The story of a journalist's son crashing a Porsche press car is making the rounds today, but what's notably lacking from the writer's account is an explanation of how the kid did it. Here's what one source tells Jalopnik.
Canadian automotive journalist Peter Cheney shared a detailed tale of how his son wrecked a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo by tossing it through a garage door. Unfortunately, the story skips from the kid going to look at the car to it going through the garage with no real explanation of how it got from point A to point B.
Will stuck his head into the office and asked me if he could show his buddy the Turbo. I told him to go ahead. He and his friends always checked out my cars. Their main focus seemed to be the interior and stereo systems – details I barely cared about.
[...]
I shut down my computer and prepared to head to the office, smiling at the thought of a few minutes in the Turbo. As I headed out the back door, I saw my son running toward the house. His eyes were the size of dinner plates. He sputtered: "Dad, the Porsche … the Porsche …"I thought the Turbo had been stolen. Our garage has a full security system, but this is one of the most desirable cars in the world, so you never know. Will tried to speak again. "The Turbo rolled into the door…." I walked past him into the garage.
As Porsche owner Jack Baruth noted over at TTAC, just playing with the radio won't send a car through the garage. A source tells Jalopnik the part about Cheney's son showing a friend the stereo is true, but there's more to it than that.
The real story is Cheney's son wasn't properly instructed in how to use a manual transmission but knew just enough to screw things up. To get the car to start he understood he had to push down the clutch pedal and then push the start button. Unfortunately, he didn't understand that if you let the clutch out on a 500 HP car while it's in gear it's going to move and move fast. It's something we're guessing he grasps now after making this mistake with an incredibly expensive car.
Lesson to everyone out there: teach your kids how to drive a stick or pay the price (or make Porsche pay it. Either way.).