Nasty Ring accident today at Bergwerk

[RDMcG]

Not sure of the sequence here, but expensive results

http://jalopnik.com/5845899/rented-corvette-and-ri...

[RDMcG]

bqf said:

Looks like a nasty one this. Some of the posts here though - you really have to have been there to answer some of them, like the post that says 'the Ring Taxi driver should have known better'. The Ring taxi flies round that circuit faster than 99% of drivers who use it, so if there were stationary cars over many of the blind crests, corners etc there is no way he could have stopped in time. The fact that the ring taxi looks salvageable suggests s/he reacted quicker than anyone else.

The weather on the circuit at this time of year is also totally unpredictable. I went in late September/early Oct 3 years ago, and it was totally foggy on some corners, bright sunshine on others, and torrential (really, torrential rain) on other sections - all one one lap. Remember it covers 13 miles or so and the weather is all over the shop. There may have been an absolute pea-souper at the time of the accident.

Finally, playing computer games gives you a good feel for the sequence of the circuit, but absolutely no information about the camber, real gradients, weather, or grippiness (or not) of the track. I must have been round there 100s of times on the X-Box before I went for real, and it is absolutely not possible to know the track before you go around it in real life - and then not until you have been around it scores of times.

I started motor racing this year, and even Donington Park, Brands, Silverstone etc are hard to get a feel for on the XBox, never mind the Ring.


Commiserations to those affected by the accident - and get well soon to those injured.

Agree. I did hundreds of simulator laps and got an instructor the first time I went to the Ring,and still managed to clip the armco. Have done 140 laps or so on the real track and still consider myself to be barely familiar with it. One thing that surprised me on this one: there is a large visible board as you enter the track that clearly shows any areas with a slow order, oil etc, so I would have thought that the M3 driver would have been aware of the issue. Evidently, I have no way to comment on the specifics of the accident, but ,like most people, I glance up at the board every time I pass it.

Edited by RDMcG on Monday 3rd October 13:50

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DonkeyApple said:

Most people who gamble cannot afford to lose. That is why there is a buzz from it for many people. I would put hiring a GT3RS at the Ring down as gambling.

I'd certainly rate it higher than sitting round a table full of wierdos faffing about with a deck of cards.

Well. when I was there last year I noticed this at RSR. Someone rented an RS,wrote it off, and calmly shelled out the 75K without a word:

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scenario8 said:

I've never been to the 'Ring so I'll just add that I didn't realise it was that hilly and bumpy. And there was an effing bus going around it at 7 minutes, too! (Video time, not lap time)

Quite how it must feel to lap in under 8 minutes...

The buses no longer run to my knowledge,,that's quite an old vid.

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Joe911 said:

Probably because the Ring management didn't want people to see the video and complained to youtube that it was filmed illegally. You need permission to have in-car video during TF.

I was wondering about that. It was a very revealing clip.

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Mark A said:

Considering the discussion on this thread and this video (9:55 then 10:30) perhaps Pistonheads need to alter their sub-headline as the M3 Taxi doesn't look like a victim!

I wonder how long before this vid is pulled too.

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daz3210 said:

What can they theraten him with? He has VITAL evidence of what happened and they should be thanking him for it.

Everyone seemed to have slowed and the taxi just barrelled off one car into another! Its there to see in the vid.

Wel, they seem to have some sort of rights to vid unless filming was authorized. This is not the first time they have had vids removed.