German prangs dad's £275k supercar German cops are investigating whether a 20-year-old may have been doing a tad over the 50 mph speed limit when he pranged his dad's £275k, 225 mph Gumpert Apollo. The driver failed to negotiate a bend near the town of Brokdorf, 50 miles north of Hamburg. He and his 19-year-old female passenger walked away from the crash with …
at only 50 mph. 150 might be more like it.
Still, it's a testament to the quality of the engineering that the passenger compartment wasn't as mangled as the engine compartment, but I'll bet that once dad found out, our young fellow *wishes* he'd pranged it hard enough to kill himself.
Spaceframe construction. The doors (and pretty much all the bodywork panelling) are decorative when it come to crash protection. Usually designed to come away in one piece too, rather than breaking up and chucking bent bits into the passenger cell.
It's infinitely better in a crash than a stressed monocoque with extra bits (like bars in the doors). Put it this way, if yer really "safe" production car gets five Euro-NCAP stars this thing would get about eight or so[1]. Of course, to measure that we'd need a scale that actually covered what *can* be done in terms of crash safety and the mass production car industry lobbyists would never allow that to happen.
[1] Or should. I suspect that in the wacky world of the safety nazis it would get marked down for not having enough airbags or something equally as irrelevant in a properly built vehicle.
The difference between 30mph and 60mph may not seem much, but going from 60mph to 120mph is a huge difference, and at 150mph everything is happening really, really fast. Fast enough that it's scary (on a motorbike, anyway).
If he crashed at 150 on a public road it's almost inconceivable that the car wouldn't have rolled and been a lot more messed up than it is.
The grumpy old man in me says "throw the book at him". The younger man says "bad luck".
You're not wrong... I've accidentally (and honestly, it was accidentally) wound my bike up to those regions on a UK motorway. It was very early morning, the road was empty, and I was happily cruising along eating up the miles, I had originally settled at somewhere between 80 and 90mph.
The miles, time and scenery go by, and suddenly up in the distance I see a dot... Oh look, some actual traffic... Next thing I know I've shot past it!
Having the scenery blur as you pass it at 80mph is very much the same as how it blurs at 150mph... The blur from passing a car which you think is traveling roughly the same speed as you, and not 80mph *slower* is somewhat different!
I had to take the next exit and have a breather!
Anon for obvious, license preserving reasons!
I was doing a track day at Silverstone. Was doing ~120 mph and accelerating down Hanger Straight when pheasant decided to walk out on the track in front me me, far enough away that if we both carried on our present courses I was going to hit him, deadly to him, expensive to me. Just swerving to avoid could have resulted in a serious roll (and breaking would have me moving under less control in the same direction).
Anonymous Coward 9.01 - "That's right. The difference between 30 and 60 is 30 and the difference between 60 and 120 is twice that.
Well done."
Thanks for pointing that out, anonymous coward, your anal-retentive personality has enlightened us all!
My point is that a doubling of speed does not equal a doubling of how scary it feels. But you knew that already, right?
Hugs and love...
Tell you a secret from my own high school days about the kids whose parents are rich enough to let them drive around in cars too expensive for anyone in town ever to have heard of before?
There's never -- and I mean not *ever* -- just one car like that in the garage. Two is trying far too hard; three is still a bit parvenu; six or seven, plus an antique motorcycle or two, is just about right.
I'll just about guarantee you that a) the car was part of a collection, and b) the car was insured up to the eyelashes, especially if he was letting his 20-year-old drive around in it. In fact I'll even wager a fiver on c) it was the car the guy liked least, which is why he lent it to the *offspring* he liked least, in hope of seeing both problems solve themselves.
..you don't have to prang a car hard to fuck it up completely. They are designed to fall apart around you these days, so you don't become one with the metal framework. 50mph into a sufficiently solid barrier will really ruin your day, and you'll be thankful for crumple zones when you wake up in hospital.
Witness the Audi TT that slid into the back of my 20 year old Landrover's Towhitch. I was stationary at a junction, he hit sheet ice, but probably wasn't doing more than 5-10mph when he tapped me.
Once I could actually see the back bumper, after I'd brushed off all the busted German Plastic, He'd cost me 10 minutes of my day.
He'd lost the bumper, headlight, and kinked his bonnet, so I suspect the cost was much more for him.
Yes, I have fond memories of a teen in a rice rocket pranging into my old Series III in wet conditions. Towball went right through his nose and punched clean through the radiator, then the bounce knocked it clear again. I think in total I lost about half a sq inch of paint on the bumper, but on the bright side he cleaned the rust off my towball. His car was ... not so lucky.
Poor guy was all like 'don't you want my insurance details' and was stunned when I simply asked 'why? you didn't hurt anything'.
