Life and death of a « streedrifter », interest and danger of the Youngtimers

Good evening,

Sensitive subject, sad subject, fascinating subject.

Giorgi Tevzadze was a Georgian citizen, born in 1987 and died in 2013. Died young and fast.
His passion in life was his BMW M5 E34, propulsion, 340 ponies, incredibly gorgeous, especially the purple version of Giorgi’s model.

In order to quench his piloting thirst, Giorgi used to drift wildly in the streets of Tbilissi, the Georgian capital. He filmed himself, and the danger posed on the other users as well as the epic images that he bequeathed to the internet make the result incredible.

It’s one of the few videos on which we can see a reckless driving usually practised by either armed robber or GTA players.

The videos are so crazy that I first thought it was a very realistic fake.

• These scenes remind me of the excellent American/British Krankenheimer’s crime movie « Ronin », where Bob De Niro and Jean Reno, two idle beards grapple with another team of mercenaries for the possession of a suitcase.

« Ronin » has remained famous for two special «youngtimer» chases, brilliantly shot by Frankenheimer. The first one shows a Citroën XM, a Peugeot 605, an Audi S8 and the mythic Mercedes 450SL 6.9. Specialists will notice this chase opposes two hydropneumatic cars, the Mercedes 450SEL and the Citroën XM (there are actually two different XM in the scene, a phase 1 and a phase 2). The second chase on the Parisian ring-road, even more spectacular (and crazy), opposes a Peugeot 406 V6 and a BMW M5 E35 very much like Giorgi’s…

What we see is that Youngtimers give us a thrill and a lot of fun, with an almost contemporary equipment. Their only problem is the active safety, and above all their crashworthiness:

they are very fragile.

I’ll come back to this later in the review about my late Citroën XM V6 «All Black».

Returning to Giorgi, he made it like in cinema, but for real. His control of the skid was obvious, but it only stole the spotlight from his anticipation on the brakings.

• He always succeded in being in the right place at the right time, without collision. Incredible.

• But unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and Giorgi’s end was tragic.

He let a friend of his, who did’t possess the same piloting skills, drive his M5 E34. He lost control of the vehicle and then crashed into a tree. Giorgi was riding shotgun, he left us.

This is very ironic. Despite all his risk-taking, Giorgi died the only day he wasn’t the one who had his hands on the steering wheel. Just like Paul Walker, the « Fast and Furious » pretty face, who died on the day he let his friend drive…

Some individuals rejoiced in the death of Giorgi on youtube or on automobile forums. He certainly deserved to get his licence withdrawn, make a little jail time, have his car confiscated for a few years to make him calm down and respect others, but definitely not to die so young, especially as a passenger.
The man who died was talented and brave, a rare combination of qualities. RIP Giorgi.

To conclude on a positive note, the lovely Giorgi’s wife gave birth to their son since.

Be safe.
Malik.

The last project of Giorgi, with an E55 Amg. I will come back on the W211 in a future review on the E500.