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Fatal Speedster wreck in Maryland

FM Former Member
This wreck was on the news here in Maryland a couple days ago.
I'm not trying to be morbid by putting the pictures up. The driver of this car didn't make it past the impact with the tree, and I hope that seeing this will reinforce something for all of us; there were no skid marks visible, so my guess is that this person let his car get away from him in a matter of a second or two.
There wasn't really any structural support underneath the fiberglass on this car, and it doesn't appear that his seatbelts did him much good. I don't even know that he was wearing one.
His rear cowl is on the left side of the tree, his front clip is in a few pieces on the far left of the photo and his engine, transaxle and frame are a tangled and unrecognizeable pile of twisted metal at the middle of the back of the driver's seat.
I don't know who this driver was, and I'm sorry if anybody here knew this person -- safety is my intention here. I looked at our registry before posting these, and I didn't see this car on it.
I'll bet that right up until he lost control, this person had the same SEG as the rest of us, and he probably was only out for a joyride.
Please be safe, folks.

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FM Former Member
This wreck was on the news here in Maryland a couple days ago.
I'm not trying to be morbid by putting the pictures up. The driver of this car didn't make it past the impact with the tree, and I hope that seeing this will reinforce something for all of us; there were no skid marks visible, so my guess is that this person let his car get away from him in a matter of a second or two.
There wasn't really any structural support underneath the fiberglass on this car, and it doesn't appear that his seatbelts did him much good. I don't even know that he was wearing one.
His rear cowl is on the left side of the tree, his front clip is in a few pieces on the far left of the photo and his engine, transaxle and frame are a tangled and unrecognizeable pile of twisted metal at the middle of the back of the driver's seat.
I don't know who this driver was, and I'm sorry if anybody here knew this person -- safety is my intention here. I looked at our registry before posting these, and I didn't see this car on it.
I'll bet that right up until he lost control, this person had the same SEG as the rest of us, and he probably was only out for a joyride.
Please be safe, folks.

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H harper55
Oh my God Cory...when I see this kind of wreck it makes me double think why I have one of these little cars??? there isn't much metal and the fact that our heads aren't being protected either hmmmm....this same reason I don't like to drive it on the freeways especially here in California where people drive like kamakazi pilots!!!~ Esther
FM Former Member
By the look of the wheels it appears to be an old widebody CMC. That is definitely a sorry sight and moving too. Someone here wrote once: "With these cars there's only a 1/4" of fiberglass between you and eternity". I guess that's why the motto in the original SOC badge was coined: "Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse". I feel sorry for this person and his/her family.
Alan MerklinAlan MerklinDrclock - Elkins, West Virginia Supporting Member
I agree, much inertia to create this type of wreckage. The more I look at this it appears that the car went sideways into the tree and what became of the floor pans? Wonder if this was one of the few "off brand" that had fiberglass pans.
What everyone has missed is that perhaps this Speedster may have be driven by someone that has posted here......I hope not.
FM Former Member
Guys:

That car looks very familiar as the one that was on Ebay a few weeks ago. I remember the black speedster with the gold color rims. I am with the rest of you guys and hope it was not anyone that has posted before. Nonetheless it was a fellow speedster owner that lost their life. We just always need to never drive faster than our guardian angels can fly !

Andres D.
FM Former Member
I hope mine has a jet-pack, Andres.
Thanks for taking the time to look, guys. I'm going to try to find out some details today. My pal who was there might know more today than he did a couple days ago -- but I think this was the one on ebay.
Didn't Alan say he had had something to do with this car before?
FM Former Member
Lane, you posted that he had to be going pretty fast to cause this kind of damage.

Sorry to burst your opinion of your car's structural integrity but, after 34 years of law enforcement, I've seen a bunch of terrible wrecks. In fact, this kind of damage can occur at speeds of only 45 MPH.

2300 pound car, 45 MPH, abrupt stop into an un-movable small object like a telephone pole equals disaster.
FM Former Member
I think it was a black one. Look at the first pic again without
the zoom in and you can see the rear clip sheared off the car approx.
6 inches behind the door opening and is sitting on the ground in the
background. When I totaled my IM the front bumper and headlights
kept going down the road and the rear clip bent down, pushing the
rear lid off the car via the fan shroud.
FM Former Member
Guys & Gals:

Look at Cory zoom the rims are identical to the one in ebay. In any case it does not real matter as the car and the driver are now no longer with us. Just brings everything back into reality that we need to drive with care at all times. I was in a Motocycle accident when I was young. Not my fault and at the end I had a multiple compound fracture to the femur. Took months to get back to normal. Many times accidents happen totally unexpected. That is why we always need to expect the unexpected. We have very little protecting us (except for Cory) from the other cars on the road.

Andres D.
FM Former Member
My man tells me the car was black. The back half of the body is upside-down, so the dark color there between the taillights is the body color.
The blue blot on the driver's side is a blanket and a photoshop-style 'blackening' of other visual data. I think it's obvious what's under it.
The plate on the car is Maryland, he says, and he'll check to see what the renewal date is. If it's two years from now, we'll know this person had just bought and registered the car, yes?
And TC, morbid or not, I'll follow the pieces to see where they go. Mostly, I want to see the weak points and post the ones that broke the worst here on the site under the 'Knowledge' section.
JogyverJogyver
Lookng at the picture and the area make you kind of wonder what really happened. No skid marks. The driver was traveling in the correct direction. Speed limit probably 35 -50 MPH. Could it of been a simple mechanical break down? Something in the steering perhaps? Possibly a tire blowout? Just think of it, traveling down a road at 40 mph enjoying the sun a, wind and the sound of the motor and all of a sudden the car makes a quick right turn.
Something like this occured to me last year right before going to a local car show. The steering shaft came loose while driving out the driveway. The car would not turn. I'm sure glad it happen there instead on the road somewhere. I would be wise to do a check of all your suspension parts anually. Make sure everything is tight.

Joe
FM Former Member
Andres,
Look at the Center cap. It is black. The EBay one was Silver.

Cory,
Pardon my morbid fascination, but can you please try to get more pictures and find out what happened. I'm about to take mine out for its first long run, and I need to make sure mine has been checked for what ever caused this (given that it was not a cat running into the road). This might set me back a week to go over safety. This has freak'd me out. Nothing like a Speedster Death before your first 60Mph run in your first self built car.

I'd like to offer my apology for my first post. It was very insensitive. I thought about it afterwards and realized that a family member could have read it.
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