- A mid-engined Ferrari has crashed out on one of America’s most famous roads.
- The 458 was driving on NC’s Tail of the Dragon when it slid into a U-Haul truck.
- Stickers on the Ferrari suggest it was taking part in a Dragon Rally driving tour.
A tour through Deal’s Gap, better known as The Tail of the Dragon, is on almost every American enthusiast’s wish list, a stretch of tarmac that promises 318 corners in just 11 miles. But some drivers return wishing they’d never gone.
Like the wheelman of this wrecked Ferrari 458 Spider, who came back with his Italian supercar in bits and a ton of the wrong kind of memories.
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Multiple videos have appeared on YouTube in the past few days showing a red 458 Spider wiping itself out when it failed to negotiate a right-hand hairpin turn on the iconic road.
When Curves Bite Back
The driver, who was simply carrying too much speed for the very slow bend, would have survived the misstep without crashing if the other lane had been empty. But it wasn’t empty. It was very full of U-Haul truck.
The sports car, Ferrari’s last naturally-aspirated V8 model, smashes into the left rear of the U-Haul, tearing back the 458’s fender and ripping the front-left alloy wheel from its suspension points.
It hits the U-Haul so hard the truck’s rear end lifts clean off the ground, and when it lands back down several feet away we can briefly see its axle has been knocked out of whack. That’s some hit.
Commenters have suggested based on the stickers on its doors that the 458’s a rental car. It might be, in which case we hope the driver didn’t skimp on insurance.
However, the stickers, the cars trailing behind the 458, and the cameras positioned on the bend all point to something more organized, likely a Dragon Rally, the driving tour held each month from March through November.
The Dragon’s History of Mayhem
Still, it could be worse, because this is definitely not the nastiest Ferrari crash we’ve seen happen on the Tail of the Dragon. Back in 2021 a red 488 Pista Spider, the convertible, track-focused version of the car that replaced the 488, flipped over on the twisty asphalt and landed on its roof.
On that occasion witnesses saw the Ferrari hitting a bump at a high speed, causing the driver to lose control on a section known as Gravity Cavity MM3.
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