emoving

That's a real great quote until your knocked out in a Porsche Carerra GT that just bursts into flames. This is one of those situations where I am just glad they did not kill some innocent person driving down the road. Just goes to show, professional driver or not, driving like a jack a on a public roadway is never a smart thing. Completely different then a closed course racetrack.

Joncl

Good point . Many want to post up their "mexico" runs and get a forum to give them props but what if one of those videos show someone getting seriously hurt or worse , keep it off the streets

Mantooth

Roger Rodas. He was a pro cup car driver.

E55Dimon

Sad indeed. Not surprised it was the carrera gt, highest fatality rate of any supercar, not a looker either.

Lets have any beer we want, as long as its a Corona.

marroquin38

But how exactly did the "accident" occur?

Joncl

Conspiracy theories are already floating around, apperantly there were witnesses so we will see what exactly happened

Zod

bye bye GT2 widow maker hello Carrera GT...

Seen a GT over here lose control...car is very tail happy
condolences to the families

splinter

R.I.P.

Way too young to leave the party early by the hands of another.

:(

d613

I went to the scene last night and a few people were praying and lighting candles. He hit a gas line I believe and thats what sparked the fire/explosion.

Thericker

Just 1 account of Paul Walkers generosity..

Quadcammer

what the **** are you talking about?

OCKlasse

Have you seen how many people have been killed in this car? Google Carrera GT fatality.

viren.89

R.I.P

berti_00

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/carreragt/

iyad.2010

RIP Paul Walker You will be missed

emoving

Man rich people are stupid!!!

RaFFi ///AMG

The Carrera GT in particular is not very forgiving car. Breaks traction very fast... Has a long reputation of it too.

loungn14

From what I read, they were having some fun in a business district. Car pulled out and the driver over corrected...

Sad day... His work with Reachout Worldwide was amazing.

thunderclaps

R.I.P. Paul

Hammer Down

That yellow one?

Das Geld 2

If Rodas crashed then it can happen to anyone..

KMS11

As someone has already mentioned, the CGT seems to be a particularly deadly car and I also wouldn't step foot in one driven by anyone other than Kimi, Lewis Hamilton or Vettel. My confidence in other peoples driving at the track took a beating when that CGT crashed at Fontana Raceway a few years ago. I was an acquaintance of the passenger in that car and friends with two other drivers that went to the track that day with a Ferrari club. The passenger happened to get a ride because he was standing there when the CGT briefly pulled into the pit garages. The rest of us had literally walked off to the rest rooms. That shook me. It literally could have been any of us in that car. We were all holding helmets.

So that said, this is the best post I've seen on the subject. It's from another forum so these are not my words.

Start:

This thread should be merged, and while I am reluctant to repost a long post in another section, this incredibly sad news may become a larger story that as exotic car owners we should reflect on:


When I heard Paul Walker died in a "high performance Porsche," I immediately thought "I bet it was a, Carrera GT.". Yes it was simply another driver driving over the limit on the street . And maybe this was a unique accident. But we seem to hear about more crashes with the CGT than any other. We need to seriously examine why?

It was bound to happen that a Supercar accident would involve the death of someone high profile person, and a huge spotlight gets turned on the liability of super cars. This may or may not be the story that has legs but its bound to happen. I think it is not simple enough to dismiss this as just another time when a driver ran out of talent. The driver in this accident was a very accomplished racing driver. So, we should ask why people seem to crash this car more than others. I think that as car enthusiasts we better to be able to explain this accident better than just dismissing it.

There are many manufacturers producing super cars, some with 700hp in the case of Ferrari and Lamborghini, and even 1,200 in the case of the Bugatti Veryon, (the CGT had 600), why is it the Carrera GT seems to be involved in more deadly crashes? The answer is that it is the only "modern Supercar" that was mass produced and marketed without significant traction control and without stability control or electronic aids. All modern supercars built today have traction control, stability control and drivers aids. Even some race cars, built for professional drivers, now have these aids. Supercar makers realize you are giving the keys of a very potent weapon to someone who may have very little training. For the purity of the driving experiments, Porsche left these type of safety systems off of the CGT. And as a result we see more crashes.

It's not enough for us to say that super cars have existed for a long time, and this is the same. It is true that the CGT descends from a long history of sports car manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, and others that produce a limited production of thinly disguised race cars for the street. In the past sports car races mandated that cars had to be street legal. So manufactures would produce a limited number of disguised prototype race cars for the street. Legendary race cars were built this way like the Ferrari P3, the Ford GT40, in the 1990s the Ferrari F40. They had tremendous power, were capable of over 200 mph, and were designed to be maneuverable, and thus quickly change direction. (Read no safe under steer) They were cars that could obviously kill all but an extremely experienced racing driver when driven at the limit. With these cars it was obvious this was a potent machine. They were extremely load and difficult to drive. Going 40 mph felt like 100 mph. Driving one of these cars was intimidating, even down right scary. They were also sold to select customers who were known by the factory and in small batches.

