Ferrari F40 Wrecked in Houston, the real story

Well, nothing about an incident like is humorous, but all the 'cloak and dagger' stuff gets old, when it's such a small world.

And as my friend Mark points out about my other friend, it SHOULD be all about the people no matter what the machine is worth.

It really changed my participation in the hobby when JRV passed away.

I still have his fuel pump from the Miura on one of my cars, he stripped it and gave it to me so I could make a little girl's birthday party appointment. For all his gruff cranky demeanor he was a great friend too.

All these girls were painting their Dad's hunting Jeep into an Art Car with paint brushes.
I let them touch up on my newly replaced door!

 

Actually, they had it pretty well cleaned up for delivery two weeks ago, and I was $1,000 short of the total Bill.

I'll get it tomorrow.

Then I take Mark a replacement flywheel....

 

I agree with Joe's comment 100%. Some of you defending the mechanic are simply doing so because of a personal bias. Yes. Accidents do happen and if someone rear ended him at a stop light one could hardly blame him. Under no "test drive" circumstance should this have happened unless there was a mitigating reason where a higher speed was necessary. An accident and loss of control on local streets (where speeds are limited) is inexcusable and so far there doesn't seem to be an ounce of evidence that it was induced by anything other than driver error. Old tires are no excuse. I've had a blowout a 40mph and it did nothing other than momentarily grab the wheel one direction. Never loss control of the car. So unless he was traveling at speeds of 70+ as some claim - a blowout shouldn't have caused this. I'd say a heavy foot, cold/old tires, a slightly greasy road, the kick of the turbos on a F40 under full acceleration and a lack of judgement probably caused this accident.

 

+1

Wow! You guys are good. Without seeing anything, without knowing anything, you guys have it all figured out.

I truly hope I never have any of you on a jury.

Dale

 

I asked some questions. Can you answer?

 

Since everyone's speculating, what about the "witnesses"? Any sports car, especially a red one with loud exhaust can appear to be traveling faster than it actually is.

Placing blame in any direction without knowing what happened is silly.

The only thing that can be proven, is that that road is terrible.

 

from the jalopnik article :

"Eyewitnesses report the car was traveling down Hempstead Road and turned onto 34th Street in Northwest Houston traveling at a speed above 60 MPH, despite a posted speed of 35 MPH along the busy thoroughfare. Some say he was going between 70-to-90 MPH.

"I don't know how fast he was going, but he had to be going 60+ because I could hear the turbos spooling on the car," said Travis Brown, an employee at a nearby store who witnessed the crash. "Next I know I heard tire squealing, then he jumped the curb and hit the fence."

Whether the crash occurred because of a driver error or a mechanical failure is unclear, but the distance of the crash from where the F40's driver lost control shows he was definitely traveling at a great deal of speed."

so ...

- posted speed limit of 35mph
- witnesses guess at least 60mph, some say 70~90mph
- one witness heard turbos spooling
- forensic analysis (distance from loss-of-control to crash) indicates high speed, in support of eyewitness testimony

Sure, witnesses are bad at guessing speed ... but probably not by 3x. Witness heard turbos spooling, forensic analysis indicates excessive speed.

This was no mere "accident". No matter the driver pedigree, this was reckless driving.

 

Joe, I don't question when you post about things about which I know very little, i.e., F40s and so on. (And, yes, I read your posts. I don't comment because frankly I respect your opinion, however opinionated it might be.) But, even given the little I KNOW about this unfortunate situation, I suspect I know a lot more than you. So, yes, I owe it to this community to respond when people, including yourself, are talking out their ass.

Long story short, everybody involved in this situation is a honorable person. Unfortunately, this is becoming a rarer and rarer commodity now-a-days, particularly on the Internet. Apparently, mistakes were made. "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone..."

Dale

 

If the posted speed is 35 can you describe a possible scenario where such damage/loss of control might occur from that speed. Unless you steer off the road and straight into the fence how would such severe damage occur unless he didn't brake or take evasive measures? Any amount of braking or avoidance maneuvers by someone supposedly experienced would not have resulted in this kind of accident.

From 35mph most cars - and especially a Ferrari despite the F40s poor brakes - would be able to stop/avoid an accident like this. That is of course if he was driving the speed limit and in a manner safe enough to avoid (or take measures to avoid) any potential mishap. But if the witnesses are correct and he was in fact speeding at potentially twice the speed limit then all bets are off regardless of what caused the accident. He shouldn't have been driving a customer's car at those kinds of speeds where the conditions didn't warrant it. Any kind of panic or emergency situation would have been twice as difficult to avoid.

I agree that it's all speculation and that is what I am doing ... speculating. Once the facts come out I'd love to hear them. And if there is a legitimate explanation than I stand corrected. But it's hard to see a customer's car damaged to this extent by a technician on a test drive supposedly test driving the car in a 35mph zone. I'd love to hear his version of the incident and how he lost total control from 35mph.

 

Question: Do you think anyone involved owes you, or anybody else on the WWW, anything? Is your life an open book? Have you explained every mistake you have ever made to the world?

I'm old. I'm not used to this sharing thing. Gentlemen take care of their problems. Trust me, while I have 0% skin in this game, the owner will be made whole. It's just a ****ing car.

Dale

 

Dr Who, we all agree that everyone makes mistakes. We all agree that nobody "owes" Fchatters an explanation. And we would all agree that the F40 damaged is just a car. But i don't think that these points are the crux of the issue.

