M5 and 18 year old kid

[trish]

= Tragedy

This was posted at another forum. The story begins here. (http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=111454&highlight=AmericanM5)

[nrc]

<sigh> I saw the story in the news when there were no details available. Just saw this this so I know where this is going. :( :shakehead

Goodstuff buddy...Im up here in Ocala/Gainseville area....do you know of any events here in Florida that you take the M5 to...

[Insomniac]

Those kind of things are so eerie. Always makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

[nrc]

Those kind of things are so eerie. Always makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

Reading through a thread like that reminds me of "Twelve Monkeys". The story is playing out and at some point you know what's going to happen all you can do is watch it develop. :(

I've seen plenty of parents succumb to buying their kid something they're probably not responsible enough for. Thankfully most make it through alive. But a 500HP M5?

[Sean Malone]

The local paper ran a picture of the crash the day after it happened. They weren’t exaggerating about 200ft in the air.

I had many muscle cars when I was a teenager into my 20’s ranging in the 300hp to 400hp range and am lucky I’m still alive. I don’t think I’d be if I had a 500hp M5.

[Cam]

Tragic as all are taking this, it has all the earmarks of a darwin award. Sympathies to those that he took out with him... However this kid was asking how to push the envelope and admitting he was out of his depth. Or is that just short of orbit. He pushed the envelope and physics got the better of him. Sad... VERY sad...

[Insomniac]

The local paper ran a picture of the crash the day after it happened. They weren’t exaggerating about 200ft in the air.

I had many muscle cars when I was a teenager into my 20’s ranging in the 300hp to 400hp range and am lucky I’m still alive. I don’t think I’d be if I had a 500hp M5.

I had a Chevy Celebrity station wagon and sped all the time until I got a ticket. God knows what would've happened if I had an even faster car.

[Methanolandbrats]

The stupidity of some "parents" is amazing.

[Don Quixote]

Trish, thanks for posting this. The story had the desired effect on my teenage kids. Sometimes you can tell them something until you are blue in the face and they don't hear it. But a real life example gets through to them. Pandering rich parents --> :shakehead. Also, my favorite starter car for a kid is a 1980's vintage Saab 900, Heavy, with a gutless 2 litre engine.

[oddlycalm]

The stupidity of some "parents" is amazing. Yeah, apparently money can't buy common sense.
Handing keys to supercar to a green kid is like loading a gun and handing it to a kid who has only seen guns on TV. :shakehead

Unless they've been through a performance driving school and have a good head on their shoulders they don't stand a chance. It's

My guess is that when the parents of the other four kids sue their lawyers might mention the level of parental negligence involved.

oc

[trish]

There's another thread linked in there somewhere going into the details of the speeding tickets some of the kids in the car had received over the past year.

[Gnam]

Handing keys to a supercar to a green kid...

Maybe the unemployed 18 yr. old high school graduate "borrowed" his dad's car. It's been known to happen...;)

Some people are just dumb. This guy would have figured out how to roll a minivan into the Everglades if that's all that was available.

Maybe BMW should install a warning label on the steering wheel, "This car CAN kill you, stoopid." :shakehead

[Methanolandbrats]

This hits close to home with me because I have twin 16 year old girls who are about to get their licenses. I've had them on gravel, on ice, threshold braking exercises, friction circle on dry pavement, etc..... they have really good heads on their shoulders and they also learned to drive a stick. They promised to autocross, rallycross and ice race with me over the next couple years. We went out today in 10 inches of snow and near white-out conditions for another lesson. I'm trying to teach them to really drive which means no cell phone, no eating, no daydreaming and 100% attention to driving when you're in the car. This is in sharp contrast to ALL their friends who go through the usual "driver ed". In the last six months many of the kids in their class who earned licenses have crashed. Two rollovers, two kids in hospital seriously injured and quite a few totalled cars. These are not rich kids, just regular kids, but the common denominator is the same in the accidents. In all cases, too much speed for conditions is the primary cause, second comes inattention, third comes not not knowing how to react to changing road conditions. Parental stupidity also comes into play because many new drivers were allowed to drive to a basketball game during an ice storm :shakehead You can guess the results of that one.

[Andrew Longman]

Does this sound like your kid? Post 28 in the thread:


M5froth I completley understand where you are coming from assuming that I am irresponsible..that is definetly understandable. I do sometimes make bad decisions but I am young and I do drive safe and I will not endanger the lives of others..and I hope you are not under the impression that I am the one to brag, I have never been that way and never will. Plus I will have pictures up asap with me in the pictures. I have no reason to lie buddy.

Snowball, thanks again buddy and I will try that soon.

M5baller, I will admit I was not aware that it wasnt a good idea to have m-mode set the way I did...My dealer did not tell me anything about it, when I took the test drive my salesmen had it set on the highest levels and told me it was fine. Even the mechanic said it was fine and that the only thing I really had to worry about was getting the services done on time. I know the salesmen pretty well as a friend and he has no reason to lie to me...plus like I said above the mechanic said there is no problem with it at all.... But I do understand where you guys are coming from, but I just want to be apart of the community and learn stuff just like you guys..

so take care

Josh

[Methanolandbrats]

Does this sound like your kid? Post 28 in the thread: You talking to me?

[Andrew Longman]

This hits close to home with me because I have twin 16 year old girls...

All great advice and stuff I did myself when young to learn. Applause!!!

One things I plan for Trevor when he gets his license is a trip to Skip Barber or Bertil Roos. I didn't do that until I was past 40 and regret to this day I didn't do it sooner.

