US won't pay for Ferrari wrecked by FBI agent

[n2doc]

13:26 PDT DETROIT (AP) --

An FBI agent assigned to move a rare Ferrari wrecked it during a short drive in Kentucky, and its owner is now suing the U.S. Justice Department, which has refused to pay $750,000 for the car.

The Justice Department recently responded to the lawsuit by saying it's not liable for certain goods when they're in the hands of law enforcement. The government also has refused to release most documents related to the crash.

The Ferrari F50 was stolen in 2003 from a dealer in Rosemont, Pa., and discovered five years later. The FBI kept it in Lexington, Ky., as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

FBI agent Fred Kingston was to move the Ferrari from a garage in May 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson said Kingston invited him on a "short ride."

"Just a few seconds after we left the parking lot, we went around a curve and the rear of the car began sliding," Thompson said in an email released to Motors Insurance Co., the dealer's insurer.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/20/national/a124211D32.DTL&tsp=1

[Hannah Bell]

1. we went around a curve and the rear of the car began sliding,"

sounds like the agent assigned to move it was testing the handling on a luxury car, i.e. speeding.

[Fumesucker]

2. ...

[Poll_Blind]

6. Or....

:rofl:

PB

[Obamaforthewin]

20. +1, love it

[Blue_Tires]

24. YES!

greatest scene from the greatest movie!

[jtuck004]

7. Exactly. eom

[Poll_Blind]

3. Now THAT is a poorly-covered-up coverup if there EVER was one.

"Just a few seconds after we left the parking lot, we went around a curve and the rear of the car began sliding,"

My ass. Agent Kingston is an ass and the $750,000 better come out of his personal property before it does out tax dollars.

PB

[Taverner]

5. Agreed. The FBI should not have to pay, but Agent Kingston should

[Xicano]

23. BS! The car was in FBI custody, thus, THEY are responsible for it.

The honest way this should play out is like this: The FBI being responsible for property in their custody should pay for it. Then being that there's sufficient evidence to suggest agent kingston acted improperly with the car. He should be sued by the FBI in return and an internal investigation conducted to see whether or not mr. kingston should be suspended or fired from his job at the FBI.

[EOTE]

4. I'm guessing most FBI agents aren't really qualified to drive 500+ hp cars.

Especially ones so light. Why this agent was assigned such a task is beyond me.

[Sonoman]

9. Yep. Those cars have a bitch of a clutch.

I'll bet the guy blew it when he hit 2nd gear.

The F50 lacks torque, but 2nd gear is explosive. Also, the car tends to over-steer at low speeds. The F50 definitely was not designed for the streets and takes almost F1 skills to drive. I think Ferrari built them as some sort of commemorative model.

Sonoman

[hifiguy]

8. I have a friend who owns three Ferraris.

He has let me drive them and has instructed me on HOW to drive them. Two of them are mid-engined.

The ONLY way a mid-engined Ferrari, like an F50, can get tail-happy and begin "stepping out" on a curve is if the nut behind the wheel is driving WAY too fast and stomps on the brakes in the middle of that curve. The physics that explain how a pendulum works take care of all the rest and you will leave the road tail-first at a high rate of speed. Noobs to older Porsches used to have to learn this lesson on a regular basis.

Anyone with a lick of sense knows that in a mid/rear engined car you brake heading into the turn, set your line, then accelerate at the apex of the turn.

Some people's kids.....:eyes:

[Sonoman]

10. I figure he blew it by shifting into 2nd in the curve.

The F50 I have driven has one of those double clutches and takes some serious concentration to drive at street speeds. I have never been really comfortable behind the wheel.

Sonoman

[hifiguy]

12. You've DRIVEN one??

I SAW an Enzo at my friend's local dealership out west and he let me drive his 348 and Maranello. Those were experiences I will never forget. After a couple of blocks in the Maranello I knew that the only way I could get in trouble in it was to intentionally do something REALLY stupid, and my friend egged me up to an indicated 95 mph on the mountain roads he likes to drive - long swooping curves and dead-flat straightaways. The car ran as if the hand of Jehovah Almighty was pressing it into the blacktop. But the Maranello is a forgiving GT whereas an F50 is basically a live grenade/barely detuned LeMans car.

If the dope in question in the OP story was at serious RPMs and stomped on the gas as he shifted into second on a curve, he (1) did something monumentally st00pid and (2) had very brown trousers in a flash. That is like lighting the fuse on an M80 and shoving it into yer pants pocket. Those engines don't even begin to come on to the torque curve until you hit 3K, but when they do it's Katie bar the door.

All high performance cars should be treated with the GREATEST respect and not just because they are expensive.

[Sonoman]

16. Yeah, I have.

I am a really good driver, but the F50 simply wears me out.

And I am with you on the Maranello. What a sweet car.

Due to falling (temporarily, thank heavens) on hard times, I had to sell my Carrera GT last year. Now that car was a manageable fire-breather. I really miss that sound.

But I kept a perfectly restored '90 560 SEL that will still make 145mph with one hand on the wheel.

Now let's talk about my '66 Vespa with an all-steel Indian sidecar. I wish I knew how to post pics, for this is one of the coolest Vespas on the planet. It is also one of the most treacherous vehicles I have ever driven.

Sonoman

[Gregorian]

17. That's too bad. I love the sound of a V10

Post it. Vespa with a side car? Holy cow.

Cheers.

[jberryhill]

18. "Noobs to older Porsches"

Oh, man, you brought back a memory there for me.

Girlfriend's dad out of town during high school... leaves keys to Porsche in the house... we went for a ride.

There is this awesome twisty road that I took it down, and your description of leaving it tail first is bang on accurate.

I was soooo lucky not to hit any objects and slide off into the grass.

Until today, reading your post, it did not occur to me how or why that happened. I had been down that road in a Honda Civic at higher speeds than I was going in that Porsche, and it has always been a thing of wonder to me how the Honda "held the road" better than the Porsche did.

Now I know. Thanks.

[Stevenmarc]

11. Obviously The Stig doesn't work for the FBI, it should have been on a flatbed

[frylock]

13. it should have been trailered..

freakin idiots.

[petronius]

14. I suspect that the "certain good" they're not liable for translates to

"stuff we decide to steal and/or destroy." I bet that a careful investigation will reveal that a) this car 'needed to be moved' a lot more often than other vehicles in the evidence pool, b) it was not being driven in a responsible manner, and c) it could easily have been returned to the owner much earlier without affecting the case...

[medeak]

15. why wasn't it trailered? n/t

[Divernan]

19. Sounds like a stunt for Lt. Provenza and Detective Flynn

on a Closer episode.

[GeorgeGist]

21. Driving without insurance?

[flvegan]

22. Hooning fail. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

25. What a couple of brain-dead, non-driving morons...

At least the car was insured -- Depending on state laws, it might be up to that insurer to eat anyway, iirc...

[Obamanaut]

26. . nt