<OT>Driver dies after losing control of Porsche

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 --- Orange County, CA Driver dies after losing control of Porsche Officials are investigating whether street racing was involved. Witnesses told the CHP that the driver appeared to be trying to catch a car that had passed him. By JOHN McDONALD The Orange County Register COSTA MESA - The driver of a new Porsche died late Tuesday when he lost control of the sports car while apparently trying to catch a car that had passed him on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, the California Highway Patrol reported today. The Porsche, so new it didn�t have license plates, went down an embankment onto the San Diego (I-405) Freeway and zipped across all the southbound lanes into the center divider, investigators said. The driver was ejected and killed, even though he was wearing a seatbelt. The victim hasn't been identified yet. Investigators are trying to determine if a race was in progress when the crash occurred and whether the driver knew the driver of a black car the Porche was chasing, CHP Officer Denise Quesada said. The incident began at about 10 p.m. on the northbound lanes of the 55 when the new Porsche was passed at more than 100 mph by a small black car, witnesses told the CHP. The Porsche's driver then appeared to try to catch the car that passed him and lost control when traffic slowed near the 405 interchange, they told the CHP. It's unknown how fast the Porsche was traveling. Quesada said it slammed into a guardrail, ripping it from its posts, rolled down an embankment, then went airborne onto the southbound 405. The Porsche crossed the southbound 405, possibly hitting a 1993 Toyota Corolla driven by an Anaheim woman. She told officers she felt an impact and lost control of her car. She received minor injuries. The Porsche then hit the 405�s center divider, and the driver flew out of his seatbelt onto the northbound 405, where he was hit by several cars, Quesada said. He died at the scene.

It's always very saddening and worrying to hear news like this.

Wonder if this was a cab or coupe. I guess it really doesn't matter much at this point. More evidience that people need to take their supercars to the track and let it all hang out there, not on public roads....

Should have had a rollcage, GT3 seats, and some harnesses! Then again, if he was into it that much he probably would know how to drive. How do you lose control of a Porsche on the freeway in dry weather? Isn't that what the 4-pot brakes are for??? If he was ejected from the car, it sounds like a Cab or a Boxster. I'm thinking the latter.

Maybe that's why they talk about the 2000 mile break in period....so people learn to handle their Pcar

That is very sad. The thing about owning a Porsche, the name alone gives you the impression that you can drive beyond your capabilities.

Although I do not partake in street racing, I will say that learning the handling characteristics of the car during break in is extremely important. Coming out of an Audi TT 225 Quattro Coupe into my '03 996 cab I have repeatedly had to correct for hard accelerating while turning in the 996 (very sharp turns, not exit ramp-type sweeps). Most recently I was pulling out of a lot and hit the accelerator hard mid-turn. Even with PSM the tail slid around and I had to turn into it a bit. With my audi's quattro I feel I had far more control in that type of situation. Nonetheless, I like driving the 996 far more than the Audi.

I think 0134CabNYC's point is a very valid one. Think of it like a cooling off period. You just bought a dream supercar. The best and safest thing to do next is cool off. This guy had just bought a loaded hand gun and didn't get a cooling off period. Result: he killed someone.....at least it was himself! Oh craps I hope I haven't started something.....please don't flame. I guess I am trying to say is this. Remember when you first stepped into your Pcar. I don't know about you but I was so excited I took it to a freeway and frightened the **** out myself with it. Since then I have become a more mature Pcar driver. But see the human side of it. I bought a fast car so I went fast. I was foolish then and I know better now. But I got away with it....that poor guy didn't. That's why I said it was both sad and worrying. I think a 2000 mile cooling off period is an excellent idea.

Sad. Eveyone has made a good point. Fast and furious drivng should be for the track. Drive like Miz Daisy on the streets.

Dr. G, Huge difference in handling between a C2 and a C4. You can go back to quick acceleration in hard (90 degree) standing start turns with a C4. I swap back and forth between sports cars during the summer. When I am driving my 928GT I have to (almost completely) change my driving habits. The C4 is nearly stupid proof, especially with PSM. on the otherhand, get stupid with the 928 and you get out of control quickly.

This news really saddens me as the article was fairly descriptive. 911s aren't the easiest cars to drive, although it can readily lure a driver into a false sense of security due to the reasons everyone's mentioned here.

When I got my first 911, a 964 Cab, it was by far the fastest car I had ever owned. In fact, at first, it was a little frightening. You know what, it still is.

It happened near my office, i dove by the scene. The driver was a local 23-yr old entrepreneur. Lets not mince words, the guy was driving over his head and was the cause of the accident, not the car. Guys like this should join their local PCA chapter and do DEs, autocrosses, etc. to fully understand their limitations and those of the car. It's akin to giving a 3-yr old a loaded gun--somone will get hurt.

Sadly, you are probably right Rob. I admit to having some scary experiences as I learned how to drive my C4. Scary because I had never been in a car that will do what the C4 will do. I was astounded to learn that the Lambo Diablo has the distinction of having the highest total loss wrecks per cars built of any high end sports car. Sounds like people think because the car costs a fortune it is capable of miracles....... it is amazing what these cars are capable of in trained hands, sadly most of us are not trained..................

I read a C&D article years ago that quoted an L.A. Porsche dealer who said 60% of the 911 turbos involved in wrecks, crashed backwards! Trailing-throttle oversteer was the culprit.

Rob, so was it a Cab or Coupe?