By the time the CGT came out in 2005 things changed. Technology had progressed so much that Supercars were now easy to drive, even docile at low speeds. Yet they were now even faster. Modern Super cars like the CGT and the Ferrari Enzo could be driven like everyday cars, at 40 mph they drive like a Toyota Camry. You would not hesitate to give the keys to your grandmother to go to the grocery to buy milk. Literally anyone could drive these cars and use them like normal cars. The experience of driving a modern super car versus a vintage is in some ways opposite. Now instead of 40 mph feeling like 100, now 100 felt like 40. The danger that lurks beneath this extreme ability is that now they are designed and marketed not only to professional drivers, but to anyone who likes Sportscars. And the ease of driving the car at low speeds gives the illusion that you have total control over the cars abilities. Everything feels easy and in control, until you loose it. And it's very easy to fall into this trap of illusion of control. (Even for an experienced driver this illusion is apparent and can trap you). And when you loose it, you are now traveling at speeds that were unheard of years ago. These speeds are the domain of professional drivers who have the benefit of a roll cage, a helmet, a fire suit and a gas tank that was deposited for impact at high speeds.

Modern cars today have unprecedented amounts of power, but most have stability control systems. The CGT is not just fast sportscar. It is one of the fastest most extreme sportscars every built, it is faster than formula one cars not too long ago, and Porsche sold 1,270 for public roads. To do so without stability control and electronic safety aids is dangerous.

Is Porsche exposed to legal liability for Paul Walkers Death?

Not in my opinion. Does the fact that the Carrera GT did not have electronic stability control create legal liability for Paul Walkers Death? Probably not.
Yes they will be included in any lawsuit, but they will pay very little and it will be uneconomical and too risky to pursue Porsche. (Porsche is reported to have paid only 8% of a settlement in the well publicized CGT accident at the Ferrari Owners club event. ). Even though I believe the Porsche CGT is an unusually dangerous car in all but the most experienced hands, I doubt Porsche will have liability. A family of a person who died as a passenger of Carrera GT sued Porsche with this theory and rightfully settled with the, for a very small amount of fault. The car was being driven at high speeds on a racetrack and the consensus was that the driver was at fault. The passenger knew that they were getting into a car and driving to the limit. Doing this is called a voluntary Assumption of the Risk. In this case, the police have stated it was a one car accident and high speed was a factor in the crash. It appears that the driver lost control at high speed, and hit a pole or tree. There are rumors that there was burnouts and donuts in the area of the crash. If these turn out to be facts it will be a driver that will bel held solely at fault. The driver Roger Rodas was an experiemced race driver and involved with exotics, and thus likely knew about the had lack of stability control on the CGT. He had enough experience with cars to know he was taking a dangerous risk. It's an awful accident. I've been there and do that and gotten away with it, but its a sad, sad accident.

As an exotic car racer and as a product liability lawyer I wear different hats. I do hope that if there is anything that comes good of Paul Walker's death, its that driving extreme machines at death defying speeds on the street is OK in the movies, but we must not forget that the movies are not real. In real life this fast and furious conduct on the street has deadly consequences. And it's ironic that I think its terrible to glorify street racing.

And this said, I adore the CGT. It's an amazon machine. It just that for the reasons above it is very dangerous in the hands of anyone outside of someone extremely carful and with a lot of training. And even for a pro it is a car that can trick you. Ive produced and hosted over 30 Ferrari events over the last 15 years,and through all of it Ive learned a lot, and gotten away with worse conduct than this. Nowadays, if I promote driving a Supercar at the limit, I suggest buying a challenge car with a roll cage, and do it safely.

End.


Me again, I will also add that another post elicited a chuckle out of me. The owner of a CGT said he felt safer pushing his F40 in the rain, than he did with the CGT in the dry and for that reason, he sold the car fairly soon after owning it.

hpV12

I heard the CGT had a fluid leak just before crashing..

C_DirtyTwo

+1 heard it was power steering fluid, then the car had straight skids to the accident site. which means Rodas didn't over correct, or correct at all if the steering went out

f8l ws6

When I first heard of this I went over to the Porsche boards to see if there was any more info on the car. Found a thread where a company called GMG Racing may possibly have just completed a regular maintenance on the car which included an engine removal. It would seem the entire thread has since been deleted from over there but someone had the text of the thread still.

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/g...ml#post3992152

Again no idea if this was the car but it seems likely since the thread was deleted. Not saying it's their fault at all but certainly would be interesting if there really was a power steering failure. I think it's going to be near impossible to prove any mechanical failure outside of the possible trail of fluid.