Porsche 911 Engine Ripped Out In Bizarre California Crash

There are few things more enjoyable in this life than getting out for a rip down a good piece of road, but scenes like this bizarre crash involving two Porsche 911s are a reminder to always exercise a bit of caution.

The incident appears to have taken place on the Angeles Forest Highway, one of the many mountain roads that wiggle through the hills immediately north of Los Angeles. These are always popular roads with performance car owners, aptly demonstrated by the two machines involved here. Both are 991-generation 911s, one a Carrera and the other a more hardcore GT3 RS.

Per a statement made to Road & Track by the California Highway Patrol, the incident was caused when one of the cars – presumably the silver Carrera – made an unsafe turn in the road. It looks like the GT3 RS hit the Carrera’s rear, destroying the white car’s nose and ripping off one of its wheels.

The Carrera, meanwhile, has arguably come off even worse – its entire flat-six engine was ripped free from its rear, and ended up lying on the road, several feet away from the car.

The CHP’s statement confirms that although both drivers felt pretty sore after the smash, neither needed transporting away from the scene for medical attention, so it looks like they got off fairly lightly. Both cars only had one occupant, and it’s not clear if they were travelling together, or if it’s just pure coincidence that both cars involved were 911s.

The images of the aftermath give us a bizarrely gruesome look into the inner workings of the Carrera, its gearbox housing now fully exposed for all to see. Whether either car is repairable remains to be seen, but it’s probably a bigger job for the Carrera. It’s a particularly cruel twist that the rear-engined 911 is one of only a few cars that could suffer such a strange fate when being hit in the rear.