News: Ferrari vs. Mercebenz SLR

[stevechumo]

Has anyone seen the news on Fox 11 last night? A Ferrari Enzo raced with a Mercebenz SLR on the Pacific Coast Highway near L.A. The Ferrari crashed into a pole and lost. The SLR got away and won of course. Both cars have more than 600 hp and cost more than $600,000. I wonder how fast they went. What a race! Any thoughts?

 

[cribbj]

First and foremost, how are the occupant(s) of the Ferrari? Hopefully they survived and walked away?

Street racing, and especially the crashes that follow certainly don't do anything to help those of us who like to modify our cars and drive fast once in awhile. This kind of spectacular crash is perfect fodder for our politicians who desperately want to save us from ourselves.

I expect in our United Soviet States of America, it'll eventually be legislated that it's illegal to drive anything but a hybrid with the governor set to 50mph. This will be done to "save energy" and also improve the survival chances of the moron at the wheel when he stuffs himself into another moron in a similar golf cart. Won't that be fun?

Is it just me, or does it seem that the median skill of drivers out there has taken a real nose dive over the last 10 years?

John

 

[jibby]

I missed that but heard about it, that happened near my area...I think.. I am 5 blocks away from PCH, and that is a two lane fast track for these fancy sports cars. Many crashes occure on PCH. I stay clear too many cops... Lots of nice cars drive PCH it leads to Malibu where all the movie stars live, a beautiful drive on the coast in the daytime....

cribby - I think you are going a little too far with your comments....It's not that bad come on..... Accidents do happen but mostly from car crashes by drunk drivers, drivers not paying attention, bad drivers in general, etc.. Not from street racing that does not occure very often anyway and on busy streets... I am not condoning it, but I participate in street races when the situation is safe and presents. I will not race in unsafe situations...I don't push it past 80mph either mainly because my car starts to slow down and not pull as hard, and then those turbo'd cars don't have a chance to catch me...he he

 

[Pro]

street racing is just plain stupid.

the conditions are never right to sustain any kind of speed - hence speed limits.

if you have an ego - challenge the guy to a track run. that sorts the men from the boys.

 

[jibby]

I disagree 240 - depends when and where. Most people do not have access to a near by race track either. A quiet two lane straight with no lights and no traffic I don't see a problem with that.

 

[jibby]

Oh I haven't seen those 600hp SLR Mercedes, the fastest one I am aware of is the SL65 those are sick fast....

 

[Zuffen]

Pro240,

The only street racing I do is up to 80km (50mph) at the traffic lights. Too many cops and as John said too many morons.

We laugh in the office about the "moron excess" this is what we need on insurance policies.

Pro, you would know about the guy in a 12 month old Ferrari 612 (Scagletti) who ran into the rear of a stopped Honda in Fremantle. I wonder where his brain was when driving. He took a $600,000 car and drove into astationary vehicle! Now that's where you have the moron excess. About $100,000 would sort out that effort.

 

[CoronaC]

Heres 2 sites that have reports about it....
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2006/02/23/news/news1.txt
http://spong.com/article/9700/Exclusive:+Giz+Enzo+Likely+Stolen.+Crash+Speed+Upped+to+162+MPH.+Eriksson+to+Walk?cb=54

The 'passenger' which was most likly the driver walked away without even being charged with any offences, and doesnt say anything about people being injured/killed. Yeah so just read those sites if you didnt see it on the news or elsewhere.

cheers
chris

 

[Lextreme II]

Zuffen,

Street racing is bad for your business, but good for my business. LOL..... We should limit street racing. Its just purely dangerous for everyone and the enviroment is too unsafe.

I dont street race but i boost once a while when i see nice fast car next to me. I just pass them with HOOOOOSHHHHHH and that is about it.

http://www.fox11.com/morestories/news/ferrari_crash.asp
http://www.fox11.com/morestories/news/crash_suspect.asp
http://www.fox11.com/morestories/news/pch.crash.asp

 

[cribbj]

Zuffen, here in the USSA our authorities have really started to sit up and take notice of street racing since F&F came out, plus a few filthy rich morons have grabbed their attention by stuffing various bits of exotica into light poles and into other exotica. I'm curious though, what are the real statistics in the insurance industry? Are people really driving worse, and having more accidents now, or is it just my imagination? Because I'm overseas so much, I only get an occasional snapshot impression of drivers in my area (Houston), and it's really disturbing.

John

 

[Lextreme]

What I love is when I saw this on TV, it was labelled a high speed crash. When a vette crashes, its a race; when an enzo crashes, its a high speed crash.. guess thats what your paying for.

As for running into a parked car, now thats just idiotic.. wonder how someone so dumb could make such money.

 

[stevechumo]

Well, it's actually hard to judge anyone from his/her wrong doing. The world is not perfect, including ourselves, and so is street racing. I'm staying in the middle of this issue. It's because it can be done and can not be done. There're many factors behind it. There're drivers who crashed at racing, and there're even more drivers who crashed at not racing at all. The best way to find out is with the statistics through the National Health Center. It has every type of accidents reported. Anyway, I guess the Ferrari driver who owns part of the game company, he actually recently built a computer racing game, thought his Ferrari would crash but it still be able to replay like in the game. That's why he didn't much attention to his capability and reality.

