fiat 850 turbo spider crash

[bullitt]

i saw on the net video of terrible fire crash of tht famous fiat 850 spider.
i thought what that guy felt when seeing his car destroyed.......
try to imagine guys: u are alive and well.......but in a piece of second all your night work of years is gone.........
too bad.......this is nightmare of every old cars enthusiast i think: the crash........
i want to tell a thing ...... friend of fiat 850: i don't know where u live...but i know that there isn't an easier place than Italy (where i live) to find another fiat 850 to rebuild the project....
let me know if u need some help to find another one. i will be happy to help you for what i can do.....

[Gregor/DFL]

...was postet here:

http://media.putfile.com/crash-fontana

...car is destroyed nearly, but fortuanetly driver wasn´t hurt too bad-and that´s what counts!

[Diederick/DVK]

weird crash, he accelerated after the first hit. i definitely don't know a thing about drag racing, but i think he should have stopped after he lost grip... anyhow, the driver got out quick, but looks pretty beaten up by the look of his legs. and he was not pleased 

[Rick Meredith]

I was there when it happened. Quite a hit. It belongs to Pat McDermott and he's on the CLF as fiatpat. Pat's a pretty tall guy and theres not a lot of room in an 850. His knees got banged up pretty good but he was pretty lucky. The car was built very strongly.

[El Diablo Gris]

Rick is exactly right.  The car has over 500 wheel HP, and getting out of shape in a hurry is very easy to do witha car with the wheelbase as short as that one.  I'm about the same size as Pat (6'1' - 210 lbs.) and we drove it to debut it at Nick's burgers in 2005 before the Classic rubbing shoulders and our knees bumping the dash the whole way !  WICKED fast car, and one of the most frightening I've ever been in.  The steering broke once Pat hit the first wall, and the floor was so wrinkled around his feet, he couldn't pull his foot off of the accelarator pedal.  The car went in the direction it wanted, with Pat slowly accelerating to about 75MPH head-on into the wall!
A re-build is currently in the works thanks to the support of many racers and fans of the car here in the US.

[Mangokid]

Glad he's ok, but remember guys, one can never be too safe. It goes without saying that below 14 secs a good, strong rollcage is mandatory, and the same goes for helmet and fireproofing both in clothing and fuel-celling.

Keep in mind guys, that there are many of us in the need for speed, or any kind of fun behind the wheel with our humble little cars, but none to loose.