customcoco said:

A driver has died au mans. Allan Simonsen, he was 34.

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We sometimes forget how dangerous racing is - especially road races where the cars seem to be glued to the road and the TV audience normal sees the drivers flawlessly execute every turn.

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXErF1eRkOI

It just looks like he got a little wide on the exit from the turn, and when he strayed into the blue apron, the car just went nasty and that was it. Scary as he11.

magick man said:

No, not driven an LFA, but I did get to walk around one. TBH, I'm not sure I understand the hype over it, likely I'd need to drive one to appreciate it. It was the same with the NSX, that car still blows my mind, and it's 17 years old. It's been one of my daily drivers ever since I bought it, and it's better than most of the cars I've purchased that were 4-5x its price. The turbos really make it though, they work so well with it you'd think it came with them from the factory.

However, I have driven a Viper, and they're very uncomfortable (for me), I couldn't see over the long nose, and the interior in the one I was driving was falling apart after only 3 years. It was fast, though.


Hey billy! http://www.osenat.fr/html/index.jsp?aff=1&ordre=2&npp=20&id=15397&lng=en&np=1
Specifically: http://www.osenat.fr/html/fiche.jsp?id=3098943&np=4&lng=en&npp=20&ordre=2&aff=1&r=

Yowzah! May be time for more imports. Starts tomorrow.

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There are some pretty unusual cars in that auction (at least to USA buyers). I had either never seen or never even heard of a bunch of those brands. The Renault kind of makes me scratch my head - why the heck wouldn't the seller at least wash the dirt off the car?? When I first looked at the pictures, I thought the paint had been stripped and that was all bondo dust! It was only in one picture that I finally figured out that was mostly dirt and that there was still paint under that layer of grime!

I think if you didn't care about trying to make it "original" that would be a fun project - I would think the "unknown state" engine is probably nearly worthless. If I had that car I think I would just try to put an engine in it that would sound good and run well - I really wouldn't care whether it was a Renault engine or something else. However, it sounds like the interior is not in good shape (no instrument panel) and I think the ability to get enough parts to make that car a runner would worry me.

I'm currently reading a sci-fi book called "Buying Time" by Joe Haldeman. In it, a method of rejuvenation has been developed that provides 10-12 years of additional life and "resets" your body to be that of a 20-something year old. The only catch is that the process is a secret controlled by an organization that has an interesting pricing model. To get the procedure, you must pay them 1 million pounds, or ALL of your assets, whichever is GREATER. So, when you come out of the recycle tank, you are penniless - and you have 10-12 years to make another 1 million pounds. If you don't come-up with the money, you don't just die of old age - you die a painful death in just a few days after the 10-12 year cycle runs out. If you try to play any games with hiding your money or giving it away to someone that will give it back you - the organization is ruthless - they just tell you that you are out - and you die.

So, the "immortals" all become fixated on accumulating wealth as quickly as possible, then hoarding that wealth until their next cycle. However, one of the immortals has decided they have had enough - she is going to let her time run out and die. So, she is spending her wealth on whatever pure luxury - why not? She has nothing better to do with the cash. She owns a model of the fastest space yacht you can buy. No expense has been spared to ensure this ship accelerates faster and has a longer range than any other ship you can buy. It is also incredibly elegant inside - Italian leather, exotic hardwoods, state of the art technology.

And what company makes this supership? Wait for it.... Bugatti!

I thought that was great touch by the author!

billybob_jcv said:

We sometimes forget how dangerous racing is - especially road races where the cars seem to be glued to the road and the TV audience normal sees the drivers flawlessly execute every turn.

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXErF1eRkOI

It just looks like he got a little wide on the exit from the turn, and when he strayed into the blue apron, the car just went nasty and that was it. Scary as he11.

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At least he died while doing what he loved...

What's really scary is that the car basically fell apart. It seems way less safe than a F1 car....

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billybob_jcv said:

We sometimes forget how dangerous racing is - especially road races where the cars seem to be glued to the road and the TV audience normal sees the drivers flawlessly execute every turn.

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXErF1eRkOI

It just looks like he got a little wide on the exit from the turn, and when he strayed into the blue apron, the car just went nasty and that was it. Scary as he11.

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That's sad. RIP.
Jason Leffler, an American race car driver, died 10 days ago.
 
Yup, car racing is a very dangerous sport. Love to watch F1 races.

Well, I thought all race cars are now designed to pretty much fly apart when crashed. All the energy is supposed to be transferred into the parts flying off. But the inner tub is supposed to protect the driver. I guessing something must not have gone according to plan or he simply hit too hard to have the engineered safety protect him. That was a Aston Martin/Prodrive race car - you would think they would have the latest and greatest safety technology in place. I suppose the other variable is the race course. I would imagine that on a big & complex course like Le Mans, there are probably better (no place would be good!) and worse spots to go into the wall.

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billybob_jcv said:

Well, I thought all race cars are now designed to pretty much fly apart when crashed. All the energy is supposed to be transferred into the parts flying off. But the inner tub is supposed to protect the driver. I guessing something must not have gone according to plan or he simply hit too hard to have the engineered safety protect him. That was a Aston Martin/Prodrive race car - you would think they would have the latest and greatest safety technology in place. I suppose the other variable is the race course. I would imagine that on a big & complex course like Le Mans, there are probably better (no place would be good!) and worse spots to go into the wall.

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In F1 yes, not sure about Le Mans. In F1, even the wheels and tires are anchored to the chassis so that they don't fly off. Not knowing what failed yet, I'm sure they will try to determine the root cause and come up with a safety recommendation, perhaps even a requirement.

