Paul Walker and Roger Rodas lost their lives in a red Porsche Carrera GT, nearly identical to the one pictured here, during a fiery accident on November 30.  The Porsche Carrera GT involved in the horrific accident that claimed the lives of Hollywood actor Paul Walker, along with his friend Roger Rodas, was not too fast, or too furious, to be driven safely on public roads.  Following the accident, speculation has been rife that this 605-horsepower Porsche supercar was too tricky to drive by anyone other than an experienced racing professional.  RELATED: PAUL WALKER DEAD AT 40: VIDEO CAPTURES ‘FAST & FURIOUS’ STAR’S FATAL CAR CRASH  That’s ignoring the fact that both Walker and Rodas had plenty of seat-time in high performance street cars and racecars.  It’s also side-stepping the fact that the Carrera GT was originally equipped with front and side airbags, reinforced roll-bars, strong brakes, and a rigid chassis built from carbon-fiber and reinforced by steel and aluminum.  PHOTOS: SEE HOW IT'S CHANGED: THE PORSCHE 911 TURBO TURNS 40  “We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” Nick Twork, Porsche’s manager for product communications, told the News. “We will fully cooperate with the authorities if they contact us as part of their ongoing investigation.”  Released in 2004, the Carrera GT originally cost approximately $450,000 per copy, and owed a lot of its design and engineering to Porsche’s long history of motorsport competition. The chassis and suspension were developed in the Porsche GT1 racecar, which won the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1998.  RELATED: PAUL WALKER DEAD AT 40 AFTER FIERY CRASH  That racing expertise helped create the Carrera GT, one of the world’s fastest cars that, to get the most out of it, undeniably required a certain degree of skill and fortitude.  If anything, a car of the Carrera GT’s caliber should withstand a serious accident as well as, if not better than, a modern vehicle with a fraction of the Porsche’s performance.  RELATED: PORSCHE’S 887-HORSEPOWER AND 94-MPG PLUG-IN HYBRID SUPERCAR IS HEADED TO FRANKFURT  Like the GT1, and Formula One racecars, the Porsche’s 5.7-liter V-10 engine is mounted behind the passenger compartment, to provide better handling and traction. The Carrera GT sends all of its 605-hp to the rear wheels, via a 6-speed manual transmission.  There was no stability control, a safety feature now fitted as standard equipment on nearly every new car and truck. Yet the Carrera GT was targeting hardcore enthusiasts, who preferred less electronic interference when driving the car at the edge of its performance envelope.  RELATED: PAUL WALKER CAR CRASH NOT DUE TO DRAG RACING: SOURCES  Many sports cars and supercars around the world – such as the 1992-2010 Dodge Viper, which lacked stability control, traction control, and even ABS brakes – have taken this ‘purist’ approach. This makes a car trickier to handle at the absolute limit, though it doesn’t mean a vehicle is unsafe or unsuitable for road use.  The Carrera GT had powerful aerodynamic aids to help keep it pinned to the ground. These features include a smooth underbody with airflow ducts, a rear diffuser, and a large retractable rear spoiler.  RELATED: 2014 PORSCHE PANAMERA TURBO S IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST SEDANS  Built to be extremely rigid and lightweight, the Carrera GT’s carbon-fiber chassis weighs only 220 lbs. Porsche used steel reinforcements for the car’s windshield, along with steel and aluminum crash absorbing structures at the front and rear of the car. Steel tubing was also used to reinforce the doors.  The fuel tank was centrally located, in a special aluminum drawer in the chassis located between the passenger compartment and the rear engine bay. This central location is used in many racecars, since it helps shield the tank from severe frontal or rear impacts.  RELATED: AUTOPSY FOR PAUL WALKER UNDERWAY  Porsche ended production of the Carrera GT in late 2005, due partly to new airbag regulations that were due to take effect in the U.S. These new “smart” airbags could sense the weight and location of an occupant, and vary the strength and size of their inflation based on these measurements.  With a limited-production supercar, it didn’t make sense for Porsche to re-engineer the Carrera GT – especially as the automaker had already sold close to the original projection of 1,500 units.  It’s hard to imagine in this instance, given the obvious severity of the collision, that any form of smart airbag would have made a difference.  We might never know for certain all the events that caused this terrible accident. But speculation that the car involved was inherently unsafe, or not suitable for roads, is completely baseless and inaccurate.  On mobile? Click here for video
Paul Walker’s Porsche Carrera GT had a racecar-strong chassis and incredibly powerful brakes to match its 205-mph top speed.