Supercars are meant to withstand many things: hard lateral g-forces, high tire temperatures, high RPMs, hard braking, and more. Ironically, the one weakness that they all seem to have is water. Water gives and sustains life. Yet, just a small amount of it in the wrong place can mean instant death for a supercar or many other types of cars as well.

The fix is relatively straightforward: keep cars away from water. Though, as simple as that seems, it is not always possible. Rob Ferretti of Gotham Dream Cars, unfortunately, found that out the hard way. Hurricane Ida was not kind to him, his business, or the valuable supercars housed at his facility.

Rob Ferretti’s business is all about supercars

If the name Rob Ferretti sounds familiar to you, that might be because you have come across his very popular YouTube channel, “superspeedersRob.” Rob started his YouTube channel about 14 years ago, and in the beginning, he uploaded street racing videos that featured run-ins with local law enforcement.

Over time, Rob’s channel evolved to featuring supercars that he owns or are owned by close friends of his. Eventually, Rob began to let his viewers get an inside look at his business, Gotham Dream Cars, an exotic car rental service based in New York. His car rental service became the main focus of his channel as he created videos detailing the ins and outs of running such an uncommon business. 

Some of his videos would focus on supercar maintenance; others featured horror stories of customers damaging his cars and employing some scam to get away with it. That type of content has earned Ferretti nearly 800,000 subscribers.

Hurricane Ida strikes Gotham Dream Cars warehouse

Anyone following the news in the last few weeks is probably well aware of Hurricane Ida and its damage to the east coast. The hurricane had grown to a category four before it hit land on the east coast of the United States. The hurricane caused incalculable damage to homes, buildings, and businesses.

Unfortunately for Rob, Gotham Dream Cars was one of those victims. In a recent video, Rob describes the situation as sudden and completely unexpected. We are speculating that perhaps local weather forecasts in his area could not entirely predict the enormity of the storm. As such, Rob did not have the chance to prepare as thoroughly as he might have if he had more of a warning.

Surveying the damaged supercars

As a result, one of his warehouses which was home to several of his supercars and other business-related property, and documents became flooded. He watched it all unfold on the live feed of his security cameras installed in the building. “You just have to sit and watch,” Rob said as he cut to a clip of the water rushing into his warehouse.

Ferretti estimated that at its worse, there was 11 inches of standing water in the warehouse. Since supercars are generally low to the ground, that meant several saw their cabins filled with water. An Alfa Romeo 4C was among the damaged cars shown in the video. After opening the door, there seemed to be a few inches of water in the footwell of the Alfa. 

An Acura NSX, Toyota Supra, Ferrari 360 Modena Spider, and Porsche 911 GT3 RS were also damaged. All of the cars suffered flooded floors. In some of the vehicles, the water caused electrical damage. For example, the Ferrari would not start as the water damaged the security system’s immobilizer mechanism. 

At this point, Rob will have to discuss everything with his insurance company, and they may or may not decide to total some of the damaged vehicles. In the end, it appears that it will all result in a very stressful situation for Ferretti. Fortunately, Ferretti nor any of his employees or family were harmed. Cars can be replaced, but people can’t. If nothing else, this serves as a reminder to everyone of how important insurance can be.