It’s a sight we see far too frequently; a sports car driver decides to pin the throttle while leaving a car meet only to lose control and crash spectacularly. More often than not, a Ford Mustang is involved but in Japan recently, the driver of a Mazda RX-8 was left red-faced after an embarrassing crash.
A short video of the incident was recently shared on Reddit. A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII is initially seen accelerating away, putting its all-wheel drive system to good use in the slippery conditions. A silver RX-8 then comes into view and while the driver doesn’t pull away super aggressively, they hit the throttle hard enough to start spinning up the rear wheels.
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Moments later, the RX-8 begins to gradually slide to the right before quickly kicking to the left, probably because the driver applied too much opposite lock. The Mazda then slams into a crash barrier on the side of the road, spinning it around and pushing it up a curb and into a guardrail on the other side.
While the crash occurred at relatively slow speeds, the damage appears to be significant. We can see that the front fascia has been destroyed and the bumper crumpled. The rear of the RX-8 also swung around and slammed into the guardrail, meaning it too has been damaged.
It’s unclear if the car had any mechanical modifications to boost its power. As standard, the RX-8’s 1.3-liter twin-rotor engine only produces 238 hp at its top trim, so it’s not exactly powerful. Given how easily it appears to have lost traction, there’s a possibility the driver disabled the car’s traction control before pinning the throttle.