More Flying Ferrari Follies

Let me get this straight: Dietrich is actually Trevor, and either Stefan or Trevor was actually videotaping as they attempting to explore their Ferrari Enzo's flight characteristics? Here's what the latest story from the LAT about the case has to say:

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's investigation into a mysterious crash that destroyed a rare $1-million Ferrari in Malibu last month is now focusing on a videotape that was purportedly shot from inside the vehicle at the time of the accident, according to sources close to the case.

The sources said that Ferrari owner Stefan Eriksson and the other man in the car, identified by authorities as Trevor Karney, had a video camera rolling as they raced on Pacific Coast Highway on the morning of Feb. 21 at speeds in excess of 162 mph.

Sounds like this lucky-to-be-alive pair may have been trying to pull a Lelouch when their Enzo embarked on its ill-fated flight. They should have done more homework; it now appears that the French film director may have used a garden variety Mercedes to make his legendary film:

According to recent claims by Claude Lelouch, he was driving his own Mercedes in the film, and later dubbed over the sound of a Ferrari 275GTB to give the impression of much higher speeds. Calculations made by several independent groups using the film show that the car never exceeds 140 km/h (85 mph), which seems to lend credence to his recent comments.

Here are some more links to information about Lelouch's film:

• The Pjammer Chronicles has links to a 35 MB Quicktime movie of the film, which is pretty cool. The comments also have a good discussion of the film, concluding that the car with the camera was not a Ferrari and not going as fast as the soundtrack would suggest.
  
  
• A page in the Physics Factbook containing some very elaborate (though flawed) student analysis of the film.
  
  
• Getaway in Stockholm: a series of similar films inspired by Lalouch's movie. (And perhaps the inspiration for Stefan Eriksson -- who is Swedish -- to pull his stunt on the PCH? Maybe he was planning to make street racing films using his exotic car collection as his next entrepreneurial venture.)

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