Photo: YouTube screenshot
To be stereotypical, whenever we talk about this type of automotive gatherings there is definitely a propensity to mention a Ford Mustang that crashed while exiting a Cars and Coffee somewhere, but now it's time for something completely different, to shamelessly quote Monty Python.
During Katie's Cars & Coffee event in Virginia, Instagram user @novacarz came across a very unusual car crash in the making, when a Mercedes-Benz 380 SL (R107) backed part of its rear end over a Ferrari 458 Speciale.
The Mercedes was driven by a woman, not that it matters that much, with a man and two small children as passengers, while the Ferrari was parked behind it. The “Der Benz” doesn't seem to have sustained that much damage at first glance, which is not what we can say about the red Ferrari.
Needless to say, the 458's owner didn't have the kindest words to spurt out after acknowledging the situation, and the biggest question that was on everyone's lips was “how on Earth does one pull something like this?”
Our patented forensic analysis of the video came up short on answers, so all that is left is to speculate. We think there are three possibilities, two of which being a bit more plausible.
We can probably all agree that nobody exits parallel parking by driving backward, we suspect that the woman must have forgotten that she initially backed into the parking spot, so it's possible that the automatic gearbox was still in “Reverse” when she tried to go forward and leave.
Since the 380 SL was also available with a manual transmission, it is also possible that she may have put it into reverse instead of first gear, since the two are close together in that specification.
The third possibility is also the least probable, but if you watch closely, you can see that both cars were parked in front of what looks like an Optometrist. Could that be just a weird coincidence?
PS: the clip contains a bit of NSFW language at one point.
The Mercedes was driven by a woman, not that it matters that much, with a man and two small children as passengers, while the Ferrari was parked behind it. The “Der Benz” doesn't seem to have sustained that much damage at first glance, which is not what we can say about the red Ferrari.
Needless to say, the 458's owner didn't have the kindest words to spurt out after acknowledging the situation, and the biggest question that was on everyone's lips was “how on Earth does one pull something like this?”
Our patented forensic analysis of the video came up short on answers, so all that is left is to speculate. We think there are three possibilities, two of which being a bit more plausible.
We can probably all agree that nobody exits parallel parking by driving backward, we suspect that the woman must have forgotten that she initially backed into the parking spot, so it's possible that the automatic gearbox was still in “Reverse” when she tried to go forward and leave.
Since the 380 SL was also available with a manual transmission, it is also possible that she may have put it into reverse instead of first gear, since the two are close together in that specification.
The third possibility is also the least probable, but if you watch closely, you can see that both cars were parked in front of what looks like an Optometrist. Could that be just a weird coincidence?
PS: the clip contains a bit of NSFW language at one point.
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