Woman Rents Ferrari 458, Turns Off Traction Control, Crashes Minutes Later
What do you get when you combine a wet road, an Italian supercar, and an inexperienced driver? An insurance payout.
Chances are Cyndi Lauper wasn't singing about rental supercar wrecks in her 1983 smash hit Time After Time. But after watching what feels like the umpteenth instance of a novice getting behind the wheel of an extremely expensive, extremely powerful machine and crashing almost immediately, it seems the only appropriate soundtrack.
The Daily Mail reports the unnamed woman rented a Ferrari 458 in Wenling, China and posted a brief video from the driver's seat with her saying "First time driving a Ferrari. This truly is the most amazing feeling." We hope she holds onto that feeling, because just a few minutes later a security camera captured her spinning out on a wet road and smashing into oncoming traffic.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that based on the dashboard lights seen in the first video, it appears the traction control had been turned off in the 562-horsepower car prior to the crash. Over on Reddit, people have speculated that the Ferrari might have been placed into Race mode since the ABS light is on as well. Rainy conditions, an unleashed rear-wheel-drive supercar, and an inexperienced driver—where have we seen this before?
That 458 is properly messed up for a relatively low-speed crash, with its front right corner completely buckled and smashed in. It's not unfixable necessarily, but it's also going to be an extremely expensive repair job, one that will eat up the renter's security deposit in a heartbeat. Then there's matter of paying for the cars she hit, which included a BMW X3 that took the brunt of the impact.
If you fall, I will catch/you I'll be wait-ing... Time after time. The lyrics may be about love, but it also works as a theme song for guardrails everywhere—especially when there's a beginner behind the wheel of a Ferrari.
