Posted on 05/02/2022 3:41:57 PM PDT by algore
A Ford GT owner in Boca Raton, Florida crashed his recently purchased supercar into a tree Friday evening because he was "unfamiliar with how to drive stick shift," police say.
The driver, 50-year-old Robert J. Guarini, told cops he lost control after downshifting while leaving his housing development at around 6 p.m, a police report says. This led to a head-on collision with a palm tree. Guarini then told a nearby security worker that he did not have his phone and needed a ride back to his house, where he spoke to authorities via landline after leaving the vehicle unattended, the report says.
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Though the police report says Guarini told officers the crash was caused by inexperience with a manual transmission, the Ford GT owner told Road & Track over the phone that there was more to the event. Guarini claims old tires, muddy pavement, and a fresh detailing were all factors causing the 550-horsepower supercar to swing out and hit a tree. The driver also told R&T the crash occurred as he shifted up into second gear from first, not while downshifting, as the official report says.
“I don’t want people to think I was racing at 90 mph," Guarini says. "I was going 35 mph.”
From the police report, it's unclear if speed played a role in the crash.
Facebook user John Peddle's photos from the crash site show that the damage is limited to the front third of the car. The hit was substantial enough to trigger multiple airbags, disable the vehicle, and cause the GT to slide far enough after hitting the tree that it blocked a nearby sidewalk.
Though police say the car was not registered or insured when the crash occurred, Guarini claims the car was covered under an umbrella policy and that he just didn't have the documentation available when the crash happened.
The police report's listed VIN indicates the car was purchased at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach in early April for $704,000, about the going price for a 2006 Heritage Edition GT. That would make replacement a very expensive endeavor.
Guarini was issued a citation for driving with a suspended license and a warning for operating an unregistered vehicle. The 50-year-old claims his license suspension was due to an unrelated department of motor vehicles "clerical error."
That’ll buff right out.
Gentlemen, the jokes about difficulty driving a stick don’t hold water anymore and have not for decades.
I built my own hot rod because I wanted to nearly 20 years ago. I had to learn to drive it... never driven anything with a stick before it.
Manual transmission is mostly a thing of the past outside of commercial trucks.
Every production road car I’ve ever driven from 1995 to today? Auto.
Diesel Pickup? Auto.
Mower? Hydrostat.
Tractor? Hydrostat.
Hot Rod? Manual.
So yeah, being in my mid 20s back then at the time and trying to learn how to drive the only manual transmission vehicle in my family or any of my friends... yeah. You gotta do what you gotta do. Big open parking lots and a lot of quiet swearing while you feel like an idiot with two left feet.
It’s fun as heck once you get it down, but it’s a niche skill now.
And that was then. Today? Half the drivers on the road today have never even thought about what a manual transmission is. They’ve never encountered one.
A 50-year-old man who can’t drive a stick. This makes me feel old. When I was young if you didn’t learn to drive a stick your options were limited. I took my driver’s test with one.
I haven’t driven a stick shift in a few years, but don’t they still come with steering wheels and brakes?
And the clutch will make it stop trying to keep going forward.
And how can you eat a Big Mac and yak on your cell phone and shift gears all at the same time?
Usually I use the brake to stop forward motion.
You do not even need to push in the clutch, unless you want the engine to stay running
This dude paid $705,000 for the hot rod jalopy.
But I thought the steering controls direction of car, not the tranny.
Hmm.. 20 years ago I’d been driving stick for 20 or so years. Now the only stick I drive is shifted with my left toe.
Cars, yea, auto.
Still, it’s gotta be embarrassing as hell to crash a quarter of a million dollar car because you can’t drive stick.
Turn in your man card dude.
My question exactly.
Has more dollars than sense.
Sheesh...if you get into a jam, just depress the clutch and drive. What a freaking idiotic FIFTY year old.
Most of my cars do not have cup holders, but they all have ashtrays
Try shifting a stick, drinking a beer and twisting one sometime.
The 70’s was a different time.
I once had a car that had two circular indentations that were about 1/4” deep in the back of the glove compartment lid. Looked to be about the size of a pop can and that may have been what they were intended to hold.
Apart from that, no cup holders in the entire car.
And it was a 5 speed manual.
Ok, let me clarify...
How do you eat a big mack and yak on your cellphone and shift gears while driving on Virginia roads that are as crooked as their politicians?
Ain’t no big deal to do that on an arrow-straight Midwestern road...
I think the pedals in the GT are very close together. He probably mistook the Accelerator for the Brake.
I offered to drive a friend’s vehicle home for him. He asked me if I could drive a straight drive and I said, “Sure.”
After I got in, I rolled down the window and asked him if he knew his car had two brake pedals.
I offered to drive a friend’s vehicle home for him. He asked me if I could drive a straight drive and I said, “Sure.”
After I got in, I rolled down the window and asked him if he knew his car had two brake pedals.
Close enough.
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