Topic: Burning Porsche

[blotter]

Michael Wekerle's Porsche 918 Spyder burns at Caledon gas station:

"Witnesses say the fire began after the gas overflowed and then ignited from the vehicle's exhaust heat."
 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/michael-wekerle-s-porsche-918-spyder-burns-at-caledon-gas-station-1.2781633

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Porsche is adamant that their supercar can do anything a Ferrari can. 

[tooscoops]

hot enough to ignite gas without a spark?... wow...

just overflowing the gas on the car would have had me kicking myself.

[dr_spock]

FGC.  Always stop pumping after the first click.  Top exhausts.

[BradT]

Even rich people stop for a deal on gas, though the savings were quite costly.

[EV Dan]

FGC.  Always stop pumping after the first click.

This was my first thought. security footage might show if he was trying to top up.

[Snowman]

Hybrid's are a tool of Satan 

[Noto]

...so he had a fricken 918 for all of 3 weeks before he burned it?  Not a great long-term investment.  I thought he was smart

[aquadorhj]

...so he had a fricken 918 for all of 3 weeks before he burned it?  Not a great long-term investment.  I thought he was smart

well, he enjoyed it for 3 weeks, and his insurance is probably cutting a check for the full price (if he had the depreciation waiver) of it, so he got it for 3 weeks for free.


That IS smart..

[Noto]

...and I'm sure his premiums won't go up 

but, to Snowman's point, maybe hybrids aren't the answer after all.

I'm surprised to hear any speculation as to the causes.  Somehow I doubt that it ignited for that reason.  If I had to guess, I'd assume there was some other sort of shenanigans involved.  I don't believe it.

“He (the driver) was pumping gas and it overfilled and caught fire,” said Suren Thanearajah who was working at the station Sunday and saw the situation unfold from inside the station.
...
“From what I understand the gentleman was filling up his vehicle and somehow the vehicle caught fire,” said Bailey. “Our fire prevention is going to be doing an investigation.”

So if Porsche is only making 918 of them for 2015, and he's now burned a brand new one, will they make 919, or does he have to wait until 2016 to get his new baby or is he going to steal someone else's dream for a year ?

[tooscoops]

that was what i had just said! publicity for him, free rental of a super rare and fast car... not bad.

[Northernridge]

You could say that the self-incinerating function on super cars is a pretty clever feature...it allows owners to decide whether they really liked the car in the first place. If so, take the insurance money and buy another, if not try something new.

[johngenx]

I wouldn't be surprised if the burned out carcass has an illuminated CEL.

[rrocket]

I wouldn't be surprised if the burned out carcass has an illuminated CEL.

I wouldn't be surprised is the heat from the CEL ignited the fuel vapors...

[Allen]

...and I'm sure his premiums won't go up 

 if he can afford a $900K car, I really doubt he's  concerned about insurance premiums..

[dr_spock]

What's the CEL code for car on fire?  911?

Did they keep the prototype filler and exhaust design in the production car?

[rrocket]

I just noticed...look at the nice rack on the woman viewing the burnt out Porsche!

[EV Dan]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUybMy0ujpY
1:35 mark!

Sounds like one unhappy FGC owner 

[lebowski]

You could say that the self-incinerating function on super cars is a pretty clever feature...it allows owners to decide whether they really liked the car in the first place. If so, take the insurance money and buy another, if not try something new.

Or the self-incinerating function is engaged if the car senses the owner is not filling it up properly (i.e. if you're that bad at filling up your 918, you probably aren't going to be able to handle the car when it's moving.)

Kidding aside, they interviewed the gas station attendant and he said the owner was surprisingly zen about the whole thing - basically laughing at himself (i.e. "I can't believe I just did that."). So at the very least, kudos to the guy for having a sense of perspective and humour about the whole thing.

[Noto]

...and I'm sure his premiums won't go up 

 if he can afford a $900K car, I really doubt he's  concerned about insurance premiums..

Define "concerned"...You may pay $2,000-$3,000/year for premiums, but for a $1M car, the premiums are more like $20,000-30,000/year.  My boss wanted to take his car on the track.  Chubb was the only insurer that would give him a policy that included track usage, and they wanted $14,000/year.  That's with a Porsche 911.  There's no question that with the 918, premiums are stupidly high, and even the ultra rich will gawk at those kinds of premiums.