Unbelievable....

[69bronzeT5]

I saw this posted over at Moparts. Apparently over at a BMW forum, this 18 year old kid was asking other members about how to make his grey 2008 BMW M5 go faster.


At 4:02pm, he posted this:

"Thanks guys, don't get me wrong I never said I didn't respect your wisdom....thanks for the welcome and I am looking forward to getting to know you guys better..

Josh

.....and I plan to have all the pics up tomorrow"


Well he never posted after that. Then news stories came up on that thread and thats when it got eerie. The kid ended up killing himself around 3:00am the next morning. He tried to make his car go as fast as it could down a small airstrip...couldn't stop, hit a berm, went airborne and crashed into a tree killing himself and 4 other people in the car.

Heres the thread where he was asking how to make his car go faster (his username was AmericanM5):
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=111454&highlight=AmericanM5

And the crash thread. In the first video...thats what is left of the car (that he was trying to make go faster):
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=111545

And the news story. Remember how I said the kid's name was Josh?? Well...this is taken from the news story "The victims have been identified as Joshua D. Ammirato, 18, of Fairfield, who was identified as the driver of the $75,000 car"
http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/012608/D8UDQ5U01.shtml


So yea, he tried making his car go faster after everyone told him not to and yea..ended up killing himself. That thread (about how to make the car go faster) has some eerie premonitions.

Like I said...unbelievable

[Tilar]

What a shame... Cody, My God pay close attention to this one. Chargers can be just as dangerous.

In 1974 I had a 1967 Ford F100 that I had just repainted and believe me it was immaculate with 60k miles. A very close friend of mine had a 70 Charger R/T 440 4 speed with a 6 pack, that he wanted to trade me even up for my truck. I turned him down. Less than a month later he tried to take out an oak tree. The local highway patrol estimated his speed at 140 when he hit the tree. God knows that many times I've wish that I had made that trade, he would probably be alive today.

[Mike DC]

 
Coulda, woulda, shoulda . . .

Can't tie yourself in knots over that stuff, man.  Nobody can see the future. 

 

[Shakey]

Sooooooo.......who should we blame?   

[bull]

Sooooooo.......who should we blame?   

I don't know but placing blame is the most important thing to do right now. But if we're going to blame someone I say blame the parents for allowing a kid to drive a $75,000, 500 hp car.

[TruckDriver]

What a shame... Cody, My God pay close attention to this one. Chargers can be just as dangerous. .

Just a reason to post another one up so he can boost his post count. 


ANY car can be ever built can be dangerous. In fact cars in general ARE dangerous. It is just the people who drive them that make them reasonably safe or not.

[69bronzeT5]

What a shame... Cody, My God pay close attention to this one. Chargers can be just as dangerous. .

Just a reason to post another one up so he can boost his post count. 

I didnt post it to raise my post count.


I always hated the fact that I have a 383...Ive always wanted a 440 or 426 but after hearing this story...Im happy with my 383 for now.

[bull]

What a shame... Cody, My God pay close attention to this one. Chargers can be just as dangerous. .

Just a reason to post another one up so he can boost his post count. 

I didnt post it to raise my post count.


I always hated the fact that I have a 383...Ive always wanted a 440 or 426 but after hearing this story...Im happy with my 383 for now.

I would have loved to have a 383 when I first started driving. When I was 16 and started driving my '70 Charger my dad would not allow me to run the stock 383 in it. We pulled it and I had to drive it around with a 225 until I was 19.

[Chargen69]

You can hurt yourself just about as quick with a 383 as you can a 440

[dads_69]

The guy driving that car was responsible for his own actions. Taking his buddies for the ride, if he had survived would be manslaughter. Just another case of inexperience behind the wheel of a car. Not much different than a kid w/a new gun going hunting and shooting someone.
The end result is saddening.

Mark

[ChgrSteve67]

Definitely tragic.

There is no one to blame, Josh did it to himself.

I think we all can remember crap we did in our own car or our parents car and thinking now......
"God I'm lucky to be alive"

We were lucky, Josh was not.

RIP Dude.

[tan top]

 so sad what a waste of 5 lives , gave me chills just reading his posts , & then next thing he wrecked 

[NHCharger]

Sooooooo.......who should we blame?   

Well, reading through the news articles one of the Fathers of the deceased has hired TWO lawyers that specialize in wrongful death suits and plans to sue the driver's parents.

Bull, I was wheeling a 68, /6, rusty yellow Dart when I was 16, a real chick magnet.

