Insane: BMW M4 Hits a Rock and Goes Airborne!

By Zachary Mayne - February 19, 2020

BMW M4 sails through the air at high speed, in the process reaffirming how safe the Ultimate Driving Machine is.

Roundabouts (aka traffic circles) can be confusing. Do you just drive right into it? How do you merge with other drivers? Who has the right of way? In the case of one BMW driver/pilot in California, you can just sail right over it. At an extremely high rate of speed.

Jonathan Lloyd and Mekahlo Medina have the scoop for NBC Los Angeles about the whole thing. YouTube channel Onscene TV has security camera footage of the moment. The speeding BMW enters the screen at a pretty good clip. Judging from the video the BMW looks like it could easily have been going 100 mph, maybe even faster. A large boulder in the traffic circle acts a ramp, launching the car high in the air. When it comes back down to terra firma it takes out an innocent Camaro before striking a Mazda. Including the BMW, a total of five vehicles were damaged during the accident.

Angel Ruiz owns both the Camaro and the security cameras that captured the incident. Apparently Ruiz installed them after a fugitive from another accident in the same spot tried to hide from the police in Ruiz’s front yard. “It was a big explosion,” Ruiz told NBC Los Angels when they interviewed him after the BMW crash. “I ran immediately to see if the person was okay. I saw the damage right after. Man, it’s really bad. It was mostly the impact from the boulder.” The boulder that the BMW struck slammed into Ruiz’s Camaro. The Camaro, in turn, was pushed into the car parked in front of it.

Based on the video footage, the BMW in question appears to be an M4 in beautiful Yas Marina Blue. Though we don’t know the exact year of this M4, the 2020 M4 has an MSRP that starts at $69,150. And it’s not slow. The twin-turbo, 3.0-liter inline-6 under that bulging hood pumps out 425 horsepower and 406 lb/ft of torque. That’s enough to get the M4 to sixty in under four seconds. And apparently able to launch it into the air given a boulder and enough speed.

Perhaps what is so amazing about the accident is that there were no serious injuries to either the driver or any bystanders. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the poor BMW. It appears that the sports coupe is a total write-off after its high-speed impersonation of a light aircraft. Bystanders reported that the 27-year-old female driver of the BMW was in shock and confused after the accident. The police took her into custody on suspicion of being under the influence. But seriously folks. Fast cars and alcohol are definitely never a good mixture.