Joy ride turns nearly fatal (Stolen Viper goes airborne after only 4 blocks)

Effingham (IL) Daily News ^ | 10.8.03 | KIM WIEDMAN

[mhking]

NEWTON - She had only been allowed out a few times for special occasions, and when she did go out, people couldn't help but stop and stare.

With her V-10 motor and six-speed manual transmission, there wasn't many like her on the road, and her owners, Kevin and Max Short of McClane Motors in Newton, knew how special she was. She was hand-assembled and part of a limited production.

After she was purchased in the later part of '94, when it was worth $60,500, the owners toyed with the idea of selling her, but with looks like hers, they couldn't help but become too attached.

On a few occasions, the McClane's had taken her out to show her off in parades and she did go on a few short trips here and there, but she was mainly used as an attention-grabber to attract people to the dealership.

On Friday night, she was driven proudly through the Newton High School Homecoming Parade, where she carried a queen candidate, Kevin Short's stepdaughter Emily Matson, for all parade-goers to admire.

Following the parade, she wasn't taken back to her normal storage area, but instead with her odometer set at 169, she was parked in the shop area of the dealership where her owners had intended for her to stay until the next day when they planned to take her out and show her off a little.

Her next trip, however, would come just a few hours later, when a driver she was unfamiliar with took her out for a spin.

As she left McClane Motors in Newton with the unfamiliar driver, no one could have anticipated what would happen next.

Just four short blocks from the dealership along Illinois 33, the '95 red Dodge Viper became airborne as the driver lost control causing the vehicle to strike a parked tractor at Newton Tractor Sales. The motor of the tractor was pushed back an estimated 6 inches, and the Viper was ripped to shreds.

Witnesses say they saw the Viper pass by around 4:05 a.m. Saturday at an excessive speed and then they heard the crash - which residents say was heard blocks away.

Kevin Short, general manager of McClane Motors, who has been around the car business as long as he can remember, said when he heard the news about what had happened to the car, he was in disbelief.

"I was pretty shocked about the whole incident," said Short. "We initially had gotten it as a possible vehicle to sell, but it is not a car that everyone in this area is going to buy. We had gotten attached to it."

Although it is unknown what the exact rate of speed the car was traveling when it crashed, Short said the car is capable of reaching a high rate of speed in a very short period of time.

According to a Web site that features specifications on that year of Dodge Viper, the Viper is capable of reaching up to 113.8 mph in a quarter of a mile, which is about the distance the Viper traveled before it was wrecked.

The car that was once admired as it traveled down the roadway now sits in an undisclosed location, and the driver of the car, Joshua S. Clasby, 25, of Greenup remains in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana.

Illinois State Police is continuing to investigate the crash, and Clasby could face criminal and traffic charges.

[mhking]

Just damn.

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[ApesForEvolution]

4 blocks? I could get a Viper off the ground in less than one...

[martin_fierro]

F^#(in' cagers.

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[MineralMan]

"On a few occasions, the McClane's had taken her out to show her off in parades and she did go on a few short trips here and there, but she was mainly used as an attention-grabber to attract people to the dealership. "

I fail to see the utility of a vehicle that is not driven. There are lots of Vipers on the road in CA...indeed, probably most of them have been sold here.

I like oddball cars, but would never own one I didn't drive regularly. I have better places to put my money.

[avg_freeper]

Reminds me of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

[Bikers4Bush]

"Joshua S. Clasby, 25, of Greenup remains
in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana."

Now that's a shame, too bad the car didn't take him with it to the grave.

[My2Cents]

Last time I saw a Viper on the road, it was a stretch of I-80 in California. The car passed me on the inside lane of a the 4-lane highway, and then the driver gunned the engine to take off. Instead, he lost control, and veered right, off onto the shoulder, and ripped up a fence of barbed wire about 25 feet off the road. The driver wasn't hurt, and the car wasn't destroyed, but it's paint a body were pretty well bunged up.

[fourdeuce82d]

the driver of the car, Joshua S. Clasby, 25, of Greenup remains in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital

Awwwwww....

[LTCJ]

114 MPh in a quarter mile? Pppft.

Roughly $350 per mile. Nows there's a metric for you.

[ArrogantBustard]

but she was mainly used as an attention-grabber to attract people to the dealership.

You (and I) may not think of that form of advertising as a good place to put money; the owners thought otherwise. I wonder how many people entered that dealership because they saw the Viper out front, and bought some other vehicle as a result?

[truthandjustice1]

I drive a 2001 Corvette and have been known to put "rice rockets" in their place, but I probably wouldn't take on a Viper. The C6 'vette is alleged to be the Viper killer.

[July 4th]

Ah yes, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California...

[sc2_ct]

I drive a 2001 Corvette and have been known to put "rice rockets" in their place, but I probably wouldn't take on a Viper. The C6 'vette is alleged to be the Viper killer. LOL, I drive a Saturn and managed to take a C4 by .3s in the 1/4. Then again, the nitrous oxide might have contributed a bit and they got a bad launch :)

[CherylBower]

Our company just built a C6 from the frame up. We are racing it against Vipers at Road Atlanta and Puerto Rico this month. But it is a race car not a street car.

[1Old Pro]

then the driver gunned the engine to take off. Instead, he lost control, and veered right, off onto the shoulder, and ripped up a fence of barbed wire about 25 feet off the road.

That's what happens when you put an inexperienced driver in an overpowered car made by a company (Dodge) that knows practically nothing about sports cars.

[HEY4QDEMS]

[truthandjustice1]

How much does the street C6 differ from the C5? BTW I'm jealous as heck.

[Diamond]

A teenager with another teenage passenger drove a Viper down our street about two yearss ago at about 100 miles an hour. At a little hump in the street the Viper went airborne. Unfortunately, the street curved at just the point at which the Viper went airborne. The teenagers realized too late that after a vehicle becomes airborne the steering wheel no longer has any effect on the direction of the vehicle, and they crashed into a telephone pole and were killed.

Cordially,