Alan, this topic has been also discussed in the Porsche Forum a couple of days ago. Our Users should know that some of the people involved are monitoring car forums like this one, so please be careful what everybody is saying. Say your personal opinion but refrain from making statements or anything similar because I can't exclude that it may create trouble for certain individuals.
Let me say only one thing as a longtime sportscar owner, sportscar lover and a married father of two little kids:
I feel very sorry for Rudl's family and I feel very sorry about the Keaton family, nobody deserves to go through what they went over the past few months. They all have my sympathy, my respect and my condolences.
And now follows my "but" and this is just my personal opinion, I don't want to offend anybody, I'm no lawyer, English isn't my mother language and if somebody feels offended or even provoked by my words, I have to apologize.
Here we go: it is my understanding and I may be wrong but this is what I heard, that Corey Rudl was a person who always dedicated his life to motorsports. I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere that he won some sort of Motocross championship in Canada, well, he seems to have loved everything which had at least two wheels and an engine. I have to say that I'm the same type of person and the only reason I gave up riding motorcycles is that I knew that sooner or later, they would have killed me. I always tried in the past to drive at the limit and I have to say that I'm lucky and very thankful to whatever supernatural force is out there, that I'm still alive.
Yes, I love it to drive fast but since I have kids, my driving style has changed to a more cautious one, brains come first, throttle foot comes second.
Since we have no speed limit here on the Autobahn in Germany, I sometimes drove at speeds over 200 mph and I enjoyed it. I also did some nice track racing and I enjoyed that too. But I always had one thing in my mind: death. Yes, I always had this thought on my mind, even if I had a good time. I can't explain it but I somehow was prepared but on the other hand I loved life and I still love it.
Maybe this is some sort of instinct which gets stronger when you get older, an instinct which makes you more cautious and more rational, something which I can't say is bad after all because it kept me alive and I still hope it will keep me alive in the future.
Why this long story? Simple: whenver I was driving fast, I knew that something can happen. I never had the courage to drive in someone's elses car, I knew that a little bit of bad luck and your fate is in the hand of a stranger. I never liked this idea and I have always avoided to drive together with someone in his car as a co-pilot, especially on the track. I'm pretty sure Corey Rudl was an intelligent young man, especially when I read about his achievements in life. So in my opinion, he was knowing very well what he was doing when he went with Ben for a ride in his Carrera GT. Corey knew the risks involved with track driving and he knew the risks involved with driving a high performance sportscar at the limit. As far as I heard, Corey came to the track on that dark day in his Lamborghini Murcielago.
I don't know why he joined Ben for a round on the track, I'm pretty sure that Corey had the same feelings I had when letting driving somebody else. I did this only twice, once with Jochen Albig in a Carrera GT in Leipzig and funny enough, my fear went away pretty fast because he was driving the car like if it would be a part of him and another time with the brother of Reinhold Schmirler (RS-Tuning) and this guy scared the hell out of me because he was driving like a mad guy and even worse, he didn't know how to drive. Now to get back to Corey: I'm sure he knew what he was doing but the fascination of driving in a Carrera GT overwhelmed his fears. But if somebody claims that Corey didn't know what he was doing, I have my doubts.
Corey was like many of us here on Rennteam: a very enthusiastic sportscar lover. Of course I'm also sure that he didn't think for a second that these are going to be his last moments of his life when he entered Ben's car. But the fear was with him because he was used to sportscars and he knew the risks involved.
Now if this accident would have happened on a public street, my sympathy would have probably been completely with the Rudl family. Because I can't expect somebody to drive with me in a car from point A to B on a public street and expect him to be afraid of death while driving with me.
A street is no racing track. People driving on the track are there for a reason. Ben was there for a reason and so was Corey. They weren't there to have a good time just talking and looking at the nice cars. They both were there to drive the hell out of their cars and this is what a track is there for. So who is to blame for this accident? Honestly, I don't know. Ben was a good driver and he knew his Carrera GT but like always in life, sadly...sh.t happens.
Corey knew the risk involved driving with a stranger in a very very fast car at the limit but of course he was there to have fun, to do exactly what Ben did, driving as fast as possible. The Carrera GT is a 612 HP sportscar and like every high performance sportscar, driving it can be challenging. It is ridiculous to ask Porsche for putting a warning on this car and it is even more ridiculous to say that this car has design flaws. I rode with Jochen Albig in a Carrera GT on the race track and he was doing the most incredible things with this car, most people would have thrown joining him.
It is a matter of common sense to understand that not each and every person can drive such a car at the limit. Again: we're not talking about driving at 60 mph down a highway but extreme driving at the limit on the track. So no, Porsche is definetely not to blame for this accident.
The only thing I didn't like about the pictures of Ben's accident was actually the race track and that stupid wall the hit with the car. I don't know this track, never been there and I don't want to assume anything wrong. But shouldn't there be some sort of protection like tires and/or little stones to reduce speed on cars getting out of control? But even the track can't be blamed because nobody forces the drivers to drive at the limit, right?!
So who is to blame now? My personal opinion is: nobody. It was just a sad combination of bad luck, bad timing and...simple FATE. This whole lawsuit will hurt a lot of feelings I'm afraid and if a lawyer would really succeed in blaming Porsche for building a "dangerous" car, this would have an incredible impact on the whole car industry. This would be insane. We're all adult people, we know the risks involved in driving fast. I agree, if a tire blows or if a wheel carrier brakes and we loose control, we should blame the manufacturer (tire, car, etc.). But if Porsche can't be blamed for a technical flaw of the car (something braking down while Ben was driving), we should really view this accident as a very unfortunate and tragic event.
I know, the Rudl family and even the Keaton family will never see these things the way I see them, it is understandable. But maybe I should ask them one thing: how would Corey and Ben comment this lawsuite if somebody else would have died? I'm almost sure that they both would have agreed with my words. And maybe we all, including the families, should respect those feelings because they were part of OUR big family too...a family of worldwide sportscar enthusiasts who were shocked by the sad incident which happened last year.
The lawsuit won't make things better for the families, it may just fill the pockets of some lawyers who probably will finance their next sportscars with their gain from this case. How weird...
