As car fans, we can relate to the excitement of spotting a hot, rare ride in the wild. Unfortunately, sometimes this enthusiasm is taken to a dangerous extreme. Making the rounds is a video of a handful of cars driving recklessly around something of a sports car unicorn, the Porsche Carrera GT. This particular car happens to be driven by internet car personality and Cars & Bids founder Doug DeMuro. Wading into internet drama isn’t normally what we do here, but it’s worth dipping a toe to talk about how we all can be better gearheads.
The video in question is posted on an Instagram account called “sdcarspottings” and is a POV shot of DeMuro’s Porsche weaving through fairly dense highway traffic, crossing over into the HOV lane and generally driving, frankly, like a jerk. He’s not alone as a BMW M3 is hot on his tail most of the time, and then a Tesla Model S joins the fray after the Porsche cuts it off. Let’s not forget that the car shooting the video is doing the same. So what happened?
First off, DeMuro’s car was quickly IDed, as the prolific YouTuber with a massive following recently posted a video about its purchase. It didn’t take the internet long to sleuth that Doug was indeed behind the wheel. This is later tacitly admitted to by DeMuro in the video’s comment section.
“This video is such a great example of what happens every single time I drive my sports cars — I get followed insanely closely by people (that BMW) who won’t leave me alone and want to race or ‘hang with’ a Carrera GT,” he says in a post.
His view suggests that the M3 driver instigated proceedings by being overly aggressive and trying to goad him into some horseplay.
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Subtlety is out the window with this big-nosed M-division brawlerWe get it, it’s a very special car. The Carrera GT is a limited-run, rear-wheel drive roadster powered by a massive mid-mounted V10 engine. It whips up 603 horsepower and runs it through a six-speed manual transmission. This rarity from the early aughts is one of the most coveted sports cars of all time, so it’s easy to see how the sight of it would send an enthusiast into a tizzy.
That frothy excitement doesn’t justify lousy behavior on public roads, however. Antagonizing another driver in a car you like is, at best, plain rude. Worst is chasing them through bystanders, putting people at risk for an undeserved sense of self-satisfaction or social media hits. It’s dangerous for sure, but also? It’s lame. It’s embarrassing.
The overall recklessness on display here is difficult to ignore. We can’t presume to know what was going through DeMuro’s mind at the time, if he felt threatened or if he just buckled to the Bimmer’s pressure. We can relate to that in part, too. We drive a bunch of cool cars ourselves, and we also get our fair share of lookie-loos when we’re out reviewing cars. What’s for sure is that taking off in that way DeMuro did to “shake them” is more likely to cause an issue rather than diffuse one.
Like it or not, as an auto enthusiast community, we’re in this together. The reckless ones threaten our enjoyment of fun cars, and that’s putting aside the very real loss of life this kind of behavior frequently leads to. Lots of people are very much opposed to allowing sporty cars like the ones in the video on the street, and after watching it, it’s hard to blame them. We should enjoy our cars, so long as we do so responsibly. Have fun, read the room, don’t be a jerk.
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