December 05, 2011

Sports car apocalypse

If you're in the mood to indulge in some 99 percenter schadenfreude at the expense of people who can afford to race around in $100,000 sports cars (the base price of a used Ferrari in Japan), well, here's a treat for you.

Though as Japan Today points out, owners of such vehicles in Japan aren't necessarily the "one percent." The sixty-something owner of the lead Ferrari may live in a "rabbit hutch" and spend all his disposable income on cars.

It was the lead Ferrari in a sports car club rally from Kyushu to Hiroshima that spun out changing lanes and triggered the fourteen car pile-up. The "casualties" include eight Ferraris, one Lamborghini and two Mercedes-Benzes.

The Benzes (three in some reports), plus a Prius, were collateral damage. The Wall Street Journal estimates a four million dollar price tag.

If nothing else, it's a credit to the design of modern sports cars that nobody got seriously hurt. Well, except the insurance companies. And all the other fuming travelers stuck behind the resulting six-hour traffic jam.

Hey, don't think of it as a traffic accident. Think of it as a Keynesian stimulus program!

The police suspect that excessive speed for wet conditions, not street racing, led to the accident. Here's the NHK story and footage that seems the basis for the ubiquitous AP feed. And the CNN version based on the above.

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Comments
# posted by Anonymous Garage Equipment
2/12/2012 10:12 AM   
Sports Cars are engineered to go around corners and straight lines as fast as possible. They are usually expensive, dangerous and so much fun that everybody wants one.
# posted by Anonymous Erwin Calverley
2/15/2013 10:30 AM   
Four million dollars in damages? That’s a pretty expensive road collision! Boy, you’re right about the insurance companies getting hurt! But it shouldn’t be all that surprising since these are all luxury cars. I guess it just goes to show that careful driving is still the best policy, whether you’re driving a beaten down sedan or an expensive Ferrari. On the other hand, why were they racing on the highway?