Monday, June 11, 2012

Ferrari 599 vs taxi = bad for everyone

I enjoy spirited driving. I admit I speed - show me someone who tells you they don't speed and I'll show you a liar. But even I draw the line at speeding in built-up areas. Sadly, this isn't the case for some of the bottom-feeders of this world. On May 12th, there was a horrendous accident in Singapore when a guy driving a Ferrari 599 GTO at 180km/h blew through a red light with the inevitable result. It was caught on a dashcam by another driver. Sadly, the passenger and driver in the taxi that the Ferrari hit were killed. The Ferrari driver was also killed, but that's no biggie - he got everything he deserved. Bizarrely, his passenger and the motorcyclist he also hit both survived. When you see the video and photos, you'll understand why I use the word 'bizarrely'.
Look - I can understand buying a supercar. I would if I had the money. I can understand wanting to show off to the women - I'm a bloke - we're hard-wired to do stupid things like that. And I can understand wanting to drive fast. What I can't grasp is the logic that this guy applied where he thought all three of the above would be just fine and dandy in a busy city street. I've driven at 180km/h (faster, actually). It's quick. Bloody quick, even on a dead straight, wide open county road with no intersections and miles of visibility. I can't imagine how mental that must be in a city environment. Well - I can now thanks to the video.
It's not particularly graphic but it is shocking if you've never seen a traffic accident (for real or on video) before. You've been warned.

5 comments:

Silas Humphreys said...

I haven't driven that fast. I've gotten up to 145km/h, and that was more than enough for me.

I don't drive faster than I can stop. If there are hazards ahead, I need to be able to stop before I reach them. Generally this means I'm a little slower than most of the idiots around me, because I drive based on how well I can see.

Chris said...

Fastest I've been was 134mph (GPS-measured) on my motorbike. It was a long, straight road way out in the boonies with no intersections and miles of visibility. I noticed two things. 1: that's stupidly quick on a motorbike. 2: Triumph need to do some work on their speedometers - mine read 156mph at that speed (!?)

Silas Humphreys said...

Motorcycle speedometers are notorious for over-reading.

My top was a shade over 90mph, in a Volvo with a reasonably accurate speedometer (I've checked it against a GPS, and it's within a couple of percentage points so long as the tyre pressure's right), and from what I've heard that particular model tops out around 110mph. I've no desire to find that out by experiment; 90 was more than fast enough for me. In normal conditions, I don't get over 70.

Alex said...

Just to put things into perspective, this accident happened at 4AM local time. Not that I'm trying to defend the Ferrari driver or anything, but just to point out the fact how he managed to get up to such a ridiculous speed in downtown Singapore in the first place.

Also, the road he was traveling on was relatively straight for at least 3 to 5km, despite the fact that there are several intersections along the way. Our best guess is that the driver did not run just a single red light, but several in the process.

Paul said...

Not sure what to say about this to be honest. Do I speed? Yes I do, when there are clear roads and little to no traffic. Do I speed in a built up area? Hell no.
Not sure if I want to say how fast I've been on a public road but I've trapped on a mile course at 178mph, That's fast enough for me.
Oh and Chris, yes 134 on a bike is crazy (IMHO). Give me four wheels, a 5 point harness and a roll cage please ;-)