.

 

[bngl3rt]

As a "computer guy" that likes to drive my NSX fast on the street, I will point out that although I like to drop the hammer when there's no one around, it is really dumb to move faster than the speed of traffic. Driving aggressively around other cars is a great way to get killed, seeing as how most drivers are asleep at the wheel these days. If I am flying down a highway all alone and I come upon a cluster of cars, I slow down and move through them at no greater than a 5mph speed differential, and I certainly don't do any "weaving" - that is a great way to get the cops called on you.

Don't street race and don't weave. If you have the road to yourself, go ahead and enjoy using your car for what it was designed to do. I don't see a problem with that.

 

[shawn110975]

I would ahve said you alright buddy? he then would reply..... I would then say " if drive like an idiot you will always crash like a moron"

you could have killed other people did you f-ing think of that?

he would have prob said nothing

 

[docjohn]

now if the op was hugh we would have some great video of the "shunt":wink:

 

[myw]

great story. im glad nobody got hurt but the driver is a complete, complete moron.

 

[davidf]

Those Bimmers probably weren't coming back. I'm sure witnesses saw BMW's racing along with him. Those guys are long gone.

 

[liftnot]

I may have met this Ferrari Driver's brother last night. I just dropped off my friend (Tim, you know Jon K.)

You had me worried when you mentioned Jon, I thought something had happened to him! Go easy on him, we need him around for a looong time
I PM him about Qs for the V-Pro. I wanted to know if it can be tuned for E85( i believe it can since its a different mixture).

I too. Every time I get on the freeway, there is always a few ricers want my attention, sometimes I question about my orientation if you know what i mean. You thought he was taunting you? Maybe he just want a date and not a race! now his motor is blown and its all your fault.:biggrin:

 

[TomCat]

QUOTE=liftnot;1746353]. If I had his power, I would want to use it and show off too when I was younger. There is a reason why so many exotic cars have crashed on public roads. I want to show off cuz I can and I will even I know its dangerous and I may look like a d-bag.[/QUOTE]

I find that the higher the cost/performance of the car...the less inclined I am to show off. It may be an age thing also (as I get older/more mature) but I used to really try to "prove" stuff in my big block Pontiac Trans Am...but now I mostly watch.

To paraphrase Gary Larson:
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[gdae]

I witnessed a similar accident with a much worse outcome. In my teens I was living alone in Austin Texas. I was bopping down the highway in a pos Chevy vega. This would have been right around the time the new vette came out in 1984-85. This guy flys by me like I'm standing still. He's got hot chicks hanging out the top of the car. I'm thinking, someday, someday. About a minute goes by and up ahead I see a puff of smoke. I roll up on the scene and they'd hit a pylon supporting an overpass. No survivors, only pieces of corvette and bodies.

Funny, just last night my wife and I were going to the movies when a BMW blew by us like we were sitting still. And I remembered Steveny's story - he'd mentioned it before- and I recounted it to my wife.

 

[EuroBoutique]

I was on the same stretch of 280 after leaving Stanford and I think I saw the crash too, backed up traffic for quite some time!

As we are young, we do stupid things (me included) and if we are lucky, we learn from our mistakes like I have and just thank god nothing happened. I've had my share of "WTF" events in my cars and motorcycles in my younger days. Now that I look back, I want to bitch slap myself if I could go back in time like Back to the Future. I pray to teach my kids well and they would never put themselves in those situations down the road.

But as we age, we have a lot less to prove and when I do drive my nice cars out, it's strictly for a cruise. People that want to race me I just wave, and drive off at a leisure pace. They can go race the next idiot since when we own fast cars, at least for me, I would not want to waste gas or take the risk since I have much more to lose.

Open highway, nothing wrong with a few WOT pulls but in traffic, no way you are just playing Russian Roulette and I would never take those chances now.