This ranks right up there with the weirdest, most difficult to explain crashes of all time. The MINI in the picture is pretty old and by no means autonomous, yet it crashes into the other car without anybody at the wheel.
At first, we thought the video was fake, as the smoke filling the cabin seems too uniform and the flames are surreal, but the physics of the crash suggests this is a real MINI hitting a real Ford.
As the flames coming out from under the hood rise higher and higher, you can see the red hatchback starting to move. It rams into the blue car in front, which is a Ford Ka based on the Fiat 500, made between 2008 and 2016. After a couple of hits, the MINI steers itself into the road.
Now, we're not entirely sure what's going on here, as internal combustion requires fuel injection and a complex combustion sequence. Based on the cranking sound the MINI makes, this could actually be the work of the starter motor and some kind of battery problem.
Somehow, the fire could be tricking the engine into thinking it's being cranked over. But this would also mean the vehicle is in first gear and doesn't have the parking brake on.
After a short while, the burning MINI has people running scared. Police arrive on the scene, try to use an extinguisher but mess something up. Even they back away and most likely await the arrival of fire crews.
The incident happened a few days ago on the streets of the Slovenian city of Ljubljana. Hopefully, the MINI owner has insurance that covers the rogue engine start. Or maybe this is a way for that restaurant in the background to promote its new pizza oven. Still, that Cooper is only good for scrap and spares now.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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