Unless you've been living under the proverbial rock for the past two years, you're probably aware that Paul Walker, the actor best known for playing Brian O'Connor in the "Fast And The Furious" franchise, tragically died in an accident in Nov. 2013. At the time of the crash, he was riding with his close friend, Roger Rodas, a highly skilled driver, in Rodas' red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT - a 600hp V10 powered mid-engined monster that has a notorious reputation for being rather tricky to drive. Recently, Walker's 16-year-old daughter, Meadow, filed a wrongful death claim against Porsche, stating that the Carrera GT had several design flaws, such as the lack of a stability control system, poor side-door reinforcement, and defective rubber fuel lines.

Now you all know I'm a car guy, plain and simple. My belief is that a car is just fast or powerful enough when you're a little bit scared to drive it. In the case of the devilish Porsche Carrera GT, that fits the bill perfectly. But this isn't about my opinion; this is about the facts at hand that have so blatantly been ignored by all prosecuting parties in what I see as an attempt to take advantage of Volkswagen's (parent company of Porsche) vulnerable position given recent events surrounding worldwide emissions-test cheating on their diesel cars.

First and foremost, it has been stated by both the coroner and law enforcement individuals involved with the original investigation of the crash that Rodas and Walker were traveling between 80 and 93 mph, nearly double the posted speed limit of 45 mph. Operator negligence (excessive speed) was ruled the primary cause of the accident in the first place, so before we even move forward, the case on the accident was closed already.

But, there are claims that the car didn't come with a stability control system, which are implemented on all of Porsche's other cars. Now this is true - the Carrera GT does not have a stability control system - but to understand why, a brief history of this car must be understood.

The engine is a 5.7 litre V10 unit that produces 612 horsepower. This engine was originally developed for a Formula 1 car in 1992, but was shelved until Porsche decided to use it for a new Le Mans prototype race car. Porsche cancelled the Le Mans project in 1999 for various reasons, so a race engine sat in storage until they could find a better use for it. When they revealed a concept of the Carrera GT at the 2000 Paris Motor Show, there was surprising interest in the car, and Porsche decided to build it, shoving the V10 in the back.

To showcase Porsche's racing heritage, the car's safety cell and subframe were both constructed from carbon fibre, a lightweight, incredibly strong material used in race cars and high-end road cars to keep occupants safe in a crash. As a result, the body panels were made as light as possible to keep overall weight down and performance up. This is where the under-reinforced door issue comes in.

The claim is that the doors lacked proper reinforcement, with the statement alleging "the vehicle lacked safety features that are found on well-designed racing cars or even Porsche's least expensive road cars," and that there were "side door reinforcement bars that lacked adequate welds and consisted of material weaker strength than what is used in popular mass-market cars ... designed and built to be operated at speeds much slower than the Carrera GT."

These claims are completely false. This car, while essentially a race car, passed safety standards and regulations, and has all of the safety aspects of a proper race car as well (such as a carbon fiber safety cell), hence the reason for the doors having thinner materials reinforcing them. In fact, by being thinner and lighter, they were designed to be operated at high speed, and the car was never intended to be a mass-market car; only 1270 were produced. The claim that the fuel lines were defective is absurd, as the car never would've passed safety standards with an obvious defect such as that. Lastly, the debate over whether or not the lack of stability control was a design defect flies completely out the window because the motion for stability control to be federally mandated for all vehicles only began in 2006, with the final ruling coming several years later. Thus, the Porsche Carrera GT was not required by law to be equipped with a stability control system at the time of its design or its production.

Now I'm not saying that Meadow Walker shouldn't be angry about her father's death, but simply that she is targeting the wrong organizations. I won't say for sure that they are attempting to take advantage of Volkswagen's vulnerable position, kicking them while they're down as they try to tack on the Carrera GT's "lack of safety features" and further tarnish Volkswagen's image by making them look like cheaters even more, but it certainly looks like it to me. Why wouldn't they have brought this case up earlier? That's something we may never know, but in light of recent events, this all seems pretty fishy to me.