Crashed my 550, body shop referrals

I was in Hemet last night (80 miles east of Los Angeles). On my way home, I choose a small deserted road out in the countryside to have a little late night fun. It was dark and please spare me the grief on this forum about driving too fast on a road I wasn't familiar with .... I rounded a slight curve to discover three concrete barriers placed across the roadway. Had only about 300 feet advance notice ..... and needless to say .... this wasn't enough. What surprises me is there were no warning signs whatsoever (I went back and redrove this stretch just to double check). No road ends in "X amount of feet" signs, no reflective road closed signs (not even on the barrier) .... no advance warning whatsoever ...... Yes, I was doing way over the posted speed limit (100 -120 mph) but you'd think they would give motorist some sort of advance notice that you're approaching an Artificial dead end on a road that actually continues on the other side of the barrier. There was no reason for these being there.... no construction zone, the road surface was fine on both sides of the barrier, etc. The barrier was placed on the roadway a few hundred feet before it merges in a Y pattern onto the main road. Had the barriers not been there I would have easily just continued onto the main road without incident .... but unfortunately my options weren't so pleasant. It was either go head on into the concrete barriers thus totaling the car, risk an abrupt 180 and maybe spin into the barrier anyway, or turn slightly to the right of the barrier for a little off roading over a two foot dirt berm which unfortunately dropped a few feet more on the otherside which put me onto the shoulder of the main road I would've mearged onto if this wasn't blocked. The car was basiacally OK after this and I drove it home with no issues. I've never had to make a "panic" stop like this before, and I must say that in a "pinch" I was a bit disappointed with the Maranello's stopping power. However, the brakes were cold so this probably led to the less than desired stopping power. Didn't lock the brakes or skid during all of this .... actually it was a very controlled stop with a last second turn to the right aiming for the path of least resistance to avoid the barriers. When I hit the dirt berm I was doing probably going about 25 mph. The car took the berm OK ... it was that 45 degree drop off the back side that did in my front spoiler/bumper and also caught a piece of the rear bumper as I came out of it. The rest of the car looks fine givene the situation and what might have happened ... it appears to drive and handle as before but something strange did happen. The front hood is perfect but seems to of slid forward about 3/8 of an inch. You can see this in the gap betweeen the windshield/door post area and the hood placement in this area (you can se this in the pictures below) ..... it seems to of moved forward as if the hinge bolts slipped forward in their adjustment slots .... and because it moved forward slightly I'm now unable to open the hood because it's jammed in the release latch. I also noticed the right front fender underwent a little stress ... moved in slightly here and out slightly there... it's not very noticable but I gave everything a very close looking over today. There's also a slight tear in the front underbody panel but no other visable underside damage. Until I noticed the fender issue.... though about just repairing/replacing the bumpers myself .... but it's probably an insurance deal at this point. All and all, the car saw very little damage for what I put it through.

Any recommendations on good Ferrari body shops in the LA area? Anyone know what front and rear bumper costs?

Just to bring everything into prespective ..... I love driving my Maranello in all modes, fast, very fast, slow and even at times, stupid. I doubt this will change my driving habits too much ... after all .... why else would anyone want to own a Ferrari? The only bummer will be missing my car while it's being repaired.

I'll try to post some pictures.

 

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Thanks for the comments.......

Bottom line .... this was my fault ... too fast under the circumstances .... but you are correct ... there absolutely should have been warning signs posted, or at the very least a big shiney reflective "Road Closed" sign on the barrier that would've given me enough advance notice to avoid this all together. I may go back out there at some point to take some pictures of the barriers and lack of signage. If so, I'll post some pictures. No one was hurt ... except for my beloved Ferrari.

I'm really not too bummed by this ..... it was inevitable at some point because driving my Ferrari makes me feel like a teenager again. If anything, my biggests concern is an insurance claim (first one ever in 35 years of driving) and of course the possibility of a carfax entry against the car. But as you can see from the pictures.... there really wasn't much damage so I'm sure I can explain this away when and if I sell the car.

I got out the car last night expecting to see a lot worse damage.

 

If you look at the picture showing the hood, headlight and bumper .... you'll see the hood moved forward slightly about 3/8" but it's still correctly aligned side to side. The bumper doesn't appear to have pushed up or changed position and I agree with what others have said about the overall damage appearing to be very limited. Door gaps/fit all look great as does everything else. It's possible there was some slight movement in the frame or maybe with the forward support members holding the bumper in place but what with the overall damge I doubt anything serious happened. I have a two post lift here at my house. I was all set to remove the bumpers yesterday, giving access to the hood release and doing a very detailed inspection..... that is until I saw the slight deformation to the right fender (almost un-noticeable), you can see the outer lip in one of my pictures is pushed out slightly and there's a slight indentation above this area to compensate. I'm dying to tear the car apart and handle the repairs myself .... but have to decide first if I'm going to turn this over to my insurance or not, in which case it's probably best to keep the car in one piece.

I'll let you know what I find when the hood gets opened. I'm thinking it just slipped at it's attaching bolts ... figures crossed !!

 

To whomever removed the one picture showing my licence plate number ... thanks .... I've never been one to worry too much about posting a licence number .... but received several PM's saying this wasn't a very good idea, especially given the topic at hand. I tend to compare posting a picture with this shown, to driving the car on the street or parking it in my driveway ... if someone want's to get this info ... there's plenty of ways to do so. But thanks to all those who gave me a heads up regarding the need to be more careful. I see this forum as one for like minded people and .... yes .... I didn't need to share any of this with everyone .... but then again, this is what Ferrarichat is all about and I really don't mind sharing my experiences with all the good people I've met on this forum.

Thanks,

 

Spoke with Dave at Premier Autobody in Culver City. Sent him some pictures and arranged for the car to be flatbedded to his shop tomorrow. Based on my phone conversations he seems to be a pretty good guy. Told me he'd have it done in about three weeks ........ Btw, new bumpers are $ 5,000 each including paint and labor ...... Oh well!