Everything was going just fine for Der Wienerschmoker II, Electric Boogaloo (which somehow managed to get an M3 engine past the LeMons Supreme Court), but it turns out that more power doesn't necessarily result in a better race car. We're not quite sure what happened out there, but the result was one very bent-up E30. Note all the Bart Simpson Penalty writing under that Thunderhill dirt on the bodywork; perhaps we should have been harsher on the Wienerschmokers in the Penalty Box!

Wayne, aka Stratocastrator, was at the wheel and walked away from the wreck without a scratch. Being a veteran of decades of balls-to-the-wall dirt-track racing, he didn't consider this to be much of an impact.

Wayne's tough, but it turns out that the Volvo 240 is even tougher! You know all those ads Volvo used to run, touting the rollover protection of the 240? They weren't bullshitting- the roof wasn't even mashed down to the roll cage! According to team captain Hellhammer, all the car needs to run again is a new left front wheel.

But you don't care about all that stuff- you want to witness the carnage! OK, we're happy to oblige:

Thanks to Larisa Wolf for the photograph at top!

The video below, provided by the V8olvo team, tells the whole story. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the Volvo will be ready to race later this morning. It seems unlikely that the TR7 can be fixed, but you never know what miracles of duct-tape repair might happen at a 24 Hours Of LeMons race!

We've got some still photos of the action as well, thanks to Jesse of the Killer Bee MGB team.

Well, he wasn't hurt in the wreck, that is; his teammates (including 5-time DOTS honoree WhatWouldJesseDo) might end up inflicting some bodily harm due to unhappiness over the self-inflicted PIT Maneuver that takes place in the video below. Here you will see the view from the Team Stimulus Package Honda Civic as the incident unfolds.

According the Connecticut Post, the cruiser in question was traveling at more than 70 mph when it collided with a Mazda at an intersection. Footage of the accident was captured by the dashboard camera of a second cruiser. The video offers no suggestion as to why either car was traveling so quickly. The officer involved in the crash has been charged with two counts of manslaughter by the Connecticut State Police.

This just gives us chills.

[Connecticut Post]

This video is a perennial favorite at 24 Hours of LeMons HQ; those dudes are connoisseurs of crash videos, and it's quite rare to find one in the "slide on the roof for a great distance" genre in which the camera doesn't crap out right after impact. Bonus points for the engine that keeps running after the car slides to a halt.

That was pretty good, but it's more poignant to listen to the anguished howling of a driver who realizes that his Very Expensive Viper is seconds away from an instant 95% depreciation. Hmmm... those interlocking tire walls at Nelson Ledges don't seem to cushion impacts quite as much as advertised.

The incident took place Sunday morning in Parklea, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and the good news is that nobody in the house was injured when the "late model Commodore sedan" got out of control, hit a light pole, jumped a dirt mound, and flew about 90 meters through the air to land on the roof of a nearby house. The driver and passenger of the Commodore ended up in the hospital, where they're reportedely in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. We're sure they're answering a lot of very pointed questions posed by members of Sydney's law enforcement community right about now. Thanks to Alf, In Pog Form for the tip!
[Herald Sun, full gallery]

Based on the paint scheme, our first impression was "A C6R ate the wall, Oh No!" then we got to sleuthing. This particular racing automobile is wearing the ZR1's giant ceramic brakes up front, sporting the hood window to show off the ZR1's intercooler, and was racing at Watkins Glen — all things the C6R GT2 cars for this year do not have or do. So we were stumped and resorted to asking for details. Asking a tipster for details on a race car is like asking for directions while your wife and her mother and her father are in the car. In any case, we found out the following:

The Car is owned by Greg Soebelski, and it's a Private car that
essentially mimics the Phoenix Racing C6R cars. The car itself has
been modded (bolt ons, and IIRC increased boost) and is supported by
Entropy Racing (http://www.entropyracing.net/)

He purchased this car in early spring, and has been taking it to track
days with PDA (www.pdadrivingschool.com) and received his comp
license this season with NASA (www.nasanortheast.com). This race (Thunder at the
Glen) was his first 'competitive' race with this car.

The accident occurred between turns 8 and 9 ('Heel of the boot") on
Watkins Glen Long course.

As of last knowledge, he's already looking for another ZR1 to replace
this one. Greg comes to the track with his 'East Coast Racing Team',
which is comprised of an E92 M3 (fully modded engine and suspension) a
Widebody 350z 'vert (Supercharged) and a CLK 63 Black Series...

To which our immediate response was:

This is very important. Do you know if Greg looking to get rid of that motor (or the one supplanted by the race built one in the wrecked car)? Because we know of at least one place it would end up in a very good home if the price is right.

(Thanks for the tip, pictures, and details Cody)

The driver of the Police Brutality '61 Caddy was a little slow to spot a yellow flag and ended up plowing into a tire wall at a scary fast clip. He's fine, but the Cadillac- though running- looked pretty torn up. In fact, everyone who witnessed the wreck was shocked that the car could still move under its own power afterwards, but The General built his luxury cars of stout materials back in the early 60s.

A little wrinkled sheet metal was no big deal to Police Brutality; a few hours of work and the car was ready to go back out on the track. Not bad for a car that sat for years and hadn't been driven more than a few yards at a time prior to hitting the race track yesterday morning.

Back on the track and looking good!

