Even a car will take off (once) with an 18 year old driving.

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
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iWin
The proud new owner of a 2008 BMW M5 painted Space Gray.

He had a problem. It happened when he had "everything set to max" and changed gear with the shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. As he said, "and I'm going pedal to the metal pushing 140 and upshifting, there tends to be a thud noise with the gear change." AmericanM5 wanted to know if this was normal.
....

At 3:30 a.m. on January 26, a 2008 BMW M5 painted Space Gray flew off the raised end of a runway at a private airport just outside Ocala, Florida, sailed 200 feet through the air and stuck a huge tree. The impact with the tree occurred 15 feet off the ground. Five young men, aged 18 to 20, were killed instantly.

Members of the M5Board began to put the pieces together. AmericanM5 said he was 18, had a 2008 M5 in Space Gray, and said he lived in the Ocala area. And he signed one of the posts, "Josh."

The driver of the crashed M5 had been Josh Ammirato.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Columns/articleId=124526
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:hairraise:
What if he been driving on a conveyor belt? Ducking
 
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Wow, Josh, definitely!

YOUR DAD IS THE COO....

2232232737_e15e09b0a5.jpg
 
FTA..
The crash occurred at the Greystone Airport, which is bordered on one side by Jumbolair Estates, a fly-in community where actor and pilot John Travolta lives; he filed a suit in 2007 to compel the owners to allow him to land his Boeing 707 on the strip.
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It is a shame he took 4 others with him. But thinking about it, they were probably willing participants, if not added encouragement. Maybe Darwin got 5.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
So no one is yet suing the property or runway owners?
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Or BMW for having the thunking shifter ... or the M5 board for helping the kid go so fast...anyone but the kid's Dad, although there are 4 sets of parents who will be going after him.
 
Hmm... my Jag didn't go airborne when I went 160 with it some years back. Although that wasn't at an airport, so maybe that's the difference.

Could just as easily have been me were it not for sheer dumb luck. Although that kid was doing it repeatedly. I did it once, and decided that was enough. Sounds like this kid made a habit of it.

Never drive faster than your angel can fly...
 
it just makes me shake my head sadly ... does excessive cash make parents excessively STUPID?
 
gkainz said:
it just makes me shake my head sadly ... does excessive cash make parents excessively STUPID?
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The stupidity comes into play when one makes every effort to protect the cash at the expense of their values, morals, ethics and eventually their personal liberty.
 
Ok, so 17FL is 7550 x 210 ft. Runway 18 has a displaced threshold of 1800ft, and Runway 36 has a displaced threshold of 1945ft. After reaching the end of the runway, the driver would have 1800 ft left to decelerate (since he was traveling north). What is the braking distance for an M5 going 120 mph though, and how long did our boy wonder wait after passing the numbers before deciding maybe it was time to stop?
 
wbarnhill said:
Ok, so 17FL is 7550 x 210 ft. Runway 18 has a displaced threshold of 1800ft, and Runway 36 has a displaced threshold of 1945ft. After reaching the end of the runway, the driver would have 1800 ft left to decelerate (since he was traveling north). What is the braking distance for an M5 going 120 mph though, and how long did our boy wonder wait after passing the numbers before deciding maybe it was time to stop?
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The cops said it took a minimum of 120MPH.

Remember that our boy was asking about upshifting at 140MPH.

Alcohol was involved.

It also occurred to me that the kid's insistence, "It's MY car!" when it was his dads, is likely due to his dad keeping everything in Dad's name so he could get and afford to pay for the insurance. How much ya wanna bet that the 18 year old kid isn't even a named driver on the insurance, because that alone would lead to a $7500 premium?

Evidently it's routine down there to shower kids at 16 with all kinds of bling to show how well off you are.
 
gkainz said:
it just makes me shake my head sadly ... does excessive cash make parents excessively STUPID?
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Giving an 18 yr old a powerfully fast expensive car isn't necessarily stupid. It's giving it to an 18 yr old that doesn't demonstrate good decision making thats stupid.

While speeding down a runway may not be compeletly kosher, it doesn't have to be exceedingly dangerous either. I would've atleast found a landmark to denote the last 1000' of the runway before such an en devour. This is alot better then him doing this on a residential street, isn't it?
 
Pi1otguy said:
Giving an 18 yr old a powerfully fast expensive car isn't necessarily stupid. It's giving it to an 18 yr old that doesn't demonstrate good decision making thats stupid...
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How about if the little snowflake had a handful of speeding tickets and a drivers license suspension?
 
mikea said:
How about if the little snowflake had a handful of speeding tickets and a drivers license suspension?
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As I said, giving a fast car to an 18 yr old isn't stupid in and of itself. It's giving it to an 18 yr old with poor decision making. Multiple speeding tickets & a suspension counts as poor decision making (i.e. No car your you).

Not all young ppl make such decision is my point.
 
Pi1otguy said:
As I said, giving a fast car to an 18 yr old isn't stupid in and of itself. It's giving it to an 18 yr old with poor decision making. Multiple speeding tickets & a suspension counts as poor decision making (i.e. No car your you).

Not all young ppl make such decision is my point.
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The bad decision making is with dad, who, you can be sure, junior was sure would get him out of anything. See if Dad can get him out of being dead with his friends.
 
mikea said:
The bad decision making is with dad, who, you can be sure, junior was sure would get him out of anything. See if Dad can get him out of being dead with his friends.
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So you're blaming the dad for what an adult did? Ultimately the 18yr old is cause and the dad is merely a contributing factor. Could the dad have prevented or delayed this? Probably. For all we know, the dad may have rationalized it as "If I give him an expensive car he will be careful not to get speeding tickets so that it doesn't get impounded." Given the post he made on that M5 forum it sounds like using a runway at night is the smartest part of this situation.
 
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