enough to make one weep
Posted on 09/29/2014 7:33:59 PM PDT by xp38
Because of its nature as one of the priciest, fastest, rarest super cars in existence, a Porsche 918 Spyder involved in any kind of incident will make headlines. But when one burns to the ground in a Canadian gas station, well, that goes viral.
The 893 hp hybrid hyper car is reportedly owned by Michael Werkerle, the CEO of investment firm Difference Capital and star of CBC's Dragon's Den (Canada's equivalent of Shark Tank). Witnesses state that gas spilled during the car's refueling in a Toronto gas station and ignited via the twin exhaust pipes. Those pipes protrude upwards from the engine compartment, rather than exiting out back like most other vehicles. The near-$900,000 Porsche was captured engulfed in flames by various onlookers with their cell phones. According to AutoGuide, Porsche of Canada is aware of the incident and will provide technical resources to those investigating, but as of yet does not know what occurred. Porsche has dealt with its fair share of fire-related incidents of late, as it recalled all its 911 GT3s due to engine fires in February.
Fortunately all involved in this blaze are said to be unharmed, although Werkerle's 918 Spyder is toast. May we suggest the Dragon's Den star's next move involves investing in an insurance company. (Just not the one footing this bill.)
enough to make one weep
Design Flaw.
Epic Fail on Porche’s part.
Should have bought a Corvette.
“Epic Fail on Porche’s part.”
Pardon me. That should read:
“Epic Fail on Porsche’s part.”
I wonder if his insurance will go up?
It’ll buff out.
With all the bucks expended on the design, they could not have provided for insulation encasement of the pipes? Bare pipes are not only asking for ignition hazard they are asking for personal burn hazard. Even motorcycle pipes are generally shielded.
Huh?
Overflowing gas would likeliest be from the $50 nozzle on the dispenser. A lot of them have ‘Replace by’ dates stamped or molded in to them. They wear out and do malfunction.
Another news item on this said he took delivery on Sept 3rd....didn’t even get a full month usage out of it. I would be curious as to what the insurance would be on a near million dollar car in the first place.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Werkerle, you did WHAT?"
marshmallows?
Generally, gas spills at the filler are harmless unless someone’s stupid enough to be using fire or other sources of ignition nearby. Even if a nozzle sensor did not fail, maybe someone could be clumsy when removing the nozzle. That should not be the cause of getting gas on a part that is hot enough to ignite the gas.
Having gas overflow out of the tank is a not-uncommon occurrence, and should be taken into account in the design and design review process.
For such a common occurrence to result in such a catastrophic and massively injury-and-death possible event as a CAR FIRE - by such a clear path of cause - is engineering incompetence.
With that much horsepower it is really overpowered. It would be easy to wreck, or at least it seems to me like it would be.
It’s 0-60 time must be way below 4 seconds.
And that children is what is called a hose job or more specifically being a hoser as in gas hose. So it was $845,000 is that Canadian or US because it would only be a paltry $757,558.77 at today's exchange rate.
Used BMW i8 Sells For 50% More Than MSRP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3209123/posts
Yep. I see the point.
No company would use such a design on a street car. Wouldn’t even be a good design on a race car.
How is it possible for a car to cost that much?
If you have to ask you can’t afford it....
I had a customer who had owned two Enzo Ferraris and two AMG Mercedes. That would be another interesting insurance bill.
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