Weiterstadt, Germany: Porsche 911 Cabriolet camouflaged prototype

Weiterstadt, Germany: Porsche 911 Cabriolet camouflaged prototype crash, Friday 13th, 2009, 2:45am, kills Porsche engineer., originally uploaded by smokeonit.

Weiterstadt, Germany: Porsche 911 Cabriolet camouflaged prototype crash, Friday 13th, 2009, 2:45am, kills Porsche engineer.

Photo is facing north, the Porsche was traveling south and crashed with the rear into the guardrail, sliding under the guard rail for approx. 50 meters! people who know what damage the edges of a guardrail can do know what happened...! The Porsche didn't break through the median which would have meant that traffic heading north would have crashed into it.... which would have been even more disastrous since the lights have been torn out by the accident and other vehicles would have crashed into the 911 at a very high rate of speed. After all the left lane is normally used at an minimum speed of at least 130 km/h (80 mph). At night with little traffic and at that time (2:45am) most people drive much faster when in the fast lane...!!!

Weiterstadt, Germany: Camouflaged Porsche 911 Cabriolet prototype crash, Friday 13th, 2009, 2:45am, kills 51 year old Porsche engineer who was with Porsche for 25 years.

A Porsche 911 Cabriolet prototype/test mule (2010 model year) crashed into the median guardrail of the southbound A5 (Autobahn 5 Frankfurt-Heidelberg) near Weiterstadt, Germany. After spinning around 180 degrees its' tail slid under the guardrail for about 50 meters (150 feet) before coming to a halt. It seems that the steel structure of the guardrail cut of the upper structure (A-Pillar and convertible roof) of the car. This stretch of the A5 has no speed limit. Reasonable high speed driving is allowed!
The engineer was driving in tandem with another engineer in a Porsche Panamera which followed shortly behind. The Panamera was able to avoid crashing into the 911 and called police and paramedics.

The Porsche 911 was not driving at super high speeds! Porsche conducts high speed testing on closed circuits! Those test mules with new equipment normally don't drive more than 250 km/h (155 mph) and it was wet and snowing very lightly. Every experienced driver would not have driven faster than 140-150 km/h (87-93 mph). My guess is this was a freak accident and the 911 was going around 120-130 km/h (75-80 mph) when he lost control.

I drive this stretch of the A5 a couple of time a week and it's straight, but it has some ditching parts, especially below the overpasses, which can be fatal if wet and there's no optimal grip. An overpass with such a ditch was close by, approximately 700 meters from where the 911 ended up.

I hope this will have consequences for the company manufacturing the guardrail, and the state of Hesse maintenance crew installing the guardrail...! This should not have been a fatal accident!!! My deepest condolences to the family of the Porsche engineer.