The final seconds of car influencer James Wehr and his passenger’s lives were captured on video as his purple McLaren slammed into a tree and erupted into a massive fireball.
The footage, obtained by TMZ, was recorded from another vehicle’s dashcam, and shows Wehr’s McLaren accelerate rapidly before hitting what appears to be a wet section of pavement. The McLaren’s break lights activate as the vehicle swerves right, slamming into a tree with a fiery explosion.
The crash killed the 27-year-old car influencer and his 22-year-old passenger, Alexis “Lexi” Kramer.
“We believe that speed was a factor in this,” Ziggy Azarcon, a public information officer with the Irvine Police Department, told The California Post. Cops also believe Wehr was driving the vehicle at the time of the crash, a law enforcement source told The Post.
The crash happened shortly after midnight Sunday near Culver Drive and Deerfield Avenue in Irvine.
Orange County firefighters were called to the scene to battle the blaze, and police found the bodies after the smoke cleared. Footage taken of first responders on the scene showed the McLaren still engulfed in flames and debris scattered across the road.
Wehr was the founder of San Clemente’s South OC Cars and Coffee and had attended one of his regular car shows earlier that day.
Just an hour before the fatal crash, he posted a photo on Instagram appearing to show a police cruiser pulling him over in Newport Beach.
Kramer was from Lakeland, Florida, and was a Hooters calendar girl.
Kramer had flown out from Lakeland, Florida Friday to meet Wehr, who said he was in the process of separating from his wife Emma Wehr, Kramer’s family member told The Post.
The pair spent the weekend together in which they went on a first date, had breakfast and drinks together, and attended Wehr’s world-famous car show before the fatal crash.
Kramer met Wehr over Instagram and they had been talking for about one month before they first met, the family member said. Wehr allegedly told Lexi his marriage to Emma was over and their divorce was underway.
Orange County court records reviewed by The Post did not indicate a divorce case had been filed.
“[He] talked to her every day all the time and finally got her to fly out to California to come see him,” the family member said, adding Lexi had a passion for “American muscle cars and motorcycles.”
“She loved the car community, so it’s such a tragedy that that’s what ended her,” the family member told The Post.
“As you can imagine, this was very shocking and hard. She was kind and funny and charismatic and I’ve had so many people reach out and share their wonderful experiences with Lexi.”
The Irvine Police Department’s investigation into the crash remains ongoing.
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