Speed + Ferrari = Bad (news story)

[Superman]

Ferrari Driver Dies In Crash, Car Split In Half
Woman Also Critically Injured In Crash That Split $300K Car In 2 Pieces

NEWPORT BEACH (AP)

One person was killed and another suffered critical injuries when a speeding Ferrari crashed and broke in half on Jamboree Road, according to Newport Beach police.

The bright red Ferrari Modena was traveling at a high rate of speed next to a Porsche when it apparently hit that car, struck a curb and knocked over a light pole shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

The crash tore the $300,000 car in half. The driver, whose name was not released, died at the scene. A female passenger was critically injured when she was thrown from the vehicle.

Police have arrested the Porsche's driver, 51-year-old Jeffrey Kirby of Costa Mesa, for investigation of gross vehicular manslaughter. Kirby's female passenger was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication.

Jamboree was expected to be closed until 12 p.m. while authorities investigate the crash.

Link

How fast does a car have to be traveling to split in two?

[fgalkin]

The Modena has a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). How much it was actually doing at that time? Beats me.

EDIT: Also, off to OT.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Solauren]

It was probably split in half from the impact with the 'pole'.

So more like 'ripped or torn' in half

[Pelranius]

I went over to Newport Beach yesterday, actually.

Sports cars typically aren't known for being sturdily built, so I'm not too surprised (though I would have imagined that the engine would have been sliced in two as well, if my impressions from the article are correct).

[Sea Skimmer]

For some time now Ferrari's have been designed to splint in half in a bad crash so the driver is separated from the very big and very heavy engine compartment. That lets the driver end slow down faster and hopefully make the wrecking less dangerous. Doesn’t help much if you plow into something head on, but plenty of people have walked away from such crashes. The internet is full of pictures of split in half Enzo’s and 360's at this point,

[Tolya]

Holy shit. We had a similar accident last year in Poland. A car journalist took an F360 and crashed into a concrete column supporting an overpass. It all played out almost identical, but the driver survived the accident and his friend (also a car journalist) died. The car split in half.

The sad thing is that guy was a car journalist who actually promoted the idea of driving safely and responsibly in the media (he is quite famous here, but in my opinion, he is an overrated idiot). But when presented with a chance he took a red Ferrari to do something so utterly stupid as to put down his accelerator from the first green light. Oh, and it was in Warsaw near downtown.

The guy who survived the crash lost his short term memory so his everyday now really sucks. I do wish him to get better, so they can prosecute the bastard for killing his friend and endangering other people.

And by the way, it doesn't take too much speed for a car like that to be split in half. The police estimate that when he hit the column the car was at around 120 km/h (75mph maybe?).

[Broomstick]

How fast does a car have to be traveling to split in two?

Depends partly on how the car is constructed, what it is made of, and what it hits as well as the speed involved. Fiberglass and composite bodies are more prone to split and fracture whereas metal bodies tend to bend and crumple, but any of the above can be made into pieces in a crash.

I've seen it happen in wrecks involving speeds under 80 mph/120 kph when a car hits a narrow, vertical object like a pole or post

[Phantasee]

There was a car split in two near my house over the summer, it was a mid 2000s Chevy Malibu, IIRC. Came down a road way too fast, hit a Civic taking a left turn in the opposite lane, and bounced off a light pole, splitting in two. The front half ended up near one side of the road, the back half on the median, with the speakers and rear seat cushions hitting the fence of my cousin's house about 200m away. The back tires bounced off about 3000m to a gas station down the road.

The Civic was banged up something fierce, the lady and her son were injured, and the shit head in the Malibu was injured pretty good too. The one thing that stays in my mind is the button on the pole he hit, for pedestrians to push to cross the street. It was laying 100m away from the pole in the grass. I remember thinking, how lucky there were no pedestrians at the cross walk at this time in the evening, on such a nice day.

And Sea Skimmer is right, the Ferraris are designed to split in two. So he could have been doing anywhere from 80km/h to 300km/h, for all we know.

[weemadando]

I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but the guy who was killed was one of the biggest douches that you will ever encounter.

"Mask" - any time I ever saw this guy I could not believe what an unbelievable toolbox he was.

But yeah, that's the update on who died.

[Zadius]

Yeah, he was the guy who started the "TapouT" line of clothing worn by many a douchebag. It's looking more and more like it was a street race and the driver of the Porsche was drunk, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mask was as well.

[Darth Wong]

I went over to Newport Beach yesterday, actually.

Sports cars typically aren't known for being sturdily built, so I'm not too surprised (though I would have imagined that the engine would have been sliced in two as well, if my impressions from the article are correct).

Actually, this is a popular misconception, mostly due to the 1950s and 1960s when any cheap puddle-jumper with an oversized engine in it was considered a sports car. People actually designed sports cars that way back then: they would take a light roadster, throw an oversized engine in it, slap a name brand on it and call it a sports car.

Modern high-end sports cars are expensive, engineered to higher standards than most passenger cars, and their engines are so immensely powerful that their frames must be very strong simply to handle the stresses involved in acceleration and maneuvering without excessive distortion.