[Mike DC]

 
I had a hopped-up 383 Magnum in my first '69 Charger when I was 16yo, and I didn't wreck it.  I just loved it too much right from the beginning. 

[69bronzeT5]

 
I had a hopped-up 383 Magnum in my first '69 Charger when I was 16yo, and I didn't wreck it.  I just loved it too much right from the beginning. 

Exactly. I love my car too much to do stupid shit in it.

[Chris G.]

Just a reason to post another one up so he can boost his post count. 

No offense Pete, buy how is your Brittney post any different? I never defend Cody (It's a daunting task), but in this case, you pretty much do the same thing weekly with your Yahoo news article of the day threads. just my 

ps- Cody, why not post on Moparts about it? You feel it important enough to bring here, but don't post on Moparts? 

[69bronzeT5]

ps- Cody, why not post on Moparts about it? You feel it important enough to bring here, but don't post on Moparts? 

Well usually when I see stuff on Moparts that catches my attention, I'll post it over here but thats on rare cases.

[Lord Warlock]

As sad as it sounds, and i feel sorry for the parents (who are partially to blame), kids can kill themselves in a 68hp VW bug by pushing it beyond its limits...i was riding shotgun and got to experience the harrowing ride thru the front yard of a neighbor, thru the trees, through his rock garden, and a few medium sized bushes. We ended up half on and half off the road with a tire that came off the rim, and a dent in the floorboard after flying thru the air and landing on a lava/sandstone boulder (shattered it).  Learned early on its not the car that kills, its the stupidity of the driver.  Both of us could have been injured seriously, but all that happened was we spent the next two weeks fixing the guys yard for free. 

I knew several kids growing up that got killed in accidents, almost every one of them was the fault of the kid driver and making the wrong choice when driving.  The sad part is that they injured other people in the process. 

As far as the kid goes, to me, its good to sometimes flush the genepool.  One less stupid driver on the road makes it safer for the rest of us. 

[69bronzeT5]

Learned early on its not the car that kills, its the stupidity of the driver. 

You nailed it right there!

[bull]

Bull, I was wheeling a 68, /6, rusty yellow Dart when I was 16, a real chick magnet.

The two things I didn't do much of during the 225 stint were, A. lift the hood and B. race

The Charger had such tall highway gears I could hardly get the car moving off the line. Once I got it moving though I could probably do 140 mph.

[skip68]

Cody: Please go to College, (When your done with high school)  and take Journalism! You would make a great investigative reporter!!!!!!! Think about it! It's a paycheck too!

(BUT, NOT PAPARAZZI !!!! )

Mrs.Skip68

[Rack]

I saw this posted over at Moparts. Apparently over at a BMW forum, this 18 year old kid was asking other members about how to make his grey 2008 BMW M5 go faster.


At 4:02pm, he posted this:

"Thanks guys, don't get me wrong I never said I didn't respect your wisdom....thanks for the welcome and I am looking forward to getting to know you guys better..

Josh

.....and I plan to have all the pics up tomorrow"


Well he never posted after that. Then news stories came up on that thread and thats when it got eerie. The kid ended up killing himself around 3:00am the next morning. He tried to make his car go as fast as it could down a small airstrip...couldn't stop, hit a berm, went airborne and crashed into a tree killing himself and 4 other people in the car.

Heres the thread where he was asking how to make his car go faster (his username was AmericanM5):
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=111454&highlight=AmericanM5

And the crash thread. In the first video...thats what is left of the car (that he was trying to make go faster):
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=111545

And the news story. Remember how I said the kid's name was Josh?? Well...this is taken from the news story "The victims have been identified as Joshua D. Ammirato, 18, of Fairfield, who was identified as the driver of the $75,000 car"
http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/012608/D8UDQ5U01.shtml


So yea, he tried making his car go faster after everyone told him not to and yea..ended up killing himself. That thread (about how to make the car go faster) has some eerie premonitions.

Like I said...unbelievable

What can I say... sometimes disregarding the advice of those older and wiser than you can be fatal. Not trying to be cold about it or anything, just stating a fact. Most of the time you can get away with it and end up learning the hard way, but sometimes - every now and then - something like this happens.

[Rack]

Sooooooo.......who should we blame?   

I don't know but placing blame is the most important thing to do right now. But if we're going to blame someone I say blame the parents for allowing a kid to drive a $75,000, 500 hp car.

That would be the best place to start, I agree.

I always hated the fact that I have a 383...Ive always wanted a 440 or 426 but after hearing this story...Im happy with my 383 for now.

That's meaningless. You can go 120+ with a 383, just like you can go 120+ with a 440. Either way, you hit something going that fast and you're dead.

