’Jackass" star Ryan Dunn has reportedly died after being involved in a car crash in Pennsylvania earlier this morning. According to TMZ as confirmed by Bam Margera’s mom, Dunn and an unidentified person died after crashing on Route 322 and New Street in West Goshen Township around 3am in what appeared to be Dunn’s Porsche 911 GT3. It is unclear who the driver of the vehicle was, but reports are stating that the vehicle erupted into flames and was later towed away as the crumbled mess seen in the picture above.
In a disturbing twist, Dunn - most known for his stunt in the first ’Jackass’ movie where he strategically placed a Hot Wheels car inside his bum - had apparently tweeted a photo of himself with a couple of buddies a few hours earlier. The photo showed all three gentlemen engaging in what looks to be a few alcoholic beverages. There’s been no word as to whether or not alcohol was the culprit, but other sources are also claiming that the vehicle was traveling at a high speed of 110 mph when the crash occurred. Either way, we’re sure investigations are underway to determine the main factor behind this sad event.
UPDATE 06/20/2011: The West Goshen Township Police Department have confirmed that Ryan Dunn was indeed the driver of his own 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 and that both victims "died as a result of injuries sustained in the accident." Police have also stated that "speed may have been a contributing factor to the accident." Investigations are still underway.
We’ll keep you posted on this story as it develops.
By now we’ve seen the footage of Tanner Foust, aka Hot Wheels’ ’Yellow Driver’, and his remarkable record-setting jump for the longest of a four-wheeled vehicle at the Indianapolis 500.
The feat in itself is very impressive considering the dangers and risks involved in such a daredevil stunt. But while we applauded and congratulated Foust for his courageous derring-do, what we didn’t know at that time was that the whole jump almost never happened.
In a recent video that was just released by Hot Wheels, the company took us back to one of Foust’s previous practice sessions and showed us just how close he came to severely crashing his four-wheeler.
The video goes into detail about how a perfect jump is supposed to happen - Foust was supposed to hit the ramp at a speed of 109 mph and continuing to accelerate - and how Foust got it wrong on one of his attempts, a mistake that almost proved fatal were it not for the modified suspension system in the four-wheeled vehicle.
Check out the video and watch how a practice stunt that almost went wrong could have severely injured one of Top Gear USA’s hosts.
As a race car driver, nothing is scarier than crashing into a barrier, sending your car airborne, seemingly helpless to fight the laws of physics that take over. Ultimately, as a driver, all you can do is brace for the impact, and pray that the ensuing damage is about as minimal as it could possibly be.
During the first part of Le Mans, Audi driver, Allan McNish, was involved in a horrific accident after the Scotsman accidentally bumped his R18 TDI into a Ferrari 458 Italia. The collision caused the R18 TDI to barrel into the sand trap, crashing the barrier and sending just about every piece of the race car flying everywhere, including near a group of reporters who probably didn’t find it thrilling to see a debris of metal, carbon fiber, and tires raining down on them.
The only positive outcome from this accident - and given the circumstances, it was the best anyone could have hoped for - was that no one, including McNish, was injured from the spectacular, albeit horrific crash.
Just goes to show just how thin the line is in auto racing. One second, you’re posting flying lap after flying lap and before you know it, your race car is doing an airborne cartwheel while you sit helpless behind the wheel praying for the best outcome possible.
We’ve heard a lot of excuses from pulled over motorists trying to wrangle their way out of getting a ticket, but this one definitely takes the cake.
A 54-year-old man from Indianapolis was pulled over for speeding and reckless driving in Hawaii and in his defense, the man - without even blinking - informed the law enforcement officials that he was carrying a "message from God to speed."
What?
Obviously, the officers found the excuse a little perplexing and when the man continued to resist arrest, they promptly shoved a tazer in him.
According to the cops, the man was racing up and down South Kihei Road in Maui at speeds of over 80 mph, well above the 30-mph speed limit in the zone. The man’s reckless driving caused a number of pedestrians to run for their lives, after the man’s Gran Theft Auto impersonation almost caused him to hit a pick-up truck, as well as a few scared joggers.
From there, it only got weirder. When the man was asked why he was speeding, he immediately replied by saying that he was "trying to reset the future, but he was not able to go fast enough to do that". From there, he pointed out to the dumbfounded officers that "he does not respect authority and he only answers to God," who he said "could destroy them in the blink of an eye."
Needless to say, the man was booked on a number of charges, including reckless driving, resisting an order to stop, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
Apparently, you could also charge him for taking "Lost" way too seriously.
We know that it’s human nature to show off whatever kind of luxury vehicle you may have, but if the said ride is one Bugatti Veyron - you know, one of the fastest and most expensive cars in the world - we strongly urge anyone to exercise more caution before embarking on a dangerous stunt like this.
But alas, no matter how much money is paid for the car, there’s still no price for lack of better judgment. As this video will show, the owner of this Veyron felt the need to start hot-dogging his prized car, attempting to do a donut in front of a crowd. However, in doing so, he must have forgotten that there was a tire wall not too far away, bringing his showboating to an abrupt end when the rear of the Veyron bumped into the tire wall. Way to go, pal!
