As the old Spider-Man saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” This holds true of cars as much as it does of anything else, especially given our insatiable desire for horsepower.
While many with access to high-performance cars take care to respect the potential of danger when climbing into their chosen ride, others get a little reckless. Sometimes, accidents just plain happen while other times, drivers try things outside of their skill levels.
Lest we underestimate the tenacity of stupidity, we’ve compiled a list of our top five car crashes, noteworthy by just how much they make us squirm in our seats. We kept things simple, sticking to videos of non-racing, non-track collisions, and also avoiding anything gruesome or reprehensible. Hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The Bugatti Veyron takes a dive
This video of a Bugatti Veyron taking a dip into the Gulf Bay near La Marque, Texas is the three-cheese omelet of cringe-worthiness. First, we see this benchmark of super car superiority meet a watery end. Second, we hear it misidentified by the witnesses of the crash as a Lamborghini. Third, it was done as part of a scam. The owner of the Bugatti purchased it for a million dollars and insured it for twice as much, sacrificing this bespoke powerhouse to get an easy payout. Thankfully, this video and other evidence made sure he failed in the attempt.
Lamborghini Huracan loses it at 200 mph
We mentioned this one before, when the footage was released by the authorities. It’s a little different from the others because it doesn’t show the wreck per se, but it does give us a POV account of what led up to it. Two passengers took the new Lamborghini Huracán for a ride up the M7 Motorway in Hungary, achieving and sustaining a run at around 200 mph. This wasn’t a de-restricted stretch of Autobahn, but a regular 80 mph-limited two-lane highway. The car was totaled beyond all recognition, but the two passengers survived. Hopefully they recognize how lucky they are to have a second chance at life.
McLaren 650S goes for a spin in the rain
Before this McLaren 650S bites the dust, the driver doesn’t seem to be doing anything too reckless: He’s passing on the left and not riding up the tailpipe of the car in front of him. The crucial mistake made here is when he puts is foot down and tries to open it up just when the car in front of him moves. That was a lot of power for too wet a road, and the McLaren paid the price.
Not the Lamborghini driver London needs or deserves
This short clip is still staggeringly cringe-worthy even after we’ve seen it loads of times. A Lamborghini Aventador driver nearly reenacts the Murcièlago scene from The Dark Knight, sending his V12-powered supercar barreling down Sloane Street in London right into an unsuspecting Mazda 5. The sonorous roar from the car is mixed with bangs and smashes as the Lambo vaults into the air and bounces off a parked BMW.
The Corvette family tree trims itself
One can almost understand the mindset of the two drivers in this video. They both have the same car, in the same color, separated by a single generation. Who wouldn’t want to see if a C5 Corvette could hold its own against the C6? We would too, but we can think of far better places to put this to the test than an intersection where children on bicycles are crossing the street. Karma then sorts both of them out rather neatly.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.