Luxury Ferrari bursts into flames moments after driver pulls over

A man's expensive Ferrari has been engulfed by flames on the side of the road after the driver pulled over to inspect it.

The car owner, identified by his last name Zhang, could only watch helplessly as his luxury sports car worth more than $400,000 went up in flames as he was waiting for the fire brigade in the city of Dongyang, China, on February 22.

A team of 17 firefighters were called to extinguish the violently burning Ferrari 458, known for having the most powerful V8 engine in Ferrari history.

Zhang said he was driving with a friend when he noticed black smoke coming from the rear.

He stopped the car to inspect the smoke and realising it was already on fire, he jumped back inside to switch off the engine.

Zhang was unable to locate the fire extinguisher and the fire spread through the vehicle.

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After receiving an alarm about a burning vehicle, firefighters rushed to the scene and found the back half of the yellow sports car engulfed in flames.

"We could see thick black smoke when we were about one kilometre away from the scene," the Dongyang Fire Rescue Brigade reported.

It took just 10 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the blaze using water but it was enough to leave the car in ruins.

According to the rescue team, the accident was caused by spontaneous combustion with no clear reason.

The second-hand Ferrari 458 sports car was worth more than 2 million yuan ($A400,000) and the model first appeared when it debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2009.

Thankfully, no one was injured.

with Australscope

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