Iran Leader Criticises Rich Kids After Deadly Car Crashes
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticised fast-driving wealthy youngsters Sunday for creating "psychological insecurity" on the streets after two high-speed accidents killed five people. Addressing an audience of police chiefs, Khamenei said officers needed plans to deal with drivers who speed, and suggested such fatalities were a product of privilege and disregard for others. Khamenei added, though he did not specifically mention either of the well-publicised crashes in Tehran in the past week. In the first deadly incident in the early hours of Tuesday, a one-time national racing champion, Hamid Reza Kamali, and two of his friends died at high speed in a BMW, media reported. State television showed traffic camera footage of the crash involving Kamali and three passengers -- none of whom was thought to be wearing a seat belt. The video showed at least one person being thrown out of the convertible when it smashed into another car and then hit the central reservation. The car was thought to be travelling at around 200 kilometres per hour (125 mph). The smash also injured three people, including two from the other car.
A close friend of Kamali's told the daily newspaper Jamejam that he had seen the former racer before the accident and that he had not been "not under the influence". Citing Kamali's expertise as a driver and the suddenness of the incident, he said the car must have suffered a technical fault. A second deadly crash, also early Tuesday, saw a young girl killed when she lost control of a Porsche Boxster sports car and smashed into trees lining Shariati Avenue in northern Tehran. The car's owner, a young man who was in the passenger seat at the time, later died in hospital from his injuries. The car had been going so fast -- also at around 125 mph -- that it only stopped 500 metres (yards) after the first impact, according to a Fire Department official. Despite having a good road network, Iran has a poor safety record with almost 20,000 deaths a year, predominantly caused by drivers who ignore basic rules and conduct. Recent years have also seen the appearance in major cities, especially in Tehran, of expensive and powerful foreign-made luxury cars imported at high cost by wealthy Iranians.
A curious Porsche 718 Cayman prototype has been snapped during testing and according to some, it may be an early tester for a Cayman GT4 Touring. First, an explainer. If you鈥檙e an avid reader of Carscoops, you may recognize these spy shots. The Cayman and Boxster T models premiered back in December but were mysteriously missing some of the features of this prototype. This could be because the prototype isn鈥檛 a Cayman T at all but instead a previously unseen version. The most striking thing about the Cayman prototype in the gallery below is that it has the same exhaust layout as the incoming Cayman GT4 which is allegedly bound for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. As the exhausts are the same, there鈥檚 a chance that the engine may be the same. If that鈥檚 the case, the prototype we鈥檙e looking at is outfitted with a naturally-aspirated 3.8-liter flat-six engine pumping out approximately 420 hp. The 鈥榬egular鈥?Cayman GT4 has been spied with aggressive bodywork and a large wing and there鈥檚 a chance Porsche is developing this new 718 as a slightly softer version of the GT4 dubbed the 鈥楾ouring鈥? Porsche decided to go down this route not too long ago with the launch of the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring. This model features largely identical mechanical parts to the normal GT3 but has a more restrained appearance. If Porsche is doing the same with the Cayman GT4, it will want to replicate the sales success of the GT3 Touring. One other theory about this Porsche 718 Cayman test car is that it could be a future six-cylinder version designed to slot between the GTS and GT4. A Spyder variant would likely be sold as well.
With the Porsche 911 becoming less friendly to the scales, there's more room for the lighter mid-engined offerings in Zuffenhausen's sportscar lineup. And it looks like the German automaker is preparing to make full use of that showroom space, as the 718 Cayman and Boxster have been spied testing with flat-six hearts. And no, we're not talking about the imminent 718 Cayman GT4 and the 718 Boxster Spyder. While the GT4 and the Spyder have been spied in production trim, with their debut expected to take place this Spring, the mid-engined machines we're talking about are rumored to be something else. Unlike the uber-specials mentioned above, these prototypes don't feature custom bodywork, borrowing the front fascia of the standard models' Sport Design Package, which, by the way, comes standard on the GTS. We've shown you a spyshot gallery portraying these six-cylinder toys (our shooters have confirmed the soundtrack) earlier this month. And we are now back on the topic to introduce a fresh batch of spyshots portraying the 718 Boxster tests car in isolation. A fifth derivative slotted in between the GTS and the GT4/Spyder would make sense for multiple reasons. For one thing, 718 sales dropped last year, even though 2018 saw overall Porsche sales going up. And it's no secret that the turbocharged four-cylinder engines are not exactly a hit.