Couple of days ago in the south of Germany, near the border to Switzerland... Some photos on the right. The local reporter doesn't seem to know anything about cars and tells something about 'new Ferrari', 'just 10,000 km'... http://bit.ly/uz7Z4l
80 year old F40 owner, and that uses his car! Kudos to him, but a shame that he wrecked the car, seems he lost control when slipping on paint markings on the road.
Driver (owner) aged 80 seemed to be okay. Touched the grass and then slid... just bad luck that there were some small trees on the meadow. But also could have been worse. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Maybe they can splice together that car with the one that was wrecked in Houston and make one good one
I guarantee you that car will be rebuilt. Many F40s and Enzos (especially Enzos) have been rebuilt from MUCH less.
80 years old...that's awesome...I'd love to know what his attitude was/is like...after he realized he was ok he said something like "well that was a helluva ride, fun but expensive...lets grab a beer"
If you follow the line in the grass it leads straight to the curve in the road. I'm guessing touching the grass was a result and not a cause. Maybe he was too hot in the turn, lifted and lost the back end. Or got on it too early and the turbos lit up the rear. Sadly a lot of 40s have met the same fate.
80 yrs old?? Wow! Very cool! Shame he wrecked the car, but as long as he is ok then that's the main thing.
Your prob right but it's REALLY close to the point were owners will pay enough for the parts now, or close. It's an upward spiral in the making.
Looks like the initial impact was the right side of the car, near the cowl / just behind the front wheel area, slamming into the larger tree (the one that is "barked" and that the car is pointed away from in the photos) ----- then spinning the car around, counter-clockwise, to its resting orientation???? And, I would agree with others that the driver lost this one while he was still on the pavement.....car was already out of control before it went onto the grass.
My monies on this: I suspect he down shifted coming into the bend and when he reapplied the throttle, the turbo's were spooled up and he got a lot more power than he was expecting and the car span off the road.
You gotta drive the F40 with a lot of restraint with your right foot. I don't use full throttle in 2nd or sometimes 3rd gear unless I'm pointed in a straight line. No doubt the pros can do it but that is not me. A friend of mine had a sticker on his dash that said "YOU ARE NOT MICHAEL SCHUMACHER". I don't have that sticker but I visualize it everytime I start the car. It keeps me out of trouble, knock on wood.
I'm seeing comments like, "80 y/o driving an F40, that's awesome!" I personally think, "80 y/o driving an F40, look out others!" Arguably, this accident has shown it was too much car for the man.. Wasn't there a quote from Enzo saying something along the lines of, "I build cars for young drivers that only old men can afford."?? I know I'm scared to death of my relatives in their 80's driving Lexus' let alone race cars with massive turbo-lag.
Isn't this the same F-40 from special-cars.de? The site of the crash is not far from their place in Germany near Swiss border.
On other websites I've read the comments and people were bashing him. That's why I like Fchat because people on here are nice. Anyway it's great that these cars are being driven. Chances are at least a couple will crash especially when you combine cold tires(it looks cold in the pictures), a driver other than schumi, a turbo, and the lack of driver aids. Hopefully he will be able to repair it and most importantly: that he is ok!
the special-cars F40 has more than 60.000km on the clock last time I saw it (the crashed one around 10.000km) and it also doesn't have the "D" sticker on the back. So I guess they're not the same cars. I'm not sure how the weather was at lake constance that friday, but here in Stuttgart it was quite cold.... Martin
+1 It's a long series of incidents that cause an accident, could happen to anyone under similar circumstances. The F40 needs a little more presence of mind that's all. +1