NASA Racer and Film Star Paul Walker Killed In Carrera GT Crash

Fast and Furious star Paul Walker lost his life last night While riding passenger in a Porsche Carrera GT driven by fellow gentleman racer Roger Rodas. The car struck a tree and burned; both Mr. Walker and Mr. Rodas failed to survive.

The autoblogosphere's been busy mining the accident for clicks and as a result there's already some detailed coverage. From AutoWeek's Steven Cole Smith, there are two pieces. One covers the driving career of Roger Rodas, Mr. Walker's partner in "Always Evolving", a West Coast tuner whose "ae" logo appears in several of the Fast and Furious films. His other piece covers the Carrera GT itself, which had six owners and changed hands at prices ranging from $450,000 to $339,000.

Other articles have covered a variety of the salient points that come up any time the Carrera GT is discussed:

• Walter Rohrl crashed the Carrera GT twice during testing, noting that he had serious concerns about the car's on-the-limit behavior
• "Internet Entrepreneur" Corey Rudl crashed a Carrera GT during an FCA trackday at Fontana Speedway, resulting in a lawsuit which was settled for $4.5m.
• EVO magazine recently claimed that changing the tires on the Carrera GT absolutely "transformed the behavior" of the Carrera GT, changing it from terrifying to brilliant, or something like that.
• Former PCNA employee and TTAC contributor Doug DeMuro has declared that the Carrera GT is the most dangerous car on the road.

There are very few details about the crash — and given that the car burned to the ground and the witnesses appear to have been late to the scene, there may not be any more. It could have been a mistake on the part of the driver or a mechanical failure — or it's possible, that while driving around an office park, Mr. Rodas managed to reach those terrifying limits of which we're all read so much. Regardless of that, the fact are this: Paul Walker was a racer, he was a car guy, he was one of us, he'll be missed. RIP.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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