No matter the car, no matter the horsepower count, the combination of rear-wheel-drive and wet pavement is always ready and willing to claim another victim. Take these two Massachusetts bros in a new-to-them BMW Z4, for example. Even if you believe in the multiverse, there’s no world where their inaugural drive on a rainy day ends in anything but a stupid crash.
Debuting back in 2002 as a replacement for the oft-maligned Z3, the original BMW Z4 roadster was never quite a barnburner either. With 189 or 228 horsepower on tap depending on the engine, it was more designed as a casual canyon cruiser than a tire-slaying speed demon. Most of the time.
But that’s not to say it can’t bite, as these two Boston-area, self-identified bros found out recently. According to the video description, the man behind the wheel had just bought the doomed Z4—given that it’s a pre-facelift model hailing from before 2006 and already sports a cracked windshield, safe to say it wasn’t from a BMW dealership—and was taking it out for a celebratory drive when the “accident” occurred.
We put that word in quotes because as you’ll see, redlining the engine in first gear on a wet, residential street and losing control when shifting to second hardly counts as a whoopsie. It’s hard to say what’s more amusing after the driver embeds the Z4 into a low brick wall in front of a house: The look of utter disbelief on his face, or the way his friend in the passenger seat keeps filming the scene and repeating variations on “Oh s***t. Oh my God. Oh my f***ing lo-ohd bro. What are we gonna do?”
Well for starters, try knocking on the door of the house whose front yard you just demolished and letting them know. Then, maybe don’t post the video online and give the insurance company an ironclad reason to deny your claim? Oh, wait.
Getting in a new (or new-to-you) sports car and blasting off for that first drive can be an exhilarating experience, that we all know. But as we’ve seen time and time again, it can also be incredibly expensive if you don’t quite know what you’re doing yet.