Image via Autotopia LA/YouTube
A famous YouTuber crashed in a classic muscle car, slamming into a family sitting at a red light, the whole thing caught on camera. There’s a lot to love about a 1,300-horsepower Mercury Comet with a giant blower climbing out of the hood, but when it suffers brake failure under hard acceleration, such a thing is incredibly dangerous.
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We are of course talking about the infamous crash on the Autotopia LA YouTube channel. If you missed that, you’ll get caught up to speed by watching the video we’ve included which walks you through what happened.
Just in case you forgot or don’t want to watch the video, Shawn (the host) has the owner of the Comet walk him through the build like always, then they go for a ride on the street. During the drive, the throttle starts sticking at 2,200 rpm.
Because they were just doing rolling shots, nothing wild, Shawn and the owner only put on the lap belts, not the harnesses. That was a big mistake. Long story short, the sticking throttle overloads the brakes, those go out, and the Mercury crashes into a minivan stopped at a red light.
The crash results in multiple injuries and it’s bad. People are still upset about this. Some want to know why the driver didn’t pull the parking brake – there wasn’t one on the car. They also asked why he didn’t downshift – the Comet had a B&M ratchet shifter, so there was no way to downshift until park was engaged.
During the walkthrough of the car, the owner admitted the Wilwood brakes were done 17 years ago, but he said he hasn’t driven the Mercury much. However, the guy also said he should put bigger brakes on to balance out the massive power.
There are a lot of lessons for anyone building a project car to learn here. One of the big ones is brakes are one of the most important safety items on your ride, so don’t cut corners there. Also, if you start having problems with a sticking throttle or smell brakes while test driving your project, pull over and shut your car off immediately – don’t ignore that and keep driving.
Also, wear your full harness if you have one and if you don’t, get one. Shawn’s face slammed into that nice bare metal dashboard at 45 mph, requiring stitches and new teeth.
While it’s a minor issue, it is unfortunate an otherwise incredible build was not only seriously damaged in the crash, its glory was overshadowed by the carnage. It’s understandable why: a family was put in peril and human life always outweighs cars.
Image via Autotopia LA/YouTube