Now, the damage might not be that much considering he’s got the wad to pay for it, but we all know that maintenance and repairs for the Bugatti Veyron - however little they may be - don’t come cheap.
The 2011 edition of the Ferrari Racing Days at Laguna Seca was supposed to be a fun day of merry-making amongst owners of the Prancing Horse.
The weekend-long event featured a number of races involving cars from the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli, including that of the new 458 Italia, as well as the FXX and the 599 XX.
Unfortunately, one owner of a rare Ferrari FXX didn’t have as good a weekend as his contemporaries after crashing his supercar out on the infamous ’Corkscrew’ section of the racetrack. While the damage doesn’t appear to be as serious as it should have been - FXX models are not meant for collisions - the dings and scratches are still noticeable enough to leave a pretty big dent in the owner’s wallet.
He could probably still afford paying for the damage done to his street-illegal sports car, but for a vehicle that could fetch millions of dollars in the market, the owner of this FXX should probably take good care of his prized stallion the next time he takes it out on the race track.
You can’t say that the people over at McLaren aren’t busting their chops in trying to achieve a record-breaking run, can you? Whether or not the Woking, England-based automaker was attempting to do a hot lap with the MP4-12C at the Nurburgiring to determine the car’s full capacity, one thing we do know is that at some point, every automaker that has had aspirations of holding the fastest lap time at the ’Ring and McLaren is no exception.
So when word came out that McLaren ended up crashing an MP4-12C at the Nurburgring as part of their ’final testing’, a lot of curious eyebrows were raised, particularly on whether this testing included an attempt in breaking the fastest lap time at the world-famous race track.
According to witnesses, the crash caused a large impact that brought about significant damage to the guard rail, as well as causing a massive amount of fuel spillage on the stretch of the race track where the accident happened. As a result of the crash, the public session that was supposed to follow the private session ended up getting delayed because of what was deemed a ’roadworks zone’ on that part of the track.
McLaren, of course, has neither confirmed or denied this report, opting to contain the situation by keeping mum on the matter. With all the witnesses and reports coming around, though, it looks as if a final prototype of the MP4-12C was indeed involved in some kind of accident. Whether it was during an attempt at the ’Ring record is another matter, but it’s still probably best for these chaps to drive their cars with proper caution next time.
When anyone first looks at the images provided, it would be really easy to venture a guess that this particular Ferrari 458 Italia owner just couldn’t wait for the Spyder version to debut. Unfortunately, the reality of this crash is much more tragic.
A right-hand drive 458 Italia in the UK got into a little altercation with a truck and apparently, the fire department had to remove the roof to free the driver. Up until now, we can chalk this up to driver error, but it seems the driver of the Ferrari suffered an aneurysm right before the crash and is currently in intensive care. He had received his Ferrari 458 Italia just a few hours earlier.
It’s really easy to blame the driver when beautiful models such as this are completely destroyed, but in this case, it’s a complete tragedy all around. After the series of fires that occurred with the 458 Italia when it first came out, we’re beginning to think that the car is cursed. Let’s just hope for all the Italia owners out there that this is not true.
This is the one and only factory low-drag lightweight Jaguar E-Type and is a vehicle that should have been laid to rest a long time ago. In fact, the Jaguar was thought to be dead until Peter Neumark of Classic Motors Cars breathed new life into the last racing car ever built at Jaguar’s factory.
Only twelve lightweight E-types were built by Jaguar’s competition department back in 1963, but only one returned to undergo preparatory work for the LeMans race later that year. Malcolm Sayer designed the vehicle to have a special low drag body that would be coupled to a highly modified engine. This combination was set to take LeMans by storm and lead driver, Peter Lindner, to victory. Unfortunately, while on the Montlhery circuit, something went terribly wrong causing a crash that would end up killing Peter Lindner and destroying the Jaguar E-type. Sayer himself said that the vehicle could not be repaired and that opinion was echoed in the 1970s when a second survey confirmed the vehicle’s fate.
Fast forward to 2007 when Peter Neumark entered the scene. Determined to revive the crumpled E-Type, Neumark set out to make history with one of the most complex restorations to ever take place in the world.
Hit the jump to see what dedication, passion, and 7,000 hours of hard work can accomplish.
The Porsche Carrera GT is one of Porsche’s most exotic models, so as you can probably expect, owning one entails taking real good care of it. At all costs, too, because a car that sets you back roughly $400,000 needs to be taken care of.
And if you do decide that it needs to be put on a trailer, don’t follow this moron’s example and use wooden planks as your loading mechanism. Really, it’s not too much to ask. If you can afford a car like this, then you can probably afford having professionals do the stowing for you. It wouldn’t cost much, believe us. Unless, of course, you want this to happen to your beloved Carrera GT.
Really, carelessness never gets you far and somebody needs to give you a good ’ol smack on the side of the head if you end up treating your Carrera GT like this. You’ve all been duly warned, folks, but if you’re still compelled to watch the video, do so at your own risk.