Schroeder, alone in his van at the time, somehow, by the grace of God and probably a rip in the space-time continuum, escaped his van after the violent collision by swimming from the vehicle as it sank into Soldier Creek under the North Topeka highway bridge. He scampered up the rocky embankment and waited for emergency responders to arrive, at which point he was taken to an area hospital and treated for shoulder pain! If this guy has any wits about him he'll go out and play the lottery, hit Vegas, strike up a conversation with every pretty girl at the bar. Luck like this comes along once in a lifetime. [CJ Online]

While on a test drive of the Challenger, Lee decided to push the car well past legal limits and in doing so crashed into a Mercury Sable turning into an apartment complex. The two occupants, Toya Buckner-Dioum, 40, and Sherman King Sr., 63, were both killed in the crash. The judge in the case placed the man under $100,000 bond and had a hard time maintaining a veneer of impartiality during the hearing, calling Mr. Lee's behavior "the most egregious thing that I think I have seen in my 16 years on the bench." [WLKY]

The bottomless pit that is the Carpocalypse has brought us more bad news than we ever thought possible, so rather than sit and mope about the crappy automotive climate and your lost 401K, join us for a few minutes of painful irony thanks to our nomadic web hunting friends at Motive Mag. [TCL]

The entire story comes from our shooter here, who was awakened by a phone call from the police and rushed down to the scene where he reports the following:

So the police call me at home at 9:30 AM Sunday morning ... and tell me my car was involved in an accident. My first panicky thought was "what'd I do?" and my second was "what'd my car do without me?" and my third was to grab my camera as I dash out the door and up the hill. I am greeted by the scene you see here.

The SFPD just wants me to move my car (not shown), which was parked seven feet away from the modern sculpture you see above. My vehicle was just an innocent bystander.

Somehow the driver managed to build this little masterpiece while backing out of his driveway Sunday morning. My car needed to move so they could fit the tow truck in there for some artistic deconstruction.

No one was injured in the accident (whew).

The presumed owners of the BMW 2002 (shown on its side), in pajamas, were present sitting on their steps — they had parked in front of their house. She was sobbing on the telephone as the police dropped flares to block off the street. Neighbors and joggers stood around and tried to reverse-engineer the physics.

The driver was an older man, with handicapped plates. He called the police.

We're left wondering how the heck that happened, and just how much the bill will be to fix that piece of sweet Bavarian steel. [Automatt's Flickr stream]

When the left front tire blows on a P71 Crown Victoria at speed, you're doing pretty well when you avoid hitting anything hard and/or expensive. The driver of the Reversed Darwinism car kicks up quite a dust cloud (thanks to Jeff Balliet for the photo above) but no permanent harm done.


The Mustard Yellow Volvo Doing 45 In The Fast Lane managed to catch a nice spinout double-header on its grille-mounted video camera. First we see the Junkyard Kats 280ZX lose it, no doubt due to the oil dumped on the tarmac by a couple of block-ventilating competitors, and then the Volatile RAM MR2 spins out a little ways down the track.


Here's some more action footage from the V8olvo, just because that 302 sounds so good.


Then we've got plenty of action footage courtesy of team UNDERGROUND and their 300ZX, which was one of the top contenders before getting shot down by engine woes.

It's a testament to Subaru engineering and the benefits of aftermarket safety upgrades. The car was outfitted with a harness bar and safety harnesses along with the flashier stuff like a carbon fiber nose, but the driver is probably thanking his lucky stars he'd installed the safety bar. We're glad this Subaru gave its life to save its occupants. Details below:

I got a call from my buddy at 1:30am this morning, I assumed it was drunk dialing and went back to sleep. I guess I was wrong. Apparently when he swerved to miss a deer (NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!!!) the rear end came off the ground, hit a tree, flipped twice, took out a stop sign and another tree. Thanks to a harness bar his and his passengers lives were spared (they walked away). He's a lucky SOB.

(Hat tip to Ed!) [also via FinalGear]

We're beginning to wonder. Early Monday morning a stunt driver lost control of his Ferrari F430 while filming a chase scene and injured two. The X5's driver, one Laura Conti, claims she was attempting to avoid a stray taxi cab and ended up hitting a parked car, which sent her onto the curb. Nobody was seriously injured, thankfully. Perhaps a wizard with stronger magic than Cage's is trying to prevent this silly film from seeing the light of day. [NBC, 1010Wins]

The incident was captured on amateur video and shows two cars weaving through NYC traffic before the stunt driver of the Ferrari lost control on the wet streets and jumped the curb, crashing into a Sbarro's. The car struck a pedestrian directly and knocked down an electrical post which fell onto another. The worst part? One of the victims was not associated with the film so that'll be a nice lawsuit. Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital where their injuries are considered not life threatening. Thank goodness, especially as we laughed at the guy flailing his arms and legs underneath the electrical pole. We feel much less like horrible human beings now.
In other news "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is based on the poem which inspired the Disney classic "Fantasia" and puts Nicolas Cage in the role of a sorcerer named Balthazar Blake who's scouring New York City for an apprentice. Yes, it absolutely sounds as stupid to us as it does to you. [New York Post]

To be fair, it's not the first ZR1 to take a dive. But it's the first we've heard of that wasn't at a media event being driven by our former boss-man, Mike Spinelli. The good news, like Spinelli's dented ZR1, is it appears most of the goodies are in perfect condition. Everything that isn't the driver's side rear fender, rear fascia and driver's side rear suspension is still in working order. The car only has 1,227 miles on it and it's got the premo package, so there's a lot there for your salvage-buying dollar. We're just a little weepy over the crackup... give us a second here... phew, okay, we teared up for a moment but we're back.

Anyway, the starting bid is sitting at $75,000 and if you want to "Buy-It-Now" the price is set at $97,500. You have two options here; You can either work with your local stealership and repair the car to its former glory or use its guts as the single greatest kit car or Se7en starting point ever. Hey, whatever you do, it's bound to be be better looking than the Mantide. Paging Doctor Groner, Doctor Matt Groner. [Corvette Blogger]