Hasport Hondata Insight crash..

[Digby]

"Brian Gillespie's speed attempt went spectacularly wrong when he lost control on a test drive in California..."

Bet that stung a bit!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/crash-200mph-el-mirage-ca...

[kambites]

Ouch.

[The Moose]

Impressive how the car stood up!

[AnotherClarkey]

I was driving a rental car across El Mirage once at about 50 when the thought occurred to me that I could just floor it and attempt to max the thing out - after watching this I am rather glad I didn't. There are odd soft spots and changes of texture that make things a bit squirrely.

[Speed_Demon]

Christ almighty, always this kinda thing that reminds you of just how much kinetic energy you're carrying at speed...

[Kolbenkopp]

Yup, and this seems to have been a gen 1 Insight, so rather a light car. Just imagine a Cayenne at that speed... The little Honda did pretty well in that unintended crash test though.

BTW, anyone knows what they were up to and what sort of engine this was running?

[will-w]

Holy sh*tcakes, that is one nasty accident!

Glad he's ok, it could have turned out a lot worse

[peterperkins]

Kolbenkopp said:

BTW, anyone knows what they were up to and what sort of engine this was running?

Not the oem engine asfaik

[22Rgt]

Now a much improved looking Insight.

[bencollins]

A good advert for roll cages in any pre 5 star NCAP vehicle, short wheelbase not ideal for 200mph.

[DrDeAtH]

I think the addition of a full roll cage helped keep him alive......

[rallycross]

Wow it really shows what an accident at high speed could do.

Sounds like it had a motorbike engine powering it.

[Dave G fsi]

Looks like he was starting to go sideways whilst still accelerating. Certainly had balls.....

[V88Dicky]

I take it he hadn't entered his Insight into one of those eco mpg events?

[Gilhooligan]

I can only assume VTEC engaged in a violent manner.

[toerag]

Skywalker's in trouble! Sabolba takes the lead!

[kind dilbert]

Any explanations for the sudden sideways action..?

[rix]

blimey, so lucky!

[anonymous-user]

kind dilbert said:

Any explanations for the sudden sideways action..?

The shape of a typical production car is the same as a wing! The air has to take a longer path over the top than underneath, and as such, all production cars generate positive lift. Now an Insight hasn't exactly been designed to go 200mph, but to have a very low drag coefficient. I suspect that a small road deflection was probably enough to unweight the car, and aerodynamic instability (no vertical stabilisers on an Insight!) did the rest.

[AnotherClarkey]

Max_Torque said:

The shape of a typical production car is the same as a wing! The air has to take a longer path over the top than underneath, and as such, all production cars generate positive lift. Now an Insight hasn't exactly been designed to go 200mph, but to have a very low drag coefficient. I suspect that a small road deflection was probably enough to unweight the car, and aerodynamic instability (no vertical stabilisers on an Insight!) did the rest.

Do you think the rear wheel covers may have contributed to this? Once some yaw was present they may have helped flow remain attached to the 'sticky-out side' and pulled the tail around?