Paul Walker's Daughter Sues Porsche For Building a Racecar

I heard Geragos talking a bit about it. He is representing the wife. He claims there is some fatal flaw in the suspension design of the car. I would love to know what they say that is and why they say Porsche missed it.

I would imagine the flaw will be that most horrible of all things, oversteer. There is decades worth of research that shows Porsche has ignored this tremendous design flaw by blatantly continuing to build rear wheel drive cars...

sesto elemento wrote: I heard an interview with the lawyer today on the radio and all I thought was about how sad it is for our culture that it is trending so hard away from taking personal responsibility for your actions. Things like this inevitably will spell the end of big power sports cars at some point. It's a shame that people aren't able to let themselves accept that bad decisions are on the people that make them. Walker made a bad decision getting in the car with someone who couldn't control it, and the driver made a bad decision by doing things in a car that led to him running out of talent and killing himself and his friend. End of story.

While I totally agree with the general idea of your post about personal responsibility, I don't see how Walker's decision to get in the car was that bad. If a friend of yours (whom you've raced with in the past) pulls up in a Carrera GT and says "get in", how many car guys are going to even hesitate?

sesto elemento wrote: I heard an interview with the lawyer today on the radio and all I thought was about how sad it is for our culture that it is trending so hard away from taking personal responsibility for your actions. Things like this inevitably will spell the end of big power sports cars at some point. It's a shame that people aren't able to let themselves accept that bad decisions are on the people that make them. Walker made a bad decision getting in the car with someone who couldn't control it, and the driver made a bad decision by doing things in a car that led to him running out of talent and killing himself and his friend. End of story.

If there was an internet back in the 80's you could have posted the same thing about Ferrari and Porsche. There were Autoweek headlining articles about what people thought were stupid lawsuits to both of them. And, of course, AW lamented the upcoming demise of supercars.

But today, it's really easy to get a sedan to carry your family that has more power than the Ferrari or Porsche of that era. And supercars are pushing more than 1000hp.

This isn't going to stop that trend, no matter how pointless that kind of power really is.

Nor will it stop people questioning companies who make them if they are actually safe products to sell- and if not, do they bear any responsibility in the carnage left over for it.

Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

aircooled wrote: I heard Geragos talking a bit about it. He is representing the wife. He claims there is some fatal flaw in the suspension design of the car. I would love to know what they say that is and why they say Porsche missed it.

the fatal flaw is the pedal on the right that allows a human to press it to the floor for as long as they want. assimilate to the robotcars.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I would imagine the flaw will be that most horrible of all things, oversteer. There is decades worth of research that shows Porsche has ignored this tremendous design flaw by blatantly continuing to build rear wheel drive cars...

I suspect you are correct. I cannot tell you how many times I have died driving my car...

Another angle I suspect they might take is the fact that the car lacks any features like ABS (right?) or stability control, which is pretty much standard in any higher performance car these days. Of course, this car was not build "these days". I don't think any of those are required either.

One comment about that car was why they did not put a fuel cell in it. I am sure it is true that making the fuel tank a cell would have added (relatively) almost nothing to the price of the car, it's still NOT a required item, even on a high powered car. I don't see how you can blame Porsche for build a car within the safety standards. (I don't think they are going after Porsche about this, but I suspect it will come up)

aircooled wrote: Another angle I suspect they might take is the fact that the car lacks any features like ABS (right?) or stability control, which is pretty much standard in any higher performance car these days. Of course, this car was not build "these days". I don't think any of those are required either.

Yep the Porsche Carrera GT is a "dumb" car that won't second-guess anything you do, apart from trying to rev the engine to death. None of those electro-nannies are required, and other companies have been producing cars without them at the same time (none of Noble's cars had them until the M400/Rossion Q1, off the top of my head. And most supercars and many sports cars can be put into "full manual" mode with a switch or button press).

Anyone catch the shot across the bow from Porsche?

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

The smoking tire podcast talks about the suit for a minute and it sounds like the lawyer is a real slimeball who's hoping Porsche settles.

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

Huh didn't know that:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-930-turbo-super-charging-forum/642637-lawsuits-arriving-930-late-70s.html

They didn't end up paying out massive money over it though.

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

One was drunk female crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at well over 100mph.

spitfirebill wrote:

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

One was drunk person crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at well over 100mph.

ftfy. No idea why gender/sex/whatever would enter into this.

mtn wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

One was drunk person crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at well over 100mph.

ftfy. No idea why gender/sex/whatever would enter into this.

Still POed over the lake thing dude? A fact is a fact.

spitfirebill wrote:

mtn wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars, not even the older ones, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the Carrera GT

Not true. There were several against the 930.

One was drunk person crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at well over 100mph.

ftfy. No idea why gender/sex/whatever would enter into this.

Still POed over the lake thing dude? A fact is a fact.

Lake thing?

Scott_H wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Porsche hasn't had their pants sued off over the handling characteristics of their rear-engined cars...

Not true. There were several against the 930.

Well... I can almost see that one.

I can't imagine it would take much time driving that car to figure out it's trying to kill you. Of course, you drive that around like it's a Civic for a while, you are in for a BIG surprise when you push that pedal down all the way and the tach goes past 3 grand!!