This is one of those things that you could happen, but you really hope it doesn’t because it would be an embarrassment to anyone involved. It looks like the odds have cashed in since the 2016 Chevy Camaro was tragically crashed during a press drive just last month. The journalist who was driving is thankfully fine, but Chevy and GM were not happy about the whole incident.
The driver was none other than Patrick George of Jalopnik fame. In his article detailing the ordeal, he explains what happened. Surprisingly, he places no blame on the car, but what exactly happened, and what did GM do when they found out? Let’s find out!
Image Credit: Jalopnik/GM
The Full Story: From Invite to Crash
Patrick opens his full article on the ordeal without any pomp or circumstance:
“The story I’m about to tell you isn’t the story I wanted to tell you. It’s about the 2016 Camaro, but it’s not the story most other journalists got. That’s because during Sunday’s press drive at Belle Isle State Park in Detroit, I crashed a Camaro mule on the track and put it out of commission.”
He also mentions that from the get-go, GM was very excited about him driving the new model. After all, the 2016 Camaro is quite the beast on the road. General motors flew him out to Detroit, set him up in a room, and paid for all of his expenses.
A good start to be sure, but the pressure was on. This press drive was only a day after Chevrolet unveiled the new Camaro in front of a massive audience. The Belle Isle track was set up with pre-production test mule cars that were covered in camouflage. This cars were built with V6 engines.
Patrick was clearly nervous from the get-go:
“Belle Isle is a tricky street course. There’s a lack of real runoff areas, so if you go off course, you’re probably going into a wall. This was the first time I had ever driven there, too, so I wasn’t familiar with the layout, but I did a lap in a fifth-generation Camaro without any trouble. After that, we got behind the wheel of the new V6 Camaro mules.”
Without any knowledge of the track, or of the new car, he was putting himself in a tough spot. These cars weren’t given the 455 horsepower V8 engines or the 270 horsepower 2.0-liter turbo fours, but Patrick was still excited about the opportunity to drive an actual mule car with the iconic camouflage.
Patrick has had plenty of experience with driving cars before, and he even mentions his Cadillac ATS-V run around the Circuit of the Americas as proof of his experience. With his job bringing him to tracks all the time, and exotic cars under his belt, this shouldn’t have been an issue.
The crash came when he was driving as the second car in a mule train with the lead driver in a Z/28. He turns one corner going too fast and brakes too late. This creates a horrific under-steer that sent him into a wall. Of course, these things happen so quickly, it’s hard to truly say what happened:
“I think that’s what happened, at least. It happened very quickly, and adrenaline has a way of mucking with your memory. I probably wasn’t as focused as I could have been — especially on an unforgiving and unfamiliar track — while trying to talk and record my driving impressions into a GoPro at the time. I don’t know how Chris Harris and the Top Gear guys do it. It’s harder than it looks.”
When the crash happened, the front left tire hit a wall of tires and bounced off. In the process, the rear view mirror was knocked off and the wheel itself was scraped. Some of the outer bodywork was also damaged and dug into the tire. All in all, the car wasn’t totaled, but had it been a street car it would have come with a fairly high repair bill.
Patrick admits that he doesn’t know what caused the crash. He places the blame squarely on himself:
“The car may have been a mule, but as far as I can tell the crash was my fault as a driver and mine alone. I can’t lay blame on the vehicle and I won’t be that egotistical jackass who comes up with hare-brained mechanical excuses for his screw-ups. (In fact, I don’t even know if the tire pressure was measured with digital or analog gauges.)
I guess the good news is I’m fine. I was unhurt except for my pride and my reputation. My passenger and videographer Mark Arnold was okay as well, thankfully. But I feel really horrible about trashing one of GM’s cars, especially a development mule. It wasn’t how I wanted the day to go at all.”
As you can probably imagine, the entire ordeal is incredibly humiliating, but that’s odd is that Patrick himself was kicked out of the event entirely. Normally in a situation like this, the journalist is given a new car or is told to wait on the sidelines.
The answer comes in the form of an article that Patrick George published prior to the unveiling of the new 2016 Chevy Camaro. Like any good journalist, he followed the lead, but GM was clearly angry at him from the get-go, which is most likely why he was removed after the incident.
It’s certainly a tough situation for Patrick, and while it’s understandable that GM would be displeased at the events that occurred, it wasn’t Patrick who leaked the memo so he shouldn’t be punished for writing about it. Even so, all of this result in more press for the 2016 Chevy Camaro, and I think that’s ultimately a win for the new model.