First, there are two accidents I had, one in my twenties and another ten years later that would not have happened if I better understood steering with the throttle. In my case caution actually caused the wrecks.

Second, there is nothing like going fast in a car then having an instructor you respect tell you in no uncertain terms just how much of a wanker stint that was and exactly how to correct it.

Finally, I want to let him experience what speed is in a safe setting. Either get it out of his system or respect it enough to save money for more track time.

With this poor kid Josh, he seems to have thought he was being safe doing 160 on a airport without other cars but seems to have been too focused on the speedometer and not where the runway ended.:shakehead

[Methanolandbrats]

All great advice and stuff I did myself when young to learn. Applause!!!

One things I plan for Trevor when he gets his license is a trip to Skip Barber or Bertil Roos. I didn't do that until I was past 40 and regret to this day I didn't do it sooner.

First, there are two accidents I had, one in my twenties and another ten years later that would not have happened if I better understood steering with the throttle. In my case caution actually caused the wrecks.

Second, there is nothing like going fast in a car then having an instructor you respect tell you in no uncertain terms just how much of a wanker stint that was and exactly how to correct it.

Finally, I want to let him experience what speed is in a safe setting. Either get it out of his system or respect it enough to save money for more track time.

With this poor kid Josh, he seems to have thought he was being safe doing 160 on a airport without other cars but seems to have been too focused on the speedometer and not where the runway ended.:shakehead You'll have an easy time getting Trevor to Skippy Barber. Boys eat that stuff up. Girls on the other hand are in general intimidated by doing something like that. I'm still working on that one. I'm just thankful they have spent their entire lives going to the track with me and they see driving as what it is, a deadly serious business that takes total attention. It really takes parental involvement because driver "education" in this country is a disaster.

[oddlycalm]

I'm trying to teach them to really drive Great call. :thumbup:

I was always grateful to both my parents for taking the time to teach not only teach me to drive but to teach me performance driving. The bonus was that we covered a lot of miles and spent time together that we might not have spent otherwise. It was an age when we didn't have a lot of common ground, but we had that.

oc

[Andrew Longman]

You talking to me?

No. No one in particular. I just meant it sounds like a good kid who in his mind is not a di*****. I expect he thought of himself as smarter and wiser that the knuckleheads who drag race on public streets and despite the results thought himself as both careful and invulnerable.

Sorry if I gave offense. :(

[Methanolandbrats]

No. No one in particular. I just meant it sounds like a good kid who in his mind is not a di*****. I expect he thought of himself as smarter and wiser that the knuckleheads who drag race on public streets and despite the results thought himself as both careful and invulnerable.

Sorry if I gave offense. :( You did'nt. :)

[Sean O'Gorman]

I constantly drove like a moron when I was 16 and 17. Looking back, I'm glad my dad had me drive a 60 hp '83 Civic because I would've killed myself in anything faster.

[nrc]

With this poor kid Josh, he seems to have thought he was being safe doing 160 on a airport without other cars but seems to have been too focused on the speedometer and not where the runway ended.:shakeheadEven if he was paying attention, at 160 you can't see something in your headlights, even on high, and react in time to stop.

This is another good point for young drivers, in most cars you're overdriving your low beams at 65. Unless the object is reflective you just can't see something, react and stop in the 200 feet or so that your low beams reach. High beams reach 4-500 feet, but stopping distances increase geometricly so I'd guess that anything over 85 is probably overdriving your high beams as well.

[Andrew Longman]

...for young drivers, in most cars you're overdriving your low beams at 65.

That's an additional good point. I don't know the braking power of an M5 but by the time he saw the end of the runway, it was probably WAY too late for him.

If us smart guys were stupid enough to try this stunt, we would have calculated and put a cone or some marker out to point out the braking point. And we might have done it in daytime.

[Cam]

With this poor kid Josh, he seems to have thought he was being safe doing 160 on a airport without other cars but seems to have been too focused on the speedometer and not where the runway ended.:shakehead

What are the odds that somewhere in all the carnage there is a cell phone with same fairly damning photographic "evidence".

[oddlycalm]

That's an additional good point. I don't know the braking power of an M5 but by the time he saw the end of the runway, it was probably WAY too late for him. Yeah, even with great brakes a 4000lb. car with several buddies is going to take some serious space to come down from 150mph.

There are damn few safe places to do full speed runs in 500hp cars that weigh 4000lbs. During track days with the M3 at PIR the highest speed I ever saw was 142 when I bypassed the festival curves. The only safe place to do it anywhere near here is the Black Rock desert on the Oregon / Nevada border and several hundred miles away. Nothing to hit and endless miles to run.

BTW, there are "valet" keys for the M5 (all M cars for that matter) that severely limit the horsepower output. Any parent that was paying attention would have been able to alter the outcome of this situation IMO. This kid had regular access to this car at full power as can be seen in the forum posts.

oc

[G.]

Autoweek covered this story.

Sad.

Stupid.

[Ziggy]

Thanks for posting this thread, it was very interesting reading. I really liked how it started, with the dumb rich kid asking even dumber questions.

When I wanted a different level of horsepower, I ordered a new camshaft and lifters, along with an engine stand and a cherry picker.

Josh was a complete rich kid retard, and in true loser fashion, took out four of his buddies with him.

My only question, couldn't his parents gotten a station wagon? :D

[nrc]

http://blogs.cars.com/photos/uncategorized/m5t7.jpg