If I recall, a fall from the 55 onto the 405 is about 40 foot vertical drop.... Thursday, July 24, 2003 100 mph crash kills 23-year-old 23-year-old mortgage company president dies when his Porsche falls from 55 Freeway to the 405. By GREG HARDESTY, JOHN McDONALD and ZAHEERA WAHID The Orange County Register COSTA MESA � Michael Allen Hanson was cruising at 100 mph in his new Porsche on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway when a black car zoomed past Tuesday night. So Hanson, president of his mortgage company, hit the gas. Hanson darted between slower cars. But at the San Diego (I-405) Freeway interchange, traffic was thick. The silver 2003 Porsche ripped away 30 feet of the guardrail on the right shoulder, sailed through the air and crashed onto the 405, miraculously missing cars but killing Hanson, 23. The crash was the latest reminder of how the seductive power of speed can turn deadly. It also was a wake-up call to motorists who saw what was left. "It's one thing to see this stuff on TV and in the movies," said Adam Swain, 29, who was driving home to Huntington Beach when he saw a Cadillac drive over Hanson's body. "But when you see something like this, it makes you think differently � that it's not worth it to do these things on the freeway," Swain said. "It's crazy." The number of drivers cited for going more than 100 mph has skyrocketed over the past decade, suggesting that the public has become increasingly enamored with speed. "Speed on the freeways has gotten way out of hand," said George Miller, 52, a mortgage banker and longtime commuter who lives in Fountain Valley. "Pity the poor folks in the car-pool lane," Miller said. "If they're not doing 80 to 85 mph, the person behind them is flashing his lights, wanting them to get out of the way." Citations for driving over 100 mph have nearly tripled since 1992, to 15,372, according to the California Highway Patrol. In Orange County, the number has increased nearly fivefold, to 853 tickets in 2002, compared with 176 in 1992. "In the last few years, there's been a real push by auto manufacturers to emphasize their cars going fast," CHP spokeswoman Anne Da Vigo said. She added that recent movies like "2 Fast, 2 Furious" only fuel the desire to burn rubber. "The whole emphasis lately has been on the glamour of speed," Da Vigo said. Five years after the speed limit was increased to 65 mph, the CHP virtually stopped writing tickets for anyone driving less than 75 mph, according to an Orange County Register review. Jack Mallinckrodt, a director of Drivers for Highway Safety, a transportation watchdog group in Orange County, believes drivers have increased their speeds to about 75 to 80 mph on freeways over the past decade. "The increase in speed is not unwarranted," King said. "Freeways are being built better and are designed for higher speeds, and the cars are easier to handle." Indeed, drivers feel more comfortable pressing down on their accelerators than they used to. "There are times when I look up at the speedometer and I'm going 90 mph, and I'm like, 'Slow down, man, you're going too fast,'" Swain said. Daryl Silva, 25, of Costa Mesa admits sometimes driving his 2001 black Toyota Tacoma up to 100 mph. "It's the fastest point from A to B," he said, adding that he never drives in such a way that he believes would endanger others. "Going faster makes me more alert." Authorities are taking steps to discourage the glamorization of speed. In December, the CHP fired off a letter to advertising house TBWA/Chiat Day, complaining about a proposed ad for a Nissan Web site that featured one of its executives saying, "Yeah, I like to speed," and an actor posing as a CHP officer. "The CHP must object to any auto maker's marketing plan that uses excessive speed of their vehicles as a selling point," CHP Commander Tom Marshall wrote. A Porsche salesman said Porsches perform better than most cars at triple-digit speeds. "But the laws of physics don't change," said Carl Tofflemire, sales manager for Pacific Porsche-Audi in Torrance. "If you do stupid (stuff) with your car, you're going to crash." Meanwhile, the small black car that passed Hanson on the northbound 55, shortly after he entered the freeway at Del Mar Avenue and accelerated to 100 mph, has not been located. The driver faces charges of exhibition of speed, a misdemeanor, authorities said. DMV records show that Hanson received a speeding ticket Nov. 27 in San Diego County. He failed to appear in court for that ticket and his license was suspended for two months through June 27, according to DMV records. On Tuesday night, Hanson had finished dinner with his business partner, Justin Schaefer, and the two were heading separately to their new Santa Ana condo when the accident happened. "He was the most outgoing person that I've ever met in my entire life," said Schaefer, a friend of Hanson's from Minnesota. "There was nothing that was impossible for him. There's nothing ever standing in his way." The pair had moved to Orange County to open an Anaheim branch of their successful San Diego company, Planet Mortgage Corp. Hanson had bought his Porsche two weeks ago. When he didn't turn up in Santa Ana, Schaefer figured he drove to their other home in San Diego. His mother, Mary Hanson, flew to San Diego from Minnesota when she heard about the crash. "He was always just a great kid," said Hanson tearfully. "He was an overachiever."

One of the most enjoyable things with our cars is learning how to drive them properly, and I would strongly advise anyone here to do DE-type events just so they can understand their car better. In SoCal there are numerous clubs that offer events for our cars -> POC, PCA, Tracquest, Touring Car Club, etc.

its Really make me feel sad to hear such news.. but from my point of view is that all cars can get you killed. doesnt matter if its a Carrera or a honda civic, it just depend how you use them . i do have a carrera4 and i know how it feels when you are behind the steering wheel .. you just want to do anything crazy and say WOW look what the porsche can do .. and how it can handle .. but still there are limits.