Scottish Elises

Ouch. Scroll down for the video...

http://jalopnik.com/video-shows-lamborg ... 1680367973

How the hell did they survive that?

tut

I was waiting to see what the cause was, the watched the 'massive' bump unsettle the car.

That is an absolute miracle either of these 2 survived that, thankfully they never hit anyone else, bit nuts holding the red line so long in top gear, every component must be near their limits? Very silly and very lucky lads, testament to the safety cells of modern supercars though!

Holding the steering wheel too tight ... needs a walshy day

Glad nobody was hurt - does seem a little irresponsible, but it's all relative I guess (how fast is too fast - depends on your skills and concentration levels I suspect).

Cheers,
Robin

Ouch indeed.

Mark, that's what the redline is for, as long as you're 1rpm below it everything is entirely safe and within tolerance

if someone overtook me at that speed on a public road when I had kids in the car I would be having serious words if I ever saw them again.

mwmackenzie wrote: bit nuts holding the red line so long in top gear, every component must be near their limits?!

Nope, every component has a safety factor built in. But at these speeds, there's no taking into account debris on the road which could cause tyre failure, and as has been said, not speeds you should consider with other road users in such close proximity.

If a car is capable at travelling at those speeds I would expect the components to be up to the job - particularly given that it's not an extended duration. Although to travel at those speeds on a public road is madness. - the closing speeds on some of the slower cars are scary and as the driver now knows it doesn't take much to unsettle a car at the limits of its capabilities.

scott_e wrote:if someone overtook me at that speed on a public road when I had kids in the car I would be having serious words if I ever saw them again.

Will nobody think of the children?

What is the correct technique if your doing 150+ and you hit a bump in the road that upsets the car. Assuming the throttle is nailed do you keep the foot in or lift a bit?

I think this demonstrates what you should do., but try repeating it or explaining it.
http://youtu.be/9jSYiU-JdRw

I love how the co-driver acts like nothing's happened.

tenkfeet wrote:What is the correct technique if your doing 150+ and you hit a bump in the road that upsets the car. Assuming the throttle is nailed do you keep the foot in or lift a bit?

I am not convinced the bump will upset the car if you're not holding onto the steering wheel unless it has no downforce at all ... in which case you are going to die, it is just a matter of time! The car has a huge amount of momentum and won't particularly want to change direction ... so the front wheels will tend to follow line of least resistance (up to a point).

Of course eventually you'll reach a point where steering input is required and at that point you need to keep the steering wheel correcting the spin until the rate of spin reverses (i.e. when the car hits a steady slide). You then have milliseconds to return the steering wheel to the straight ahead position keeping ahead of the car's return to the straight ahead. In an ideal world you beat the car to it and the car will recover without a pendulum swing to the other side. If you missed the straight ahead then the next swing needs to be smaller than the last or you're going to lose! So you need to counter steer (the other way, this time, of course), wait for the car to stop turning, return to the straight ahead ... etc. That's the theory - don't ask me to demonstrate it

If you watch the video BigD posted (awesome skillz, by the way) you can see initially the swings get bigger perhaps because at first he's making sure that he catches it and thus holds the wheel in counter steer a bit too long (or maybe the car regains grip suddenly for some other reason - clearly he's got a lot of feel that armchair rally drivers cannot see) ... as the swings amplify to needing more than a turn of lock he lets go of the wheel at the apex of the swing - the wheel rotates back to centre really quickly and from then on he has it under control (requires a few more swings before he can finally get it straight again).

So that's what you should do ...

P.S. I suspect he backs out of the throttle a little, but it would be a mistake to jump off the throttle at that speed as the weight transfer with the car anything but straight will cause the rear to lift, lost even more grip and complete rotation is guaranteed (I think). Enough throttle to keep the car maintaining speed is probably right, and in a 4WD it will (presumably) help pull the car straight. (He's probably flat the whole way, but he's a hero!).

Cheers,
Robin

I suspect the spin was just the end of the accident. The porpoising suggests that it became aerodynamically unstable, probably after hitting a bump, and it took off. Just not enough room on public roads to deal with that sort of problem. Madness