1997 Toyota Supra Mangled After Mechanic's Wild Crash

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

1997 toyota supra mangled after mechanic s wild crash

The fourth-generation Toyota Supra became the face of tuner culture after a certain wildly famous car movie made it look untouchable on the streets. That popularity has led to a monstrous increase in prices for the cars, and as one Colorado mechanic shop just found out, crashing one that doesn’t belong to you can come with equally monstrous consequences.


A video posted to Facebook shows the incident, in which a shop tech got too enthusiastic with the throttle and lost control of the car. He can’t get a handle on the car and ends up plowing through a roadside barrier. The video doesn’t capture much of the crash, but we see a flash of the mangled car as the filming car passes.


The Drive reported on the story and reached out to the Englewood Police Department, which told the publication that the driver was not the car's owner. Police also confirmed that he was taken to a local hospital after the rollover crash, but the person filming told The Drive that the driver was fine.


Trey Grube, the person filming the crash, said that the driver had followed traffic laws before the crash. Given the temperatures in Englewood earlier this week, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that the tires were inappropriate for the weather or that they hadn’t been warmed up properly beforehand.


Either way, the Supra’s owner may pursue legal action against the shop, depending on how the after-crash discussion went. Clean turbocharged Supras from that era are routinely listed with six-figure price tags, so it’ll be up to the shop’s insurance (or lack thereof) to make the owner whole.

[Image: Screenshot from 1320 Video via Facebook]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 18 comments
  • Renewingmind Renewingmind on Jan 12, 2023

    “Hold Harmless” doesn’t apply to gross negligence. No contract language protects someone from wildly negligent behavior. The shops insurance will go after the tech for the payout, which he won’t have, but there ya go.

  • Zerofoo Zerofoo on Jan 12, 2023

    I suspect each parties' lawyers will make a buck and the owner of this now smashed vehicle will get coupons for free oil changes.

  • FreedMike I'm going to rebadge my Jetta as an Audi and drink in the profits.
  • Kwik_Shift Looks HyunKia-ish.
  • MrIcky Seems like TTAC writers really want a ford sedan. I remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the fusion went away. It's not an interesting car except to journos and just not what the general population requires. Time to let go.
  • MrIcky Seems like a Mustang for Mustang fans to talk about with other Mustang fans. I just went to the Corvette configutor and built a 2LT Z51 for 79,540, a base 1LT is $65k. Both are arguably nicer, and certainly better performers than this. If a Mustang is going to play in that bracket it has to do something different to beef up the emotional appeal. The supercharger did that, the flat plane crank that revved to >8k (if they worked out the bugs) does that. A 'regular' Mustang V8 with some parts out of the Ford Catalogue doesn't seem to be worth the >60k range.
  • Kcflyer For anywhere over 60k I'm buying a C8 which will run rings around any mustang ever made. I'm a huge mustang fan but......sorry. Now show me a GT with the "good" manual discounted to 40 grand and we can talk.
Next