The issue is whether or not, in this instance and despite the driver's reputation, the driver was acting recklessly and irresponsibly. If the posted speed limit really was 35mph (and i'll admit that i have no direct knowledge if this is true, or not), the evidence is pretty compelling that seriously bad judgment on the part of the driver is to blame.

If there's real evidence to the contrary, i would certainly stand corrected. But again, i agree ... nothing is "owed" to a message board.

 

I see it from a business angle. If I were a mechanic at a high end shop and wrecked a very expensive car, I (or the shop manager or owner) would not let articles published about me accusing me of joy riding and speeding go without a rebuttal. I'm not going to let an inaccurate article stand to hurt my reputation.

 

I don't recall mentioning anything about being OWED an explanation. Should the facts come to light I'd love to hear them. If they don't I could give a rat's a**. But as it has been mentioned multiple times the situation does seem suspicious to the point where I'd love to know the details. Having owned a F40 I know the characteristics of the car well. I know how easily this could happen as the same thing happened to a good friend of mine where his F40 met a very similar fate. No ones asking for anyone's life to be an open book so relax. I'm sure everyone is curious as to the cause.

 

Dale, as the saying goes: Inquiring minds wish to know.

I think in this case, the very fact that it was a single-car accident not caused by another vehicle, the fact that it was the car's mechanic driving rather than the owner, and the fact that eyewitnesses report the car exceeding the posted 35 mph speed limit, all serve to pique our collective interests, in some cases so perhaps we can learn from this. I also think all of the aforementioned is quite damning as it relates to the driver's numerous responsibilities, and this too is causing quite a bit of interest..

 

...i think you've got the internet a little backwards...


it's not that the internet is making people dishonorable... it just weeds out the self-proclaimed honorable people swiftly and relentlessly

the internet deals in extremes - either cold hard truths or dephamation

had the accident not been reported immediately, the story would end up becoming so convoluted no one would know the truth


say the owner was wronged and the shop was completely at fault - take out the internet - and the 2 end up at a stale mate

>the shop forever claims the owner was inconsiderate or spoiled
>the owner claims the shop is incompetent and untrustworthy

so the shop's customers believe the shop and the F40 owner's associates believe him

 

+ quite a few!

I was waved, flashed, and shouted at to "SLOW DOWN!!" by a local policeman in my neighborhood as I drove home just a while back. Yes, I was a gear low as I'd just climbed a steep hill, but I was doing 5 mph UNDER the limit (15 in a 20 zone on a clear, sunny day). Also, this was NOT in a red Ferrari with loud exhaust, but rather a blue BMW Z3 with stock exhaust...

 

My old neighborhood had narrow streets and a 20MPH speed limit. I'd be outside talking to my neighbor and he'd be yelling at all of the cars driving by to slow down. One day, while driving home, I decided to go 20 down my street. It really did seem fast! All of those people driving by were probably only going 20 or less also, it just seems fast in certain scenarios.

 

The first mistake you're all making is actually quoting stuff from a jalopnik article and taking it as fact

 

There's streets in the area with MUCH higher speed limits, I used to let drunk chicks from the Saint Arnolds Brewery Tour flog my 308GTB up some of the same roads.

 

Totally agree!

They still answer the phone this morning.....life goes on.

 

maybe there was no crash? No F40 crash at all ...

I have no direct knowledge of this crash ... i'm only relying on what i read on the internet

 

Late to the party.

Dale I liked your comment that apparently mistakes were made. That's probably the best statement I 've seen.

If the car was running on its original tires, someone is an idiot. That, I know. Not so long ago I bought an F40 wearing its original tires, and I didn't want the thing driven anywhere without new rubber.

It's too bad there's no more privacy. Didn't like seeing photos of my burned up vintage car on the Internet a couple years ago, together with completely incorrect information about what happened. But that's the way it is now, and crying about it won't change things. No one can make a mistake in private any more, I feel most sorry for kids.

I don't think the owner can be made whole, if what he had was an original good condition F40 he bought new. Maybe the car can be fixed, but its value is shot.

The mechanic, if he was driving, is very, very fortunate not to have been named here.

 

I just got my car back, after four years, almost to the day.

Not real happy about how all that played out, but the mechanic is a good guy.

I'm sure "the Boss" told him the rusty Dino coupe, or the Corvette resto rod was "more important" than my car.

I think my cash is as green as any one elses.

There was in fact, an air conditioned empty spot, where a F40 in plastic used to be!
The F40 is not 'all that' there's still plenty more cars, Aston Martin Zagato, stuff like that.

Never did find the hole in the fence that matched the photos tho, I was on lunch hour and didn't have time to look around.
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If you want another Keels and Wheels trophy, I guess you leave the hard tires on there.

 

I have to agree on one thing here.. How many of you have actually been behind the wheel of an F40? The characteristics of it can become very exciting very quickly. Even very good well experienced drivers have been surprised at some its quirkiness. It can be a real handful to drive sometimes and when those turbos do spool up and come on they can kick the rear end right out from under you if you happen to become even slightly distracted.

None of us, well maybe most of us, do not know all the facts and it is all speculation. If the mechanic who was driving it is as good as Dale says then it is very likely he could have suffered a mistake. If, and I do not remember this particular street, the street surface is bad and being on bad tires when the turbos spooled up the car could have launched itself in a direction the driver did not intend.

Would any of you who do have experience behind the wheel of one of these cars at more than idle care to comment on some of the experiences you have had when driving it? From experience,,,,,,it can get away from you very quickly no matter your skill level.......

Oh, and a witness in a nearby store heard the turbos spooling up.....I highly doubt that....But it makes interesting press and gets him name in print.....