 

[jibby]

Bring it on, I will go head up with my perky little 400hp sc, safe conditions only.....That's living fella's. Call it stupid, call it unwise, call it what you want....A fancy car pulls up next to me that costs 5 times as much and wants to go, I am not just going to sit there and watch him take off at the green I am sorry. It is not an Ego thing maybe a prideful thing. I always said why build or drive a fast car if not going to go fast at times? It just makes no sense to me... I built this car up from scratch and I get a thrill out of beating these fancy cars light to light... I might get slack for saying this on the forums, but I must say I have never been in an accident, came close but was never my fault. I got skills just never know about the guy next to me?????? So in conclusion when pressed and the light turns green you need to ask yourself are you going to be a man or a mouse? Do you just look at your fast car and never use it? Come on people what is one to do........?????????

 

[rarson]

Personally, these things have me torn (wrecked exotics, that is). As indifferent as I am to the Enzo (I'd MUCH rather have a nice Zonda or Koenigsegg), it's still an amazing machine and it makes me sad to see one get destroyed. But at the same time, it serves the ass right. This may sound cold, but I don't give a crap about the guy driving the car. If a $600,000 price tag (let alone his own well-being) isn't enough to wake him up and be more cautious about his driving, then he doesn't deserve to walk away from such stupidity.

And while I dislike most forms of street racing (especially when inconsiderate people block off an entire road to get their kicks) and I most definitely take my own vehicle to the track as often as possible, I do think there are varying degrees of "reasonable." Just because the state of Maryland says that I shouldn't go above 55 mph on a certain road doesn't mean I'm not capable of controlling my vehicle at a much higher speed. But at the same time, provoking another person into racing immediately makes you responsible for their actions as well (IMO). So based on that fact alone, that I don't trust anyone to drive as well as me (and that's not saying incredibly much), I don't street race with anyone I don't know. And circumstances must also dictate safety; an impromptu race on a busy street or in inclement weather is just asking for trouble.

All that said, I basically don't street race, because the above conditions are rarely met. Most of the stuff I do on the street is tuning, and it's done on deserted back roads, never main or occupied roads. Besides, going to the track and getting a timeslip to take back is infinitely better than some stupid street race.

Moral of the story: be safe and don't be stupid. There IS such a thing as responsible street racing but unfortunately 99% of the races out there aren't it.

 

[turboandrew]

Kind of sad to see that masterpiece of a motor just laying in pieces in the middle of PCH. I guess the car did what it was supposed to do. I hope I never get in that situation (the wreck, not the uber-rich, can afford an Enzo situation, I'll take that any day!)

 

[Anaema]

Well, it's actually hard to judge anyone from his/her wrong doing. The world is not perfect, including ourselves, and so is street racing. I'm staying in the middle of this issue. It's because it can be done and can not be done. There're many factors behind it. There're drivers who crashed at racing, and there're even more drivers who crashed at not racing at all. The best way to find out is with the statistics through the National Health Center. It has every type of accidents reported. Anyway, I guess the Ferrari driver who owns part of the game company, he actually recently built a computer racing game, thought his Ferrari would crash but it still be able to replay like in the game. That's why he didn't much attention to his capability and reality.

i dont believe you. i know people can be stupid, but thats like playing FPS so much in your life that you think youll respawn if you get shot. if they are that stupid, then they are a true retard.

 

[stevechumo]

i dont believe you. i know people can be stupid, but thats like playing FPS so much in your life that you think youll respawn if you get shot. if they are that stupid, then they are a true retard.

Well, everybody has his/her own belief and yours is also respected. But that doesn't mean one's belief can be used to criticize other people.

***Anyway, let's pause all critical thoughts for a moment and discuss about those 2 cars performances.

Mercedez SLR: V8, 5.4L, 617 hp, torque: 575 ft/lbs, weight: 3732 lbs, 5 speed auto tranny.

Ferrari Enzo: V12, 6.0L, 660 hp, torque: 657 ft/lbs, weight: 3009 lbs, 6 speed manual tranny.

If compared between those 2 cars, which one will win or has better overal performances, given the same skilled drivers? Let's put them on the track so not to inflict anyone's belief.

 

[jibby]

Considering the Horse Power, weight, and trans gearing I would say it is a no brainer....The Ferrari Enzo takes the checked flag.......

 

[rarson]

I forgot which magazine it is, but they do the 0-100-0 mph test, and the Enzo beat 3 other cars in the comparison... I believe they were the Porsche Carrera GT, the Saleen S7, and in dead last, the Mercedes.

In a recent Motor Trend (I think it was MT, or it might have been C&D), they were talking about the Bugatti Veyron. The guy who was speaking about it happened to work on the SLR. He stated that the Bugatti was much like the SLR, but better. He said, with the SLR, they made a show car and said "okay, now build it." Not the way to build a performance car.


I've just never liked that car at all, and I think it's mostly due to the fact that it shares the (nothing short of) legendary McLaren name while delivering middle-of-the-road performance (not to mention love-it-or-hate-it styling). The F1 was undeniably top dog when it came out. The SLR, very much not so.

 

[Anaema]

I forgot which magazine it is, but they do the 0-100-0 mph test, and the Enzo beat 3 other cars in the comparison... I believe they were the Porsche Carrera GT, the Saleen S7, and in dead last, the Mercedes.

In a recent Motor Trend (I think it was MT, or it might have been C&D), they were talking about the Bugatti Veyron. The guy who was speaking about it happened to work on the SLR. He stated that the Bugatti was much like the SLR, but better. He said, with the SLR, they made a show car and said "okay, now build it." Not the way to build a performance car.


I've just never liked that car at all, and I think it's mostly due to the fact that it shares the (nothing short of) legendary McLaren name while delivering middle-of-the-road performance (not to mention love-it-or-hate-it styling). The F1 was undeniably top dog when it came out. The SLR, very much not so.

it was Gordon Murray, C&D, and the other way around. Bugati built the Veyron with a body style already in mind, Gordon Murray didnt build the SLR MacLaren with a body style in mind.