Yeah, my '65 Mustang has something like that. Intended only for use at a drive-in restaurant, certainly not while in motion.
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."
The 70’s was a different time.
Those were the days!
stick shifts do seem to be dying out in the US. 80% of the cars sold in Europe are stick shifts however. They are also very common around the world.
I’ve never owned an automatic. The car I just bought in January is a stick. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Unless you travel to Europe and rent a car....everything in Europe is a stick; look at the car rental websites and you can't find an automatic car anywhere....
I currently have 1 manual, 2 autos
But over my driving life it as been 78% manual cars
Probably I will have an electric car someday, but I will still keep my red barchetta despite the motor law.
My dad taught my sister in an old Toyota Corona. My sister taught me. I MiSS a stick shift. Especially when the tranny would go out. Half a day I can have a new clutch put in my old pickup. With my last SUV, the auto tranny went out and it was going to be about $5000 for a rebuilt. Screw that. The only thing O have seen with a manual are the occasional Jeep Rubicon but I am not paying that much for a Jeep. Oh well. We will all be forced to ride electric trollies soon enough when gasoline is outlawed.
Yeah, my '65 Mustang has something like that. Intended only for use at a drive-in restaurant, certainly not while in motion.
By the way, this happened in FL, so the bottom line is FLORIDA MAN.
If he paid over $700k for that car, he overpaid. You can have one of these for less than half that.
https://www.superformance.com/factory-models-gt40
bkmk
Supercar Crash Compilation | HD | 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL6Xoc-nZtY
Mr Bean crashes McLaren F1 twice, sells for $12.2 million
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/09/rowan-atkinson-crashes-mclaren-f1-supercar-twice-sells-for-122-million.html
That kind of money could buy a nice house on a decent parcel of land out in the boonies.
Why waste it on a car?
I’d never been so embarrassed in my life.
It sounds like you had a fun time learning, and i'm sure you got better.
My first time driving a stick shift was a school bus on a country road and I was only 14. Clutching properly is always the difficulty with new drivers. Once people get that down, the rest is relatively easy.
I'm sure you have fun driving a stick shift nowadays.
You work faster than I do it seems. I would give a full day for replacing a clutch, and that's if you don't have a problem with the flywheel.
Those old truck were certainly a lot easier to work on than much of this modern stuff. I still do a lot of auto repair nowadays. (for a hobby)
Oh well. We will all be forced to ride electric trollies soon enough when gasoline is outlawed.
As for electric trolleys, some years ago I bought a bunch of natural gas powered cars, and so it will be a little longer before I have to deal with electric cars.
I'm also working on a pre-war car that I plan to make into my daily driver, and i'm thinking about converting it to natural gas. The trunk is large enough for the tank and I think I can do it in such a way it's not easily noticable.
It will be a hoot.
Great! Now you gpt to drive a 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, and 18 speed.
Or a 5X4 or a 4x4 twin sticks. Or a 16 speed spicer. Those are all fun.
How many people nowadays could drive something with a carburetor? I have a mental image of a young’un repeatedly turning the key and getting click-click-click because he didn’t know to goose the gas pedal first.
Sounds like fun! Where do I sign up?
Any trucking company.
Three to five times and then start it. What happens is when you pump the gas it closes the choke sets the fast idle and pumping the peddle gives it more juice.
On the REAL old cars, you had what they called a manual choke. Pull it out, pump the gas and start it and adjust the choke to run it till it warms up. Then open the choke all the way...by pushing the choke nob all the way in. Then, there was the ones which had the spark advance...
Thems the good ol days hey?
BTW, never try and hand crank a car with the spark advance lever without adjusting it right. And never wrap your thump around the crank handle..remember that?
GD model A fords...I dont know if Henry Ford cursed us or what.
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