The price you pay for pissing off your countryman is harrowing enough in its own right, but if you happen to be an ex-president that was effectively exiled to another country, all the things you left behind become fair game, especially if they’re the Italian super car variety.
The past few weeks have seen a dizzying number of crimes done on those poor Prancing Horses from Italy. Just goes to show you how far people power will go to show their disdain for their ousted president.
Tunisia’s former president, Zine El Abinide Ben Ali, has already fled to Saudi Arabia, but unfortunately for him, he left behind a few possessions that ended up receiving the full wrath of his disgruntled countrymen, most notably his family’s collection of Ferraris.
Last week, a couple of rioters commandeered a forklift and stole what was reported to be the ex-president’s Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Photos were even taken of the pilfering when the forklift was leisurely driving along a highway in broad daylight with the 599 GTB sticking out like a skewered barbecue.
If that wasn’t enough, we just found out that another Prancing Horse – a Ferrari California - owned by the ex-president’s family was brutally vandalized by even more rioters to the point that its wheels were stripped off, its badges were removed, and its interior accessories were all, shall we say, ‘borrowed’.
We don’t know what’s going to happen to Tunisia in the long run, but from the looks of things, it sure doesn’t look like a safe place for any Prancing Horses to play around.
Check out the videos of those poor Ferraris after the jump.
Unlike the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has certainly proved its mettle out on the streets. Whether it has more careful drivers or just a case of being less prone to accidents, the SLS AMG has so far escaped the car crash headlines of our site.
As far as our memories are concerned, there has only been one other production SLS AMG that has crashed since the car was released a year ago. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to add a second car to that list.
We just unearthed news coming out of London that a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG was involved in a pretty serious crash after colliding with a Vauxhall Astra somewhere in London, England. Details on how the crash transpired are still sketchy at this point, but according to those who witnessed the episode, one vehicle was responsible for the crash for beating a red light, causing the other car to lose control and smash into it.
Pictures are indeed worth 1,000 words and judging from the photo we obtained, it looks like the SLS AMG looks pretty dinged up after the whole incident.
We admit, that when talking about car crashes, we probably shouldn’t have "best of" in the title, but some of the car crashes in 2010 have been unbelievable with the driver getting up and walking away as if they had finished the race instead of stopping short due to a rough and tumble escapade. Of course, some have also been devastating, with the driver not being as lucky.
This year was full of crashes. Toyota chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, was killed in a Nurburgring accident while driving a Lexus LF-A, Heikki Kovalainen crashed into a Audi R8 LMS at the Race of Champions, and Mark Webber had a pretty serious accident in Valencia. The list goes on and on, with a number of supercar crashes at the hands of amateurs out for a good time.
We just didn’t feel right choosing the "best of" crash where somebody was seriously, or even fatally, hurt, so we opted to choose the crash based on the survival of the driver. This limits our choices a bit. In the end, what we were left with was the Mark Webber crash at Valencia (GP Europe 2010).
Going loop-de-loop in a race car going 186mph and casually discussing the accident just a few days later is good luck at its best. And that is why Mark Webber’s brush with death was our pick for crash of the year.
Usually when we write about crashes involving all of the different kinds of sports cars, we like ending our stories with "Fortunately no one was hurt." However, this latest sports car crash does not offer us that type of luxury. A 31-year-old was driving at high speeds in his dark gray Nissan GT-R somewhere in Germany when, while taking a dangerous curve, lost control and crashed into a bus. In total, 14 people were hurt and the GT-R’s driver was trapped in the mangled metal of a car until firefighters freed him. Unfortunately, the emergency crew arrived at the crash scene too late and could only pronounce his death.
Thirty passengers were riding along on the bus when the crash occurred with 14 of these passengers suffering a slew of injuries from small cuts and abrasions to cervical trauma. All 14 were transported to a hospital nearby.
No charges will be filed for the reckless driving, but we believe the driver suffered a much more severe fate. We can only end this story with a line of advice: "Drive safely and don’t forget that speed kills!"
We’re definitely hoping and praying that this isn’t going to be the start of a new trend, but we find it oddly unsettling to see two accidents on the dyno block in a span of just a few days.
We just recently caught hold of a video involving a Ford Mustang Shelbycatching fire while in the middle of a dyno test and now we found yet another video of a car – a Mitsubishi Evo – having its own bad day on the dyno block.
The video starts about as normal as any dyno video we’ve seen in the past with students from Mech-Tech college in Ponce, Puerto Rico dyno testing the Evolution VII. But towards the end, the Evo begins to tug violently on its restraint before completely going out of control and falling off the dyno during it’s test run.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt from the accident, including the driver inside the car who may have escalated the accident by stepping on the brakes when the car began to fall off the dyno. Here’s to hoping that we don’t see any more of these accidents on the dyno anytime soon.
And speaking of hoping, we all hope that everybody involved in this accident has the right insurance to take care of it.
