We all were shocked when we saw the news of a renowned actor’s death this weekend in a car crash. Yes, sadly, Paul Walker, the Brian from Fast and Furious passed away in an accident on road which claimed his life along with Roger Rodas, who was considered to be an expert driver. The news was not only ironic but it was also tragic. Today we have our take on the Porsche which was being driven by Roger Rodas when the accident took place.
The Carrera GT is considered a dangerous car by a number of experts and has been involved in a number of serious accidents in history. One of them includes the incident at Talladega, where Jay Leno was behind the wheels. A fatal accident took also place at California Speedway and the case was settled for $4.5 million. We have a number of testimonials from experts who all treat this car as a car which demands respect and if you don’t respect it; you’ll pay the ultimate price.
Walter Rohrl is Porsche’s famous test driver and former World Rally Champion. He has gone on the record to state that this is the first car which he has driven and is scared of it. Considering his expertise with cars, this statement alone tells us that Carrera GT requires extraordinary care while being driven and this was confirmed in Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson said; ‘you need to be awake to drive this car fast’. The car was difficult to handle even for Jeremy during the test drive. While he continued to praise the ride he was quite sure about the fact that this car is dangerous and can be deceptive at high speeds. An owner of Carrera GT who is also an Indy Car driver, Graham Rahal, said that it needs respect. A manager who used to work at Porsche stated that this is the most dangerous car on road.
During the development phase, Walter Rohrl was scared, as mentioned before, and wanted traction control installed on the vehicle. The reason for that was the fact that car’s behavior could not be predicted at high speeds and this was a concern, even for the experienced drivers. Roger Rodas had raced in Pirelli World Challenge series and was a great driver but he could not keep the Carrera in control and the accident claimed his life along with Paul Walker’s. As per experts, you can’t go flat out on this car without any planning, while conditions need to be perfect for you to foot down the pedal and even then it is scary.
Rohrl recalls that earlier this year, he insisted on testing the car’s performance even during wet weather and said; ‘”I came back into the pits and I was white. I immediately said to the engineers that we need one button for the wet and one button for the dry.’ Rohrl was talking about the need for a traction switch control.
It is too early to say why the accident occurred but rest assured Paul Walker died doing something that he loved. It may have been a mechanical error, maybe a bad decision by the driver or the Carrera’s overall ‘demand for respect’ that caused the accident – Nevertheless we lost a great actor and celebrity! Rest in peace Paul Walker, you will be missed.
I will miss u so much my best actor
Every car which is uncontrollable whether it is Suzuki Alto needs respect. When you make cars which are not good at to steer you say please respect this car.. When some other one makes the car with same behaviour you count it as less maneuvers…… Please you Europeans, kindly do not behave hippocratic accept your cars are non controllable due to high speed engines you have fitted. Try to make cars same level which others are making upto the limits of the car engines to be controllable…