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A Nissan GT-R Has Crashed Into The Spectator Area At The Nurburgring - One Dead, Several Injured


WhackyWill

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It was totally flat on the bottom so it probably got a lot of downforce from ground effect, so if got a little bit of air over the rise, ground effect would stop and the underside of the car turns in to a "wing" (of sorts, like when you put your arm out of a car window) and from then on, the driver is a passenger. They used to have similar aero tricks in F1 years ago but it got banned because it causes too many accidents.

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Truly sad on all fronts, for the family of the deceased and what the driver must feel like, even though it wasnt his fault.

 

The Msa have been looking into spectator safety recently and this by all accounts has serious implications with all such cars being suspended from racing.

 

Can you ever rule out freak accidents, personally i dont think you can :(

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Very sad news and I did read about this yesterday but decided against posting anything due to the death of the spectator. RIP.

 

 

It's not the first time this type of "freak" accident has happened though and imo it won't be the last although hopefully it will be the last with a fatality.

 

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How on Earth did it become airborne like that? Lack of downforce or something that happened just before the video starts?

 

Pete

 

Car had just crested the rise at Flugplatz and would have been very lightly loaded on front as a result. Is not uncommon for cars to get a little "squirrely" there and lose adhesion.

 

Manfred Winkelhock took off in his F2 March flipping it over.

 

David

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Tragic. :(

 

Driver will have to live with that (I'm not blaming him) - it's going to be a pretty tough thing to deal with. I feel desperately sorry for the family and loved ones of all those involved and affected.

Edited by wmr1980
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Shame this had to happen to Nismo and Jann mardenborough who is a genuine nice guy. My sympathies also go to the family of the deceased. It's a freakish aero malfunction. I've already read tons of opinions on this and the knee jerk reaction after the aftermath.

Herewith a video with different angles to the crash and that car was even airborne before it hit the crest at flugplatz(literally means "flying place"). As commander rightly pointed cars go light up front as you crest and even normal road cars if you are trying hard enough. I know as I've experienced it countless times. True aero cars will take that crest almost flat out and brake after the jump to make the turn and the sight is amazing. You have something similar at Pflanzgarten 1(km17) except it's down hill but you certainly experience negative g as all 4 wheel go airborne. But unpredictably a set of condition can result in aero failure and loss off downforce leading to the car taking to the skies. Given thousands of goes it will be impossible to replicate this on track.

This type of failures are very rare and cannot be avoided. It's either we race or don't with all the tech available. Spectator safety is generally very good and accidents involving them are extremely rare even at the Ring.

 

http://youtu.be/P5kmWTos1ys

Edited by GT4 Zed
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Spectator safety is generally very good and accidents involving them are extremely rare even at the Ring.

 

 

From what I read on this, the spectators regularly circumvent the outer fence to get a closer view by sitting nearer the inner catch fence. You could argue that they shouldn't have been where they were, but the probably didn't know the risk (how many on here know how a catch and outer fence should work on a circuit?). If the organisers thought that corner was a significant risk then they could have potentially avoided it with marshalls/signs/different fencing or whatever. While I'm not blaming the organisers for a freak accident, I hope they do something to improve the spectators knowledge of not being where they were in future... signs with a link to the youtube video saying sit here and get flattened maybe.

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Hey haydn, longtime bro!

The facts are still unclear. If they were allowed there by the marchals or not but unlike the average circuit spanning under 4 miles the ring + Gp circuit is 16-17miles long making policing near impossible.

People have no regard for their safety and this can be seen in the recent rally deaths or even YouTube videos of people doing foolish things to take pictures.

It is always tragic when there is loss of human life (apparently an 8yr old).

Anyway I hope a full invrstigation will determine what is what rather than speculation and lessons can be drawn from this.

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Hey haydn, longtime bro!

The facts are still unclear. If they were allowed there by the marchals or not but unlike the average circuit spanning under 4 miles the ring + Gp circuit is 16-17miles long making policing near impossible.

People have no regard for their safety and this can be seen in the recent rally deaths or even YouTube videos of people doing foolish things to take pictures.

It is always tragic when there is loss of human life (apparently an 8yr old).

Anyway I hope a full invrstigation will determine what is what rather than speculation and lessons can be drawn from this.

 

Yep! Far too long! Not many going to Wales this year either... tempted to bail out myself. :(

 

Completely agree regarding the length of the circuit being prohibitive to marshaling it all, however the video above clearly shows what I mean about the spectators being between the 2 catch fences, the car didn't get past the second one so if they were were they were meant to be they'd have been relatively safe. :( You have to wonder how often the fences are inspected if it's that easy to get between them... but that part is obviously speculation. My brother works for Nissan so I heard about this one before it hit the press sadly.

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