It's not about the cubic inches sitting in the engine bay, it's about the person sitting behind the steering wheel. ANd even then, even with the most cautious drivers out there, you can still get killed cuz some other guy driving his 150 horse power POS was a moron, did something stupid, and ends up hitting you.


If you want a Hemi or a 440 in your charger, by all means put on in that sucker. Just be sure to use good judgement when you're driving it.


Hell, I remember driving my old mercury marquis (6 cylinder) 120 down the highway going to El Paso on day. If I'd hit something or someone I would have been just as dead as I would have been if I'd been going 120 in a Hemi Charger.

And just for FYI, I would NEVER drive like that on city streets. EVER. I hit that speed on a long open straightaway with no traffic around. I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

[Arthu®]

Really really sad to see those young lives lost. Especially those of the guys that weren't driving. As for Josh, he didn't have respect, a M5 is a very powerfull car and is something that even though it is made to go beyond fast should not always be taken to that level. He paid a very high price.

Arthur

[Shakey]

Cody: Please go to College, (When your done with high school)  and take Journalism! You would make a great investigative reporter!!!!!!! Think about it! It's a paycheck too!

(BUT, NOT PAPARAZZI !!!! )

Mrs.Skip68

Ummm - may I ask what made you say this?   

Why do you think he should be a great investigative reporter? 

[skip68]

Look at his computer skills, his fast research on ANY topic, and he's got nothing better to do after his car gets done!
Mrs.Skip68


Relax Shakey!

Mrs.Skip68

[Troy]

Look at his computer skills, his fast research on ANY topic, and he's got nothing better to do after his car gets done!
Mrs.Skip68


Relax Shakey!

Mrs.Skip68

Uh yeah, except maybe what paint to use on a grill... Sorry, I had to!

So any way, someone posted it at Moparts and Cody just picked up on it. That means at least one other person on the planet thought it was newsworthy enough to tell anyone and everyone who wasn't already involved. That's what we do here in OT I guess...

As for the story itself, yep, you can kill yourself in all sorts of ways - whether you have 500 HP or not. I've crashed harder on bikes and skis by doing stupid stuff (usually involving a long fall) than anything else. Unfortunately, kids do stupid stuff and learn from the experiences. Hopefully they learn enough to think it through before anything really bad happens but, sadly, that's not always the case. At least in a modern car you have crumple zones and air bags - old cars aren't as forgiving. One of my cars has the dents in the dash and squished steering column to prove it. I *only* had 318s in my cars when I was younger and they were plenty powerful enough to get into lots of trouble.

Troy

[terrible one]

Ouch.

That's a bummer.

[Brock Samson]

wasn't there allready a post on this a week ago?.. 

[Mike DC]

At least in a modern car you have crumple zones and airbags -- old cars aren't as forgiving.

Yeah, new cars definitely keep you alive better in a streetgoing wreck.  But I think they also isolate you from your true speed too much.  I think sometimes modern kids may be going faster when they actually wrecked than people used to. 

There's always a few guys who pile up a car at 100+ mph in every generation, but they're the exceptions.  On the other hand, I think it's amazing how often modern drivers can still wreck a car at 75 mph on a windy road in the pouring rain when they hadn't even intended to do anything stupid.  One minute they don't even feel like they're near the car's limits, and then the next minute they're upside down in a ditch. 



Bottom line --  People keep trying to go faster in cars until it's enough to scare themselves. 
If the car is buiilt not to scare you as much at a given speed, then you'll push it faster. 

[Charger_Fan]

"Young & dumb"...there's a reason for that saying.
Some are just more dumb than others. There was definitely a time when that saying applied to me & I could have easily been that kid on at least 8 different occasions that come to mind. Quite often, a kid doesn't think of the possible severity of his actions as he's doing stupid stuff like that, and I bet there's a good chance the passengers in the car were prodding him on the whole way.

The 2nd dumb thing in this story would be the parents of the passengers going after Joshua's parents. No, they shouldn't have given him the keys to a fast car, but suing them isn't going to accomplish anything. Like some others have said here, he could have easily taken a few passengers to their graves by driving ANY car past it's limits...the parents can only warn a kid so much, then it's ultimately up to the kid whether he takes any of those warnings to heed. We all have to learn from our mistakes & with some of us, the mistakes need to be repeated a few times before it really sinks in.

Anyhoo, RIP Joshua & friends.

