Ever been in a car crash? Absurd question! Well, let me rephrase. Ever been in a car accident? Some might say ‘yes’ and some ‘no’. I started driving while I was in India. I learned driving there and it was in a stick shift. Don't let the picture of Ferrari accompanying this blog fool you. That was not the car I used to learn my driving. It was an Ambassador car. I have had my share of faults while learning to drive and amongst them was when I was driving to a hotel and was waiting to make a right turn at an intersection where there was no traffic light (we drive on the left lane in India). I made the turn when I hit an oncoming car. The situation was taken care of by my teacher who was with me while I was driving and got into that mess.
After I came to the U.S., I had to relearn driving in a way because the car we had was an automatic and driving is on the right lane. It took a little bit of adjusting before I was accustomed to the ways of driving here. Eventually as time passed, I became a good driver. A couple of years after settling in the U.S. came the day when I got into an accident. I was driving on Fairfax county parkway one sunny afternoon in my Camry and I got a little carried away with my driving and made a bad turn and hit the railing, bounced back and made a 360+ degree spin and stopped facing the oncoming traffic. Luckily, I walked out without a scratch after all that happened. Of course, my insurance went up. From then on, I have been a very responsible driver and have a good driving record since then (keep fingers crossed all the time).
In relation to what I said above, the news of Comedian, Eddie Griffin crashing a rare Enzo Ferrari on a test drive on a race track surprised me. Why? He is not a racer, so why practice racing on a $1.5 million worth Enzo? That car belonged to the ‘Redline’ movie Executive producer, Mr. Sadek, who also happened to be a rare car collector. Why would he let Griffin practice racing in his car, even though it was for a charity race to promote his movie? I am sure; the car is insured in some way for this purpose. Without prior arrangements, I won’t let anyone drive my car to practice racing on a race track, even if it is a Ford Pinto. So why Mr. Sadek would let Griffin drive a rare Enzo without any arrangements. I am definite about the way Griffin would have felt while walking out of that crashed Enzo, without a scratch as I had much the same experience.
But I don’t know about how he would have felt about the damaged Enzo after the shunt. To those who don't know what a Shunt is - it is the racers lingo for car crash while racing. When I got into the wreck, I felt good that I walked out safely but was feeling bad about the car and the after effects of dealing with getting it fixed, dealing with the insurance going up and the lectures about responsibility from family and friends (that’s what they are for right?). Griffin has gotten the experience of having to learn racing on a race track in a rare Enzo and an ultimate thrill of shunting it too. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
P.S. After reading this blog, don’t estimate me to be a reckless driver or a person who would shunt a Ferrari or any car for that matter. I am a responsible driver and am living with a dream of owning a Ferrari. So I won’t crash my dreams that easily ;-)
2 comments:
There are a lot of people who overestimate their skill behind the wheel and figure that once they are behind the wheel of a good car they are a good driver. Just as in racing, it isn't the car that makes the complete difference, it's the driver. When Griffin was taking the turn in the Enzo it appeared that he was carrying too much speed into the turn and locked the front wheels. He most likely switched off the controls in the car which help stabilize it automatically (Porsche has this as does Mercedes and BMW to name a few). The Enzo and a couple of others allow you to turn that control off. He probably thought he was good with the stability controls on, he would be even better with them off. I guess he and his producer found out that there's a big difference between reality and the movies. Too bad it was at the expense of a rare and beautiful car.
Are they not in the movie industry anyways to know the difference? Well, life teaches a lot of things mostly at the expense of what you hold dear and near.
Post a Comment