Wet tires and a lack of driving ability puts this Lamborghini on its roof in front of a big crowd.
The black Lamborghini Murcielago in the video above from The Daily Mail was participating in the Swiss Alpine Rally. While coming around a tight turn lined with spectators ready for some action with their cell phone cameras, the driver tried to show off, but he ended up giving them a show that he surely came to regret. What started off as a little tire spinning and a quick drift around the tight turn quickly switched into a driver fighting to keep the car on the road.
He failed, but running off of the road was just the beginning of his issues.
Swiss Alpine Rally
Modern automotive events like the Swiss Alps Rally are comprised of a bunch of wealthy car owners who drive from one place to another, taking pictures along the way and sharing them to social media. Along the route, these crowds of exotic supercars tend to draw crowds of spectators, many of whom urge the drivers to do something exciting.
Many of these supercar drivers will rev the engine, maybe shoot some flames and occasionally smoke the tires a bit. Adding some sideways-sliding fun to the tire smoking action fires up the crowd and makes for better Instagram videos, but as the video above shows, drifting comes with far more risk than revving and stationary burnouts.
What Goes Wrong
The video is short, showing the black Murcielago (which is incorrectly labeled a Gallardo by the source article) rolling slowly towards a tight hairpin turn. There are cars parked on both sides of the road and plenty of people waiting to film some action, and they certainly got that action.
The Lamborolls through a large puddle in the right lane, which may have played a role in this crash. As the driver comes out of the turn, he climbs into the throttle and the back end immediately heads towards the outside of the turn as the tires spin. The driver tries to correct, chasing the back end out, but he over-corrects and slides sideways into the grass. As the car continues to spin, it ends up climbing the bank on the side of the side backwards, causing the car to flip back down onto the road.
What likely happened here was that the tires were just wet enough to cause the Lamborghini to spin the tires coming out of the turn. When the driver corrected, the tires got dry, gripped and sent him hard into the grass and one the tires hit the grass, gravity took the wheel and put the car on its roof.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
