German Ferrari Collector killed while trailering his 599 GTB to dealer

That's very sad. RIP.

 

That looks like a very survivable crash, apparently airbags deployed. I wonder if he had a medical condition that contributed to the crash in the first place.

 

I have a 5 series wagon very similar to this. It’s no Ford super duty, but it is an ok towing car (I was towing well over a tonne of rocks with mine this evening with no bother at all). Rated towing limit is 2000kg though, so he probably was a bit over the limit with the trailer included.

Very sad though. For what little it’s worth in these situations, at least the 599 looks to be unscathed.


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The 599 was too far back on the trailer, creating a rear weight bias instead of the desired forward weight bias. Lack of tongue weight will swing the tow car violently out of control as shown by the photo. The BMW was too light or small for this tow. I learned this lesson the hard way myself. Sad and preventable.

 

@bamaman Absolutely. Not enough tongue weight will literally pull the tow vehicle violently side to side at some speed, and that looks like what happened. A 10K# trailer needs 1k# of tongue weight. That would have that BMW dragging its under carriage and the operator probably moved the car back on the trailer to reduce that and made it worse. Very sad.

 

I hear what you guys are saying, but the 599 could hardly be any further forward on the trailer. Also, the incline on the trailer seems to be because the dolly wheel at the tow bar is holding it up.

Ideally, you dont want there to be too much or too little yoke (tongue) weight. A neutrally balanced load will behave best.

 

I don't know the weight balance on the 599, but on my 612 it is 48 front and 52 rear. If the 599 is similar, looking from the photo the centerline of the car is too far back from the centerline between the two trailer wheels. It looks like the 599 could have been up to 1 foot further forward.

 

Very Sad indeed - RIP

 

IMO only thing to tow with cars are jetski's everything else should be towed by large pickup trucks

 

Look at the 599, unless it rolled it is far too back and not enough tongue weight. Being back heavy like that I’m curious of the old man didn’t have experience loading s trailer, it would sway like crazy loaded like that.

 

Don't think so guys. 599 is v12 front engine heavy car. Bias is like 52% front. 599 plus trailer is like 5000-6000lbs pulled by a car about 3700lbs. Simply wrong tool for the job and wrong choice for newbie to tow himself. Sad because the impact was not much or the 599 would be off the trailer too. The problem is getting hit in the driver door is a bad day towing or not. I cringe at the threads on Fchat when a clearly inexperienced owner wants to tow his Ferrari to a concourse in another state to safe the miles and reduce damage. The sad thing is that owner risks even more damage and injury if lucky only comes away with scrapes and scratches he never bargained for.

 

Rip

 

Wow, hate to hear/see this...but yes, looking at the pictures, that was just a bad situation from the start. I'm careful about what I tow with my v6 Silverado, even though it's geared for towing. Makes me wonder why a Ferrari collector wouldn't just hire for that job. RIP.

 

Wiki, Car and Driver and other online sources report curb weight of the 599 at 3,953 pounds with a front/rear distribution of 47/53 percent (1,858/2,095 pounds).

 

So sad to hear about this...and yes, towing is not something to take lightly. Like someone else said, I would just rather put the miles on the car.

 

how is the trailer jack down - wheel touching ground ?