Vintage race crashes

[750bonny]

This is the video for a song called "I killed myself when I was young" but it's got some amazing footage...



Sorry, tried to embed the video but didn't work...

[Neale]

footage from a time when crash barriers were hay bales (because if a car hits something & catches fire, you want it to burn for as long as possible), seatbelts were considered dangerous (because if you hit the hay bales & caught fire you didn't want to get trapped in the car, its safer to get thrown clear) & the thin helmets were frowned upon because got in the way of hearing the engine (they were only leather caps or a leather bound cork jockey helmet & wouldn't do much anyway.

Great footage, scary stuff though.

[dylby1]

Now try and tell me motor racing is dangerous these days haha
That is bloody scary, like 2.22 where he got launched. Imagine the amount of times people got to the car and the driver had died already

[QLD-Bluey]

The 5 star ANCAP rating looks good now huh?

[Pinkbits]

Not a bad song either.

[Neale]

Here are some pics of the accident at around 2.16




plus a few other good pics




The really dangerous tracks were the wooden tracks that were made same way a modern bicycle velodrome is made only the size of a track like Indianapolis. They were cheap but wouldnt last outside & when they began to fall apart the riders or drivers would get hit with wood that would get ripped up & sometimes even fall through.

Wel worth a read & theres a video on there aswell

http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/200...g-on-film.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_track_racing







You can also thank these guys for some of the safety devices in modern cars. As things like seatbelts were put in race cars long before road cars aswell as better brakes, handlng improvements & fuel economy.

[MattsDisturbed]

Yeah ummm ouch!

[EDManual]

Its awesome stuff!! Much better when they stay on the road though! Great pic above^^

They always had massive crowds to watch...

I have some pictures of my grandpas back in the 20s of old formula cars racing I think at Phillip Island!

[Kingsley]

Excellent footage. Thanks for sharing.

[fordOwner]

My dad used to race classic motorbikes and I remember back in the 80's they still used hay bales for the street races at the York flying 50 and the street races at geralton and collie in WA.
then in the 90's they used packs of bricks!! in the late 90's they used wheelie bins full of water, then the street water barriers were used.
As the races were mainly for cars it was to protect the spectators more than anything, and when the motorcyclists complained about the bricks the responce was "its only a display race, points are not rewared so take it easy"
this furiated my dad as when he raced he raced to win.

I even remember in the late 90's barbagallo raceway used an inflatable barrier on the last turn which was to be the first turn as they reversed the track.
unfortunatly a motorcyclist died when he over shot the turn and hit the inflatable barrier which was meant to be the safest barrier invented.
Since then barbagallo has stopped all races in reversed track and no more inflatable barriers.

[Polyal]

I have many old pics of Targa Florio etc rotating on my background actually, including that first pic above.

Mind blowingly awesome stuff.

[Streets]

1955 Le Mans crash killed 83 people

Levegh's 300 SLR struck the mound at such speed and angle that it was launched into a somersault, which caused some parts of the car, already damaged and loosened by the collision, to be flung from the vehicle at very great speeds. This included the bonnet and the front axle, both of which separated from the frame and flew through the crowd. The bonnet decapitated tightly jammed spectators like a guillotine.[3] With the front of the spaceframe chassis—and thus crucial engine mounts—destroyed, the car's heavy engine block also broke free and hurtled into the crowd.

Spectators who had climbed onto trestle tables to get a better view of the track found themselves in the direct path of the lethal debris.[1] Levegh was also thrown free of the tumbling car, fatally crushing his skull when he landed.

As the remains of the 300 SLR slowed its somersault, the rear-mounted fuel tank ruptured. The ensuing fuel fire raised the temperature of the remaining Elektron bodywork past its ignition temperature, which due to its high magnesium content was lower than for other metal alloys. The alloy burst into white-hot flames, sending searing embers onto the track and into the crowd. Rescue workers, totally unfamiliar with how to attack a magnesium fire, poured water on the inferno – greatly intensifying the fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster

There is video of it on youtube but I can't get to it at the moment.

[Ringo]

As jackie stewart says when he was a race driver 'driving was dangerous, s#x was safe, its different now'

[ratter]

Years ago Channel 9 Wide World of Sports used to put together some videos of sporting events to music, I have on tape somewhere 2 versions of kick start my heart, one is bike racing and the other is car racing, but the best 1 I ever saw that I can remember was a song I think was atomic playboy, the music started slow and got fast in the middle, the slow music footage was some black and white formula 1 footage and it started old and got newer as the song progressed, as the music sped up, it turned into color footage and had some great shots of I think it was Senna coming out rain mist that you could not see more than a few feet and running up the back of the camera car.

[ratter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_VUi5dx80

a promo for adelaide F1, I think is similar to what I was thinking Channel 9 played