Orange Crushed: Farenheit Edition GTI Gets 'Ented' as Windstorm Sweeps Midwest
If you live in the Upper Midwest or in southern Ontario, this won’t come as news to you: one of the worst windstorms in the region’s history swept through on Wednesday. Wind gusts of up to 68 miles per hour were recorded in the Detroit area. In southeastern Michigan alone, over 800,000 households and businesses were without electrical power after winds tore down trees and utility lines.
Fortunately for Lincoln Russell, who lives in Detroit’s Westbridge neighborhood, he was in Montreal when the storm blew through town. Unfortunately for Mr. Russell, he also left his dearly beloved 2007 Fahrenheit Edition Volkswagen GTI parked on the street back home. Shortly after noon, the high winds apparently encouraged a large tree with a trunk about three feet in diameter to make like one of Tolkein’s Ents and try to cross the street. Unlike Middle Earth’s traveling topiary, Detroit’s trees are not supernatural and this one came tumbling down, crushing Russell’s GTI and nearly knocking down a utility pole in the process.
The metallic orange VW was Russell’s dream car. His roommate told the Detroit News that a year ago Russell traveled all the way to New Jersey to buy it. Volkswagen sold just 1,200 of them in 2007. In addition to the unique paint, the special edition came with “Fahrenheit” badging, a unique vehicle number displayed on the steering wheel, “European sport-tuned suspension, 18-inch alloy wheels, Fahrenheit orange interior accent trim, and Fahrenheit orange contrasting stitching on the floor mats, shifter boot, brake handle and steering wheel.”
The car is now completely destroyed.
Russell’s roommate, Brian Ambrozy, had the sad duty of telling his friend of the GTI’s demise. Then, since this is 2017, Ambrozy posted photos on his Twitter account, asking, “If a tree falls in #Detroit and there’s no one to answer any phones, did it really happen?” There’s no word yet on Russell’s reaction. I hope he had comprehensive coverage on his auto insurance, but it is a 10-year-old car…
Maybe someone could set up a GoFundMe page to help Mr. Russell replace his dream car. CarGurus.com shows about a half dozen orange Farenheit GTIs for sale between five and ten thousand dollars.
[Image source: Brian Ambrozy/Twitter]
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.
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That's not how you do wood grain paneling, too bad it was the Fahrenheit edition, if it had been the Celsius edition there would have been -32*5/9 as much damage? Seriously, at least he wasn't in it. Cars can be replaced. We were pretty lucky that a large branch falling from our maple landed just right and missed both our vehicles and our neighbors car. The the pool cover was trying to escape so my son weighed down the edge with 8 summer wheels, so it stayed put. Good car guy solution.
Ouch!! It shall never bestow its orange glow when one's feeling low. Instead, it needs a tow, and onward, it shall go.