Near crash accident with Ferrari F430 but quick thinking of Mercedes Driver!

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Looks like temporary warning signs and on right together with a 30kph sign before the near miss!

I can't see where the car pulled out slowly in front as others have claimed, our view being masked by the interior mirror.

I suspect the driver was so excited by his experience that he failed to observe the signs and wasn't expecting other cars to be going so slowly. (I nearly did the same when pulling out of the pits at Silverstone in an Aston Martin and nearly ran into the back of a potentially faster Ferrari - fortunately nobody coming the other way!)
 
I don't think the driver even registered the presence of the slower moving vehicle till the very last second :eek: - there was about two seconds after the Ferrrari guy let out a first warning with no obvious sign of the driver touching the brakes. That will be about 70 metres =18 car lengths at 80 mph. Ferrari boast of a stopping distance of around 30 metres from 60mph on a dry road for the F430 with ceramic brakes. --- That's if you actually hit the brakes of course.:rolleyes:
I reckon a major trap that lies in wait for the novice supercar driver is a lack of appreciation of the braking power of these cars and a failure to deploy it adequately when the situation demands . :dk: Mercedes have acknowledged this driver tendency not to employ a cars ultimate braking capabilities in all models and introduced "brake assist" to counteract that very phenomenon. :thumb:
 
I don't hold out much hope for this guy's long term ownership....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U138DGv_Afk">YouTube Link</a>

Absolutely frightening, this young guy has no idea how dangerous he is and the danger he is posing to other drivers, he should not be driving this car until he understands to control power and drive safely. This is outrageous. If he carries on like this, I would not be surprised, he would be responsible of a serious accident especially if the older passenger is not present... If I was the old man, I would pull over and get the keys of this young guy and drive the car back.
 
Where did the car in front emerge from? surely he must have seen it from a further distance? Very lucky indeed...

Reminds of the typical situation on UK roads with someone pulling out in front of you at turtle speed...

I think the geezer forgot where the brake pedal was :doh:

Keep it to the race track :fail
 
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Both 430's are in Sport mode.

All test drives like this irresponsible,
the companies allowing this behaviour on public streets are at fault.

The F430 M16 isn't for the inexperienced in any mode :) believe me !!!

 
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I bet there was a nasty smell of adrenalin in that cockpit...
 
I imagine the only pre test drive documentation Ferrari dealers are going to look at is the size of the guy's bank balance. :rolleyes:
 
He can't even hold the steering wheel in such a fashion as to make using the paddles easy.
 
He can't even hold the steering wheel in such a fashion as to make using the paddles easy.

Yes indeed 9 and 3 o'clock holding... Scary really, I thought Ferrari staff were more thorough with their cars as to who they lend them to...
 
Well (this sounds like a boast. It's not) when I bought my first 355 from Maranello In Egham. They were extremely thorough in pointing out the Ferrari quirks before I was allowed out in the drivers seat. That helped a lot as (if you have never driven one) they are quirky things to drive compared to your average road car. Add in to the mix a healthy dose of first time nerves and can very easily all go wrong. On buying a Lotus Elise, the sales man nearly killed us both on the test drive when he lost the back and got into a mahoosive tank slapper down a country lane. That was while he was explaining how well planted the car was.
 
"...when I bought my first 355 from Maranello in Egham..."

I hate you. We all hate you. B*****d...:D
 
"...when I bought my first 355 from Maranello in Egham..."

I hate you. We all hate you. B*****d...:D

But here is the thing. The deal I got put it in the same money bracket as an M3 (at that time). So I had to do it. Kept it for seven years and loved every minute of it.

I sold it to a local Motor Trader who wrote it off after just one week. He clipped a metal width restriction pole on the passenger side, bounced across and clouted the other side. The pole caught the rear oil cooler and pulled the engine sub-frame off the car. Guess what. Going too fast.
 
But here is the thing. The deal I got put it in the same money bracket as an M3 (at that time). So I had to do it. Kept it for seven years and loved every minute of it.

I sold it to a local Motor Trader who wrote it off after just one week. He clipped a metal width restriction pole on the passenger side, bounced across and clouted the other side. The pole caught the rear oil cooler and pulled the engine sub-frame off the car. Guess what. Going too fast.

How long did you keep your second 355 ?
 
Not long. It came with a variety of issues. One being my desire to remain married and take my wife and kids out with me. I bought an X5 ;ˆ)
 
Aren't the 355s the last of the ones that needed an engine-out for maintenance and were consequently quite an interesting cost to run?
 
Belt changes were stipulated at 1500 miles !! Yes engine out. Although the more enterprising indies out there would remove rear arch liners, bumpers etc to get at most bits. Mine were garage queens as I quickly learned that I was uncomfortable parking them up and leaving them. Once in Brighton's Lanes I returned to find my alarm going off and my my front bumper cracked. Local shopkeeper told me that some guy had got his large girlfriend to sit on the front while he took a picture. Charming.
 
For a long time I've quite fancied the idea of a 360 but that would be a garage queen which sort of puts me off really... not to mention they are still upwards of £40k. :crazy:
 
I don't hold out much hope for this guy's long term ownership....

[YOUTUBE]U138DGv_Afk[/YOUTUBE]

First of all, a big hello to you regulars :thumb:
I haven't been on here for a while and I hope you are all well.

Saw this thread/ video and thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I viewed this video with a clear, impartial mind, so I think my interpretation of it is (should be) non biased and fair.

What I personally see in this video is:

A young, excited lad who is obviously keen to experience the drive.
His eagerness to exercise the throttle pedal is both clear to see and understandable.

Having said this, he does seem very mindful of the instructor/ supervisor sitting in the seat next to him and is regularly seen exercising caution and even hesitancy when not fully hearing or understanding what his instructor is saying to him.

What caught my attention more than anything in this video is the instructor/ supervisor.

I actually felt for the young lad on occasion because he really didn't know whether was coming or going due to the complete mixed messages from the instructor.

One minute he's saying speed up.. the next he's saying slow down, stop speeding.
At one point, when the instructor told him to keep overtaking, the young lad seemed more inclined to pull back into the right hand lane (presumably because he wasn't sure is anything was coming in the other direction) and the instructor grabbed the wheel and tried to keep the lad in the overtaking lane! :eek:

All in all, the young lad looked nervous as hell and I think this is largely due to getting mixed signals from the instructor.







Now, who's up for a bit of "Range Rover Driver"?
:D
 

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