Less than a half-hour before he died in a fiery crash, “Fast and Furious” actor Paul Walker posed for a photo next to the flashy sports car he took his fatal ride in. Wearing sunglasses, Walker was ominously snapped Saturday grinning in apparent admiration at the cherry red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT.
Just 30 minutes later, the car slammed into a tree in Southern California and exploded in a fireball, killing Walker and the driver, Roger Rodas.
The blond, blue-eyed movie star and Rodas were burned beyond recognition.
A coroner will delay autopsies for Walker, 40, and Rodas until identification is made using dental records, a rep from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office told TMZ.
The new details about the horrific smashup came as it was revealed Walker had been set to film key scenes in Atlanta this week for the lucrative franchise’s latest installment, “Fast and Furious 7.”
Walker, a self-styled adrenaline buff, was a passenger in the high-performance sports car driven by Rodas, a former race car driver and friend who owned a nearby car dealership, when it flew off the road and crashed into a tree before bursting in flames Saturday in Santa Clarita, the actor’s rep confirmed.
The pair had just left a charity event in the town about 30 miles north of Los Angeles that was sponsored by the fast-car aficionado’s nonprofit, Reach Out Worldwide.
Speed is thought to be a cause of the wreck, though investigators with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department are working to determine exactly how fast the car was traveling and whether the driver was distracted.
The high-end vehicle downed a light pole with a 45-mph speed limit sign before exploding into flames.
Fans erected a makeshift memorial at the scene of the crash Sunday, leaving flowers and candles.
Walker was a main character in six of the seven “Fast and Furious” films — all except the third installment, “Tokyo Drift.”
Universal Pictures recently announced that the seventh film was slated for a July 11, 2014, release date.
Production on the flick is ongoing, a source close to the film told BuzzFeed, but Universal has not made any official announcements about how the film and the “Fast and Furious” franchise will be affected by Walker’s death.
It is unclear how many scenes Walker was able to complete before his death.
Daily News
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