Passive safety on those things was great, although I definitely wouldn't want to hit something solid at speed.
I'd say it's more likely that Dear Old Dad will boot him out of the house the day the law says he is an adult... while Mumsey will make sure he's not out in the cold ...
Fail, because the kid is being set up to fail in life, no matter how much money he's got. He's too stupid to plan for the future.
Need to know if the door actually flew 100' down the road in which case a high speed crash would perhaps be likely, or did it actually fall off, someone nicked it and then dropped it after realising it's gonna look pretty stupid on their banged up Ford Fiesta?
> at 150mph everything is happening really, really fast. Fast enough that it's
> scary (on a motorbike, anyway).
It's pretty scary in a car too, even one that's well capable of it (Porsche 928S4).
I've had a lot of experience of driving at 100mph+, but it's astonishing how much faster everything happens at 150mph. I have extreme respect for those who have driven at 200mph (and lived to tell the tale).
Sorry, you might be stupid enough to drive when "boozed up" but don't tar us all with your brush. I have never, ever, driven when "boozed up" in over half a million miles. And I never would. I'm sure there are plenty of other commentards in the same boat.
And as for driving somebody else's car like an idiot, never done that either. Of course I've driven my own cars and bikes like an idiot, but I wouldn't be daft enough to do it with somebody else's pride and joy. Nobody (not even stiggles) can get into an unfamiliar car and give it the beans from the off safely on a twisting public road.
Have to say, however, that I have seen a reversal of this situation. A young bloke from down the road came home to visit his parents last year on his newly aquired hyperbike. Dad wanted a ride. The son advised him to be careful, given how fast it was. The dad replied that he was used to big bikes having owned a CB900F back in the eighties. He got about a mile from the house before he stacked it. Ho hum.
Boy steals dads car, shows off and has accident. This is the nature of boys (whether Gumpert Appollo or Ford Model T) since cars were invented. This just demonstrates that all is right with the world!
P.S. Shame the Gumpert got written off, of all the 'super cars' this is the one I would have....
You can have good looks and high speed - Of the 220mph+ supercars, this one's the pug of the bunch.
Bugatti Veyron
SSC Ultimate Aero
Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo
Koenigsegg CCX
McLaren F1
Ones yet to go on sale:
Aston Martin One-77 (220mph at Nardo)
One-offs or modified:
Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina
Sportec 996 GT2 SP650 (for one - Ruf 911's are also no slouch)
Brabus Bullit
Of all of those, it's only the Apollo that leaves me wanting to scratch my eyes out.
If 220mph+ isn't important, I'll take a McLaren Mp4-12C... Heck, I'll even take an Ascari A10, recycled Peugeot 206 headlights included.
Troll icon, because even they look better than a Gumpert Apollo.
Back in the 90s in my old Cavalier, I did that myself. Braking coming up to some stationary traffic in town, I hit what was either black ice or dropped oil. The following 10s went "brake - it's sliding - release - brake - it's sliding - release - brake - it's slidng - release - brake - I'm not going to get out of this - foot down, hold it and wait for impact". Impact wasn't more than 10-15mph. The Seat Ibiza in front was superficially not too badly off, although of course it's structural bodywork so it cost a bit to repair. But it made a right mess of the Cav's wings and bonnet. The Cav radiator was mounted a good foot behind the bumpers, and the front had been pushed right in until it touched the rad, which was slightly cracked but useable.
I was young, had no money, and only had TPF&T insurance. Find a convenient empty industrial estate, one end of a tow rope around a lamp post, other end around the pushed-in metalwork, reverse slowly, and repeat until it's pulled back out again. New rad and bumper from a scrappy, and everyone was happy. It's not like the Cav was ever that pretty anyway!
Same long slide, but in a 1985 Corolla hatchback, same very low speed impact, though out of the corner of my eye I could see herself bouncing forward in the seatbelt and the kids in the back doing the same. Anyway, the bonnet crumpled up as it should do, in overly dramatic fashion, wing and headlight went in too, and it was the Garda that 'helped' bend things back that did for the radiator with a crowbar.
The car in front seemed to have little other than a kink where I had hit it.
I cobbled mine back for 250 quid, bonnet, lights, washer bottle, radiator, wing while the other one claimed off her insurance and charged 2,500 to my insurance company.
Boys will be boys though - when I was in school a friend 'borrowed' his brother's Fiat 500 and it was only when I questioned his driving ability that he admitted he had never driven before. I let myself out at that point - once he managed to stop. I heard later he drove it into his front door trying to park it - those brake and gas pedals are so close together on a tiny Fiat and when you combine that with big wide 70s brogues...
While we still don't know what befell the German kid, your man's brother kicked the living shit out of him.
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