Sometimes in life we feel like we have the world on our shoulders, then you read about something like this and it all falls back into perspective, the mother and the driver will live with those terrible memories for the rest of their lives, so sad.
Yep. I suspect there will be multiple criminal charges in addition to civil lawsuits. What a tragedy.
How retarded of a driver do you have to be to wreck an F50. Its a very easy car to drive. If I had to guess, too much speed followed by huge understeer, brakes and then snap oversteer. Thats how that car drives if you push it too hard. Very tragic ending to a sad story. Whenever I take kids out for rides I always go the speed limit.
Just saw the link to the article. Less than 1 minute away. Add cold tires to the list. Often times these cars sit for many years and tires are old as well.
I can't imagine the pain this woman must be going through. I don't understand why this guy did what he did either. Some things just make no sense at all.
On a straight line with no traffic and dry road..i wonder if the tires were past their limit like with the paul walker tragedy.
Absolutely tragic! Here the guy though he would bring a smile to the young boy's face- no doubt after seeing his dream car in the flesh. We've all been there. I have given numerous rides to numerous people for many years. I love to make people happy. I remember when I was about 10 years old I went for a ride in a real GT40. My dad strapped me in and off we went (the driver was a friend of a friend). I still remember that ride. These stories break my heart. RIP young man
No idea what happened but. Very narrow English country lane with big cambers for drainage. Very wide mid engined Ferrari with hyper reactive throttle and sharp steering. Straddles whole lane. Driver is not owner. Big accelerate, tail jiggles a bit and or placement means one front wheel is on a sharper camber than opposite. Readjust quickly while still accelerating too hard and overcompensate. Fraction of a second and -
I find the handling of the F50 a sweetheart compared to say the 599 GTO. Press coverage says the poor mother of the lad that lost his young life heard the crash around 60 seconds from the car pulling away. Cold tyres and camber maybe but to make an F50 behave in that way in 60 seconds suggests one thing. Nothing to do with the car and everything to do with a 37 year old man who in a moment of complete madness turned the world upside down for several families including his own for years to come. And to think he was being paid by an reputable auction house to store the car carefully for a forthcoming sale. Shocking.
I would have to agree, unless some facts emerge which none of us are aware of (though I can't think what). Shocking is the word.
Car storage owner decides to go for a spirited car in a massively powerful super car which he is unfamiliar with and which possibly has old tires. Not the best recipe...
Very tragic - ruined my day, reading this. How many times have we seen unqualified garage mechanics (etc) take a Ferrari out for a spin and crash it. Too much car with little or no skills. Sometimes I wish driving was regulated the way flying is - you have to be qualified in order to operate the vehicle. If I owned one of those, I would have an "approved list" of who can drive it and under well-defined conditions. Condolences to the boy's family.
It's a terrible story and RIP to the poor boy's family. I visited Toy Stor-age a couple of months ago for their car's and coffee event. The access road is actually pretty wide (wider than a single lane) and had little camber on it. It had a dusty loose covering of fine gravel and a few ruts and potholes
This whole story is a complete tragedy for all of those involved, including the driver and his family. However, there are an awful lot of assumptions/accusations being made in this thread about the driver being inexperienced/unqualified (What qualification are you supposed to have to drive a Ferrari? ), and not being used to driving cars such as the F50. If this storage facility is the regular facility used by RM Sotheby's then I would suspect that, unless he was new to the job, he would have driven many different cars along that road, including classic cars, supercars and hypercars. For all any of us know on here, the driver could have been the holder of a full race licence, and could be used to far more powerful cars than the F50. For all any of us know on here, something could have broken on the cars suspension unexpectedly, throwing the car off the road and through the fence. With zero evidence of what actually happened and what experience the driver actually has of driving high performance cars though, certain people on here it seems, have already decided that the driver is guilty and will be going to prison! Until there has been a full investigation and inquest carried out, nobody knows what happened or who is to blame. Lets at least get all of the facts before we condemn a man who now has to live the rest of his life knowing that, had he not taken the boy out in the car then he'd still be alive. I suspect that you could put the driver in prison for the next 20 years+, and that would be nothing in the way of punishment compared to knowing everyday that the boy involved lost his life!
I once test drove a new 911 Turbo from a supercar hire club based in London. However, before they agreed and handed over the keys, their duty manager was adamant to check my credentials and actually rang the FOC office while I was standing there to verify my previous road / racing experience with high performance vehicles. It's a shame that not all insurance or hire companies do this level of due diligence. Condolences to the family of this boy at a truly horrific time.
