There are many things you shouldn’t do when you realize people are pointing a cellphone camera at you, but trying to showcase driving skills that are in reality far less advanced than you believe is definitely right up there near the top. People like this Corvette driver, though, are just moths to a flame.
The clip posted to Reddit shows one of the final-generation front-engined Corvettes streaking past some bystanders on a fairly empty intersection, engine wailing. But it’s the wailing from the person filming what happens next that dominates the video, because the fly-by definitely doesn’t go according to plan.
In the driver’s defense, the road is clearly wet and there’s a pronounced hump in the middle of the intersection, which is presumably why everyone has gathered there. They want to see the convertible Vette get some air. And it does get a little, the back end visibly lifting some way off the pavement and thumping down hard enough to send sparks flying into the night sky.
Video Reddit
And we suspect that if the driver had his stability control engaged he might have got away with just some scrape marks on his exhaust system. But judging from the very start of the clip, which seems to show the C7 fishtailing as it approaches the intersection, it looks like the ESP has been deactivated, and that’s a theory that sticks – unlike the car – when it lands on the other side of the road.
More: LA Street Takeover Attendees Throw Gas And Burn Corvette
To the accompaniment of a load of “Nnnoooo!”s we can just about see the Chevy rotate counter-clockwise on landing before sliding off down the road and out of sight. By the time the cameraphone catches up with it, it’s come to a stop at a 90 degree angle from its intended direction of travel, and minus the nearside rear wheel, which must have been ripped from its suspension mounts by contact with the curb and wall it’s come to rest against.
The crash video cuts off before we get a chance to see much of the driver and passenger, so the best we can say is that they’re probably not seriously injured. Well, most of us have done something really dumb in a car at one point and regretted it. Not getting filmed doing it is the key.