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wuwhere said:

 
In F1 yes, not sure about Le Mans. In F1, even the wheels and tires are anchored to the chassis so that they don't fly off. Not knowing what failed yet, I'm sure they will try to determine the root cause and come up with a safety recommendation, perhaps even a requirement.

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The way the rear end stepped out I suspect diff or suspension failure, no way to recover the car at that point. What killed him is another matter, the damage to the car suggests it was a survivable impact.

I couldn't tell if the first movement was the front end going right or the rear end going left. After that, it swung hard the other direction toward the wall. In one of the other videos I saw, the announcers were saying that the side of the car we could see was the "good side" - and it was missing the door panel. The other side was apparently considerably more messed-up. They also talked about how the twist seen in the roof meant the frame had taken a very hard hit. The engineer in me wishes we could have seen the actual hit, but then my human side takes over and I'm glad they don't seem to have video of it (at least not that I could find).

billybob_jcv said:

I couldn't tell if the first movement was the front end going right or the rear end going left. After that, it swung hard the other direction toward the wall. In one of the other videos I saw, the announcers were saying that the side of the car we could see was the "good side" - and it was missing the door panel. The other side was apparently considerably more messed-up. They also talked about how the twist seen in the roof meant the frame had taken a very hard hit. The engineer in me wishes we could have seen the actual hit, but then my human side takes over and I'm glad they don't seem to have video of it (at least not that I could find).

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Yeah, the humanity in me usually prevents me from watching tragedies like this. I missed Dan Wheldon's crash two years ago by the simple luck of being outside, but usually I intentionally avoid viewing death scenes.

Jalopnik and Carscoops in particular tend to feature some significantly graphic videos that I have to skip in my RSS feed.

billybob_jcv said:

We sometimes forget how dangerous racing is - especially road races where the cars seem to be glued to the road and the TV audience normal sees the drivers flawlessly execute every turn.

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXErF1eRkOI

It just looks like he got a little wide on the exit from the turn, and when he strayed into the blue apron, the car just went nasty and that was it. Scary as he11.

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Yeah, I caught up on that this morning, it's always sad to see what happens when auto races go wrong. While I usually enjoy the accidents in Nascar, those drivers usually don't suffer from more than a sprained wrist or a bruised ego. The Le Mans wreck was simply baffling, I wouldn't think that a relatively minor hit would result in that Aston Martin crumpling like a beer can. The entire tub warped and buckled, evidenced by the roof twisting the way it did. My thought and prayers go out to Simonsen's family, they claim he was unconscious almost the entire time, so hopefully he didn't suffer very much.

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Yesterday I was contacted by the owner of the Alfa Montreal out of the clear blue and he offered to sell it for $2k over the amount I offered, and I agreed. So that's coming in, say what you will but I like that robin egg blue, I don't have anything else like it and it really does a good job of hitting that 70s sports car vibe. The Bugatti left the UK, non-container ship transport, so it should be here in a week. Koenigsegg is (finally) updating and repainting the CCX and it should be leaving their factory in a couple weeks. They act like they're completely swamped, so why don't they hire/train more people? I've noticed that with these types of car companies, if there are delays they don't think vertically. To me that's completely counterintuitive. In fact, they seem to get annoyed with success, and rather than look at it as an opportunity to grow, they piss off the customers they already have. It's absurd.

Interesting comments about the Tertre Rouge corner in this run through:


[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lMbDO5xOpc[/VIDEO]

It seems like in the end, the final results for Le Mans were pretty much as expected - at least from a car brand perspective.

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magick man said:

Yeah, I caught up on that this morning, it's always sad to see what happens when auto races go wrong.

While I usually enjoy the accidents in Nascar, those drivers usually don't suffer from more than a sprained wrist or a bruised ego. The Le Mans wreck was simply baffling, I wouldn't think that a relatively minor hit would result in that Aston Martin crumpling like a beer can. The entire tub warped and buckled, evidenced by the roof twisting the way it did. My thought and prayers go out to Simonsen's family, they claim he was unconscious almost the entire time, so hopefully he didn't suffer very much.

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Yesterday I was contacted by the owner of the Alfa Montreal out of the clear blue and he offered to sell it for $2k over the amount I offered, and I agreed. So that's coming in, say what you will but I like that robin egg blue, I don't have anything else like it and it really does a good job of hitting that 70s sports car vibe. The Bugatti left the UK, non-container ship transport, so it should be here in a week. Koenigsegg is (finally) updating and repainting the CCX and it should be leaving their factory in a couple weeks. They act like they're completely swamped, so why don't they hire/train more people? I've noticed that with these types of car companies, if there are delays they don't think vertically. To me that's completely counterintuitive. In fact, they seem to get annoyed with success, and rather than look at it as an opportunity to grow, they piss off the customers they already have. It's absurd.

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I will be quite interested in the accident debrief. It just did not look to be headed into that type of destruction.
 
Perhaps you have not seen enough of ultra high end everything to appreciate the phenomenon of measuring success by how little goes out the door  It is not limited to the ubercar industry by any means. Why, you can find examples right here on this board.
 
"We just cannot keep up with demand" and " We have orders into the next decade" seem to be badges of honour for some.

The illusion of demand outstripping supply is a very useful tool for high-end mfrs. It is a great way to keep prices from eroding. The real masters of the technique can give the illusion that there is a shortage even as warehouses are filling with product - just ask Apple...