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Paul Walker's daughter files wrongful death suit against Porsche [UPDATE]

UPDATE: This post has been edited to include a statement from Porsche. While police blamed the crash that killed Fast and Furious star Paul Walker and racecar driver Roger Rodas on excessive speed, Walker's daughter, Meadow, thinks Porsche is at fault. The 16-year-old has now filed a wrongful death suit against the German manufacturer to back up that allegation. According to legal documents obtained by E! Online, the suit alleges that the Carrera GT that Walker and Rodas died in "lacked safety features ... that could have prevented the accident or, at a minimum, allowed Paul Walker to survive the crash," with Porsche Stability Management being called out in particular. Federal motor vehicle safety standards didn't require new cars sold in the US to be equipped with electronic stability control until 2012. The suit focuses not only on the Carrera GT's lack of electronic safety systems and "history of instability and control issues," but on an allegedly defective seatbelt. It claims that upon impact, the belt "snapped Walker's torso back with thousands of pounds of force, thereby breaking his ribs and pelvis," and prevented him from exiting the car before it caught fire, roughly a minute and 20 seconds after the initial impact, according to TMZ. Soot found in Walker's windpipe supports the theory that he was alive and breathing when the fire started, the suit continues. Like the suit Roger Rodas' widow filed against Porsche in 2014, Walker's filing also alleges that the Carrera GT wasn't traveling at 80 to 93 miles per hour, as a police investigation concluded. But where Mrs. Rodas claimed the Carrera GT was going 55 at the time of the crash, this suit claims the hypercar was moving at 63 to 71 mph. That's a more manageable figure to be sure, and if true would have a serious impact on the way the car behaved, but it's still well above the road's posted 45-mph speed limit. "The bottom line is that the Porsche Carrera GT is a dangerous car," Meadow Walker's lawyer told TMZ. "It doesn't belong on the street. And we shouldn't be without Paul Walker or his friend, Roger Rodas." Porsche, meanwhile, has stood by the reports from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other authorities.

The Volkswagen Group switches official language to English

The Volkswagen Group can't be fairly thought of as entirely German anymore, so the news that the company is switching its official language to English to help attract managers and executives is a rational, if surprising, decision. While many VW Group companies are still staidly German in character and culture, consider the other companies that it controls: Bentley (British), Bugatti (French), Ducati and Lamborghini (Italian), Skoda (Czech), Scania trucks (Swedish), and SEAT (Spanish). Not to mention the large Volkswagen Group of America operation, which constructs cars in Chattanooga, TN. Volkswagen's explicit motivation is to improve management recruitment – making sure the company isn't losing out on candidates for important positions because they can't speak German – and that's inherently sensible in a globalized economy. Particularly considering, like it or lump it, that English is the lingua franca of said global economy. It also should make it inherently easier to communicate between its world-wide subsidiaries and coordinate operations. It's hard to say for sure if this will have any impact on the consumer, although it's easy to see the benefits if, say, VW Group hires some American product planners or engineers and they push for features and designs that more closely suit American needs. After all, the US is a hugely important market for any manufacturer, and so the switch to English almost certainly has something to do with the outsized influence of the US in the global economy. And there doesn't seem to be a downside from a purely rational perspective, although it could mean that the Group's corporate culture becomes less German. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective. Related Video: Image Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Audi Bentley Bugatti Porsche Volkswagen SEAT Skoda

'Born of a Blue Sky' brings the Amelia Island Concours to you

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance has more clout every year and is getting a reputation as Pebble Beach minus the madness. Held in March this year, it celebrated Ducati and the 50-year anniversaries of Lamborghini, the Corvette Sting Ray, Porsche 911 and the Ford GT40.
Justin Lapriore was there, and seemingly everywhere, getting footage of the various wares on display on the lawns and the sand and the runway. The resulting video, Born of a Blue Sky, is a 16-minute survey of some of the finer sights and plenty of engine sounds. Check it out below.