What might seem like an embarrassing mishap to common folk is really a right of passage into the playboy world. No, not accidentally killing a stripper, but wrecking an exotic car. 

Over the weekend, Ferrari/Fiat Chairman Luca Montezemolo slowly drove a Ferrari California off the track and into a sand trap at the Ferrari World finals with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in the back seat. 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBFWONEWWU8)

The car became stuck. Jalopnik quipped: 

“What's a chairman to do? Just have the team send another Ferrari and let the track workers deal with it.” (1) 

Indeed. Either Montezemolo truly believed a sand trap designed to stop cars spinning out of control at 100mph+ would be no match for his slow moving California, or more plausibly, he was giving Massa and Alonso a playboy Bar Mitzvah. I’ll side with the latter and even go so far as to say the incident represents a ceremonial birth into an elitist gentleman’s club of auto enthusiasts. Not convinced? Consider this: 

Within days of the Montezemolo crash, two FERRARI CALIFORNIAS were racing about Sofia, Bulgaria when one of the cars miraculously power-slid into a front-end loader.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjOPsapLuk&feature=player_embedded) 

Once again, the whole scene was conveniently caught on video, and we, the lowly YouTube masses were led to believe a Ferrari was outmaneuvered by heavy machinery. Please.

This video wasn’t of a wreck but a happy documentary of self-inflicted hazing into the aforementioned society; a group of guys so rich, wrecking an exotic car is like thrashing their own buttocks with a paddle for the guffaws of their cronies. 

Not convinced? Consider an article from MSN entitled “Texan drives $1 million sports car into marshes”. The story is of a man who recently drove a Bugatti Veyron, the world’s fastest and most expensive production car in the world, into a SALT mash. It might sound passably dumb if it weren’t for the first paragraph: 

“LA MARQUE, Texas - A man blamed a low-flying pelican and a dropped cell phone for his veering his million-dollar sports car off a road and into a salt marsh near Galveston.” (2)

Said guy wasn’t trying very hard to keep his secret on the DL. Watch the video for yourself (yes, there was a car full of guys videotaping the Veyron, seconds before the Texan drove into the water) see if you can spot the mysterious low-flying bird. 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N92qissbNS8)

Did you see the bird? Of course not. Even more revealing was the driver’s attitude after launching his million-dollar car into a salty lake: 

“He was calm,” said wrecker driver Gilbert Harrison of MCH Truck and Auto, which is storing the car, “If it had been me, I'd have been cussing, but he was calm. I imagine inside he was probably pretty upset.” (2)

Only the soggy playboy wasn’t upset, he was only waiting for the good news to reach the elders:

“The Houston Chronicle reported the Texan has become something of a celebrity. He reportedly told the Texas City wrecker driver who towed his car that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called him Wednesday, along with several other celebrities.” (2)

Welcome to the club, Tex. 

Sources: 
(1) http://jalopnik.com/5405632/ferrari-chairman-crashes-ferrari-california/gallery/ 
(2) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33906595/ns/us_news-weird_news
(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjOPsapLuk&feature=player_embedded
Picture:
www.eurweb.com/ story.cfm?id=32487

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