[FLG]

That just sucks. Im 19 and i see the way some of my friends drive, weaving in and out of traffic. Though i believe its the kids fault, i think having a fast sporty car is also a problem if the person doesnt know how to handle such a machine. My daily driver being a 95 pathfinder has kept me out of trouble, and having the 73 charger though it has the potential of going fast...it being my baby, i really dont want anything to happen to her, and even if i was a careless kid i dont think theres too many people who would try some of the maneuvers with the charger that these new sports cars can do. Im not saying were all going to go the speed limit, on a straight run i have put the pedal down to the floor...but i dont do this on a daily basis and would never consider doing this on a road i am not familiar with, i know people who regularly drive 100+ mph on the highway regardless of time or road conditions and its only a matter of time before this driving catches up to you. Some people get lucky, and some dont.  But thats what happens when you put an driver who is unexperienced behind the wheel of a fast car, yes this CAN happen with any car...but how many people really want to see how fast they can go in a 95 Nissan pathfinder?

God bless

[charger_mike75]

You can get yourself in trouble even with a 4 banger (ask my wife)    I have to agree that new cars insulate you from how fast your going, I drive the wifes car and can't keep from speeding, you just can't tell. then I get in my charger and I'm drivin like grandpa because I feel like I am going to fast. Must be all the noize. My first car was a 73 satellite custom w/ a 318 and my dad lectured me on the fact that I better watch it on the street cuz it would get me in trouble even though it was wore out.

[Lord Warlock]

Bottom line --  People keep trying to go faster in cars until it's enough to scare themselves. 
If the car is buiilt not to scare you as much at a given speed, then you'll push it faster. 

This is true.  You have to at least attain a speed that unnerves you in some way in order to avoid it again.  You'd think loss of control at 120 would do it for most, but it happened, and lived thru it (cool head prevailed) It just took a few years before i went that fast again.  But i'll be the first one to admit that I've taken every car i've ever owned (that had a v8 or more than 250hp) to see what the fastest it would go.  I'm way more likely to attempt this in a modern car than the old charger though, the charger served his time and survived...kind of... I still haven't tried it with my newest car though, I haven't had the chance opportunity on an interstate more than 65 miles out of town (everything within 65 miles is city limits-big city) its supposedly speed limited at 155 and thats not as fast as the previous car was so I don't feel a need to make an attempt that won't push the envelope a little bit more. 

The charger had its own way of scaring you, if it wasn't the tunnel vision above 125, or the door gap that widened enough to see pavement thru the cracks, or even the little thought bubbles that seemed to pop up out of mid air and inform me that the back brakes had never been rebuilt since i'd owned it, or even the speedo which went whacko above 120, varying 15 mph either way ..bouncing from 130 to 150.  Back then it used to give alot of visual queues to avoid speeding.  Today i don't expect the charger will ever exceed 90 again except on a track, the other cars are just much safer to drive that fast. 
The strange thing is that when i was a kid, i'd get tunnel vision at around 125 or so, you'd actually notice the field of view shrink, but this didn't seem to do the same thing in a newer car that sat lower, more aerodynamic, and had all wheel drive and wide rubber.  Even 160 seemed to be ok.  Maybe its just that my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be.   

[FLG]

Warlock,

For me its the fact that at about 100-110 the charger seems to be displacing so much air with that big flat nose, and in my case with bad door seals that it begins to sound like a propeller plane then a car 

[Forza]

The worse part of this whole thing is in his thread on the m5 board he states he would never put other peoples lives in danger but that's exactly what he did. I don't care how good of a driver you are, you dont cram 4 of your buddies into a car and go 120-130mph. The only times I have ever gone at those speeds was when I was alone on an empty straight road. Even then it's dangerous but at least if something were to go wrong it would only be me paying the price.

My condolences to the families of the boys but he should have never been driving that car to begin with.

[TheGhost]

What a shame... Cody, My God pay close attention to this one. Chargers can be just as dangerous. .

Just a reason to post another one up so he can boost his post count. 

I didnt post it to raise my post count.


I always hated the fact that I have a 383...Ive always wanted a 440 or 426 but after hearing this story...Im happy with my 383 for now.

You hated having a 383?  Dude, I started with a slant 6.  The biggest engine I've driven for more than a few blocks is probably the 302 that was in my dads old farmtruck.


Don't mean to sound harsh, but the kid was an idiot.  Fastest I've taken a car (senior year in High School) was just over 100.  Got scared of losing control, so I backed down after only going a mile at that speed.  Considering the shape the car was in, I guess I'm lucky I didn't wreck.  Fastest I've had the Barracuda is 80 on the interstate.  May not be as exciting as doing 120, but I've seen people die young, and I want to live a nice, long life.