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Paul Walker, 40, poses with the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT minutes before he and Roger Rodas, 37, took off on their final ride in the sportscar.
A newly released surveillance video shows the moment Paul Walker’s sports car smashed into a tree, sending a plume of smoke up into the sky as the cherry red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT burst into flames.
The impact Saturday killed Walker, the 40-year-old face of the “Fast and the Furious” movie franchise, and his friend, Roger Rodas, 37.
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Smoke rises from the crash scene after Paul Walker and his friend Roger Rodas hit a tree in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT in Santa Clarita, Calif.
RELATED: PAUL WALKER CAR CRASH NOT DUE TO DRAG RACING: SOURCES
The 30-second clip, shot from a building across a parking lot from where the Santa Clarita, Calif., crash occurred, shows a steadily darkening cloud of smoke pour into the afternoon sky.
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Fire billows from Paul Walker’s 2005 Porche Carrera GT after it crashed into a tree in Santa Clarita, Calif.
Police have said that speed was a factor, but the video appears to confirm a debunked rumor that the movie star and Rodas were drag-racing down the desolate strip.
PHOTOS: PAUL WALKER’S CRASH SITE BECOMES MEMORIAL
Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Universal Pictu
Paul Walker was said to be in the midst of filming the seventh movie in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, which revolves around the world of illegal drag racing.
The new video clip, obtained by omg! Insider, does not show a car go racing by the scene immediately after the crash. Instead, it shows cars eventually stream up to the scene as friends and passersby heard about the wreck.
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 into flames Saturday in Santa Clarita, the actor’s rep confirmed.
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Fans pay their respects at the site of the car accident in which actor Paul Walker was killed in Santa Clarita, California, on December 1, 2013.
RELATED: PAUL WALKER’S FATHER: ‘I WAS PROUD OF HIM EVERY DAY’
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 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are working to determine exactly how fast the car was traveling and whether the driver was distracted.
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Walker was a self-styled adrenaline junkie known for his love of sportscars.
Walker and Rodas died at the scene, police confirmed, and were reportedly burned “badly” after the car exploded into flames.
An autopsy on the actor’s body has been delayed, a rep for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said, until dental records for both men are obtained to identify the bodies which are otherwise “unidentifiable.”
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