Breaking a LaFerrari. What were they thinking?

I have to say I am hugely relieved that this is not a video of my own work, with its 2.3 million negative views! There is something of a cult following of people who love to watch expensive cars getting damaged. Just google Supercar fail or Supercar crashes, and you will find countless hours of footage depicting such unfortunate events. In this video, filmed somewhere in Europe, we see a La Ferrari finding itself in a predicament.

I can identify a few key areas of error that would lead to the damage of this La Ferrari, and a potentially costly bill for the owner and/or the transporter. Remember that repair costs escalate for a vehicle of this stature. It of course needs to be shipped to a repair shop by a specialist then re-delivered. Beyond the mere financial implications, you have an aggravated client, disappointed that their car may miss a specific event or be displayed in less than pristine condition. Supercar owners are rightly proud of their vehicles, and if you can not be shown to take care of their pride and joy then quite simply you will not be trusted again.

The first error here was they never knew the car. If you look at 0:42secs you can see the nose of the La Ferrari is wedged under the trucks’ door/ramp. You can clearly see marks where the paint has come off when the car is reversed; however, what you would not be able to see in the video is any structural damage, which is a real possibility when the weight of the car is transferred through the bodywork.

At 1.00 minute you can see things are moving a little smoother, albeit for just a few seconds until they then run into the next issue; the front bumper is bottoming out on the ramps. If they had continued up the ramps for any distance the pressure applied t0 the bodywork can crack headlights or damage fitments elsewhere on the vehicles front end. So, they then are forced to reverse the car again.

On the third attempt, very thin wooden boards are introduced to raise the front end. They are placed ahead of the wheels and then the steel loading ramp is also raised to assist with greater clearance. In the next frames, if you look closely this effectively cures the issue by raising the front bumper before the critical area is reached when the the nose meets the ramps.

Ironically, these problems and the wooden boards may have possibly been dispensed with altogether, if the driver had done his homework and used the ‘front lift’ suspension assist mechanism which many supercars now have fitted as standard, to cope with such urban problems as speed bumps etc! If you look closely at the video, you will note that the gap between front tyre and wheel arch has increased from pre-loading to half way up the ramp; likely someone has alerted the driver to the switch on the dashboard!?

By the time the La Ferrari is inside the truck you can be sure there has been some damage and lost trust between the owner and transporter. It could have been avoided…

The first thing you need to do is pre-research your car. Learn its dimensions, ground clearance, etc. and then check those of your equipment to see what challenges you will encounter. There were also too many people involved in this loading; the driver never checked once for himself, when ultimately, he is the most responsible person. One person for loading is usually perfect. Move an inch then get out and check how things are. If you need to get out the car 10/15 times, then what difference does that really make in the grand scale of your task?

 Your job is to load the car safely and there are no terms attached to how you do that. I would always aim for a minimum 30mm of clearance between bumper and ramp just to be on the safe side. If needed you can buy ramp extenders for £300 such as ESM Race Ramps which will lower your ramp angle by a fair amount. I made my own specification as a stop gap once for £50, which solved the loading angle issue with cars that quite literally have enough ground clearance for maybe a cigarette packet until my more professional looking set arrived.

The other factor in this video is that when supercars are being transported the drivers carry a certain level of “fear” of the consequences of it going wrong, and conversely a bravado in front of onlookers, both of which create adrenalin and results in too much rush. In our minds we worry that checking too much makes people think you are inexperienced, when this is exactly what you should be doing.

To tell you the truth, from my experience in transporting supercars for Mclaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. is that the customers would rather you take things slow and get it correct rather than rush it and look ‘clever’. You get paid substantially more for supercar transport than you do for standard cars, so give your customers their moneys worth before, during and after transporting their pride & joy.

Philip Brown @ Super23.co.uk

1/11/2018