Want a nice cheap used car?

Has anyone else heard about the guy on the Pacific Coast Highway in California? While this sounds like the beginning of a joke, and a bad one at that, it was on the news.

I think the "passenger" is named Stanley. He claims he was only a passenger (although he is the registered owner), that "Dietrich" was driving and fled the scene, and that he doesn't actually know Dietrich's last name, but he was found to have had a .09 B.A.C. (that's not just a DWI, that's a drunk, folks).

Initial reports that I heard last night mentioned 200 mph (that is the top speed), but most news comments now are much, much more conservative -- phrases like, "well in excess of 100 mph" and "well over 120 mph" are common.

It's not confirmed but the driver may have been racing against a Mercedes. A Mercedes SLR. Not a cheap car, but definitely an underdog in this case, in both speed and in class.

This is all in reference to a Ferrari. Actually, a Ferrari Enzo. List price of only about $600,000. Pocket change.

However, this is not a car, or rather, just a car. This is an AUTOMOBILE. One of only about 400 made. And made by hand. Well, all Ferrari's are, but this is a special, the top of the line. Some would argue that this is The Ferrari Classic among classics.

Or, as we used to say, "Not anymore!"

There was a parts trail of several hundred feet.

The engine -- a Ferrari engine -- a V-12 Ferrari engine -- "Oh, the Humanity!" -- was left in lying the middle of the road.

The car was cut in half as it hit a utility pole.

The passenger area was intact. The doors still opened. The beautiful, handmade, red doors.

The "passenger" had minor injuries. One report even said he only had a split lip.

The Lord loves drunks and fools. This guy appears to qualify quite well on both counts.

There are pictures on the web, but it's just too painful.

There was a comment from one person that summed it up and went something like, "These are works of art. Crashing one is like buying a Van Gogh and then burning it."

Why are there so many idiots, with so much money, and the rest of us are so broke? More proof that Darwin's Theory might not be working quite well enough. I may be a cruel and bad person but I think it would be nice to just once see the car survive unscathed and a moron like this get totalled.

Here in Calif .09 B.A.C. is barely over the legal limit, which is .08 B.A.C.
So he wasn't necessarily really that drunk.
You might be surprised how easy it is to attain that level.

His name was Stefan Erikssen, a Swede, and former video game executive.

200mph on a public road ? Holy hell...ermm, dangerous ? Not to mention danger to others as well...a very stupid thing to do, and there was a passenger ?? Ahhhwww man, leave the racing for the tracks or empty deserted roads please. Never really understood the concept of going fast...every time i go through a mountain pass and there's a straight, it feels so boring...corners are where it's at.

Incidentally, i'm not a big fan of exotic euros. Sure i can see the prestige and performance of a nice Ferrari/Lambo etc, but if i had the money to buy those cars, i'd much rather be buying a decent sports cars and then tailoring it to suit my specific driving skills/needs. Not too mention a car built like that can run with the best of them, minus the prestige though i guess...

Talk about less heartache too if the car ended up like that Enzo lol.

I saw that on the local news last night. It happened in Malibu. The passenger was the owner of the car, and he said the driver was "some German guy" that he had just met and didn't really know, and that the mysterious German left the scene on foot! On the news, they actually estimated the value of the car at being between 1.2 and 1.5 million. They said the remains of the Enzo (the car was beyond trashed) were still worth $250,000!

Any online article links?

I heard there was some blood on the airbag that deployed on the driver's side, that matched the "passenger" according to his claim.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-ferrari22feb22,0,56586.story?coll=la-story-footer

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-022206ferrari_lat,0,1938469.story?coll=la-home-headlines

that sucks!

-David

:thumbsdow I used to live about 25 minutes away from where that happened. I've passed by that spot several times in the last few years.

It is one of the less crowded spots on PCH, and it is surprisingly straight.

So sad.

It's not confirmed but the driver may have been racing against a Mercedes. A Mercedes SLR. Not a cheap car, but definitely an underdog in this case, in both speed and in class.

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At 615 BHP a MBZ McLaren SLR is no slouch!
BTW- .09 BAC is barely buzzed.

I'm not a fan of drinking and driving at all so I won't comment on that end... but to the exotic cars issue... there have been several well-publicized events concerning them. When eBay bought paypal, the owner of each owned a McLaren which, while I've never been a fan of them, are certainly in the uber-exclusive class. Well, I forget who actually wrecked his, but either the owner of paypal or the owner of eBay wrecked his McLaren while the other guy was a passenger. Everything on those cars is hand built so it cost something like $200,000+ to fix some relatively minor damage and the parts and technician flew in in a private jet for the repairs.

Also, in Finland, speeding tickets are based on some percentage of your annual income... Some high ranking guy in, I think Nokia, got a ticket in his exotic which I think was a Lambo. I think initially the ticket was over $100,000 due to his income though that was obviously appealed. Never heard how that ended up.

Stephen Hilbert was the former CEO of Conseco... not sure how much attention he's received on a national level but suffice it to say, he was doing some dirty things, money-wise. He had an ever-expanding house in Carmel that he paid ridiculous amounts of money for... and had really strange rules for the contractors... But his wife had an SLR... a $400,000 SLR... that she let her dog not only ride in, but jump through the window of.

Living in Indiana, other than 911s and the very occasional Ferrari or Lambo, I don't see many foreign exotics though Vipers and Ford GTs are a relatively common sight. But we lived in north Dallas (Richardson, actually) during 85-90 and it was almost unbelievable how often I'd see the exotics. I remember the first time I ever saw a Countach at a VERY high rate of speed... Was on Hillcrest and he had to be going 120+ MPH. I saw him in the side view mirror and by the time I realized how fast he was going, he had LITERALLY gone from being well behind us to being almost out of our line of sight. Dangerous, reckless and VERY cool for a 15 year old!

Honestly, I'm a Porsche and BMW fan at heart. And I tend to like the older models... 78-82 Porsches and about 86-92 BMWs the most. I can't imagine owning any of the most exclusive cars such as the Enzos, McLarens etc but then, I don't think I'd welcome the attention that would come with them either.

Trashman said:

he said the driver was "some German guy"

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So he's here and driving an expensive car now.
Usually he drove a black VW bug and occasionally drove a "land train". These were trucks with two, three, and sometimes four trailers.
He was active back in the early 60's in Germany and he caused many, many soldiers to have accidents.
He must have been real because so many drunk GI's involved in single car accidents said they were driven off the road by a black VW or a land train.