Newey crashes GT40 at Classic LeMans

[Blackhawk1969]

Adrian Newey emerged unscathed from a sizeable crash at Le Mans over the weekend, while taking part in the Le Mans Classic event in a Ford GT40 which he owns. The Red Bull Racing chief technical officer reportedly went off at the second chicane but walked away unhurt from what was, by all accounts, a large accident. [unquote]

Anybody know what happened? Pics?

[deano400]

Blackhawk1969 said:

Adrian Newey emerged unscathed from a sizeable crash at Le Mans over the weekend, while taking part in the Le Mans Classic event in a Ford GT40 which he owns. The Red Bull Racing chief technical officer reportedly went off at the second chicane but walked away unhurt from what was, by all accounts, a large accident. [unquote]

Anybody know what happened? Pics?

Basicly the power got the better of him. I watched from behind, the car is a write off.

[Blackhawk1969]

Did he tangle with a Triumph?

[final_edition]

I heard he was going around the Houx Annexe roudabout and lost it on some beer that someone had thrown down.

[deano400]

Blackhawk1969 said:

Did he tangle with a Triumph?

I believe it had something to do with it.

[heebeegeetee]

deano400 said:

[ I watched from behind

Come again? Explain more!

[cinqster]

Blackhawk1969 said:

Adrian Newey emerged unscathed from a sizeable crash at Le Mans over the weekend, while taking part in the Le Mans Classic event in a Ford GT40 which he owns. The Red Bull Racing chief technical officer reportedly went off at the second chicane but walked away unhurt from what was, by all accounts, a large accident. [unquote]

Anybody know what happened? Pics?

Craig,

YHM

[cinqster]

I heard the throttle cable stuck wide open?

[//j17]

Blackhawk1969 said:

Did he tangle with a Triumph?

Depends which Triumph your referring to.

The Jigsaw Spitfire (ADU1B) dropped a core plug on the Mulsanne on the first lap of that race (having eaten a piston in qualifying and missed the first race while the engine was swapped). They estimated (on relative lap times) they would have been being lapped around Arnage when the GT40 crashed had they still been running.

The Spitfires raced in '64/'65 and ADU1B is in Grid 4. Of the other Triumphs: the TRS raced in '60/'61, so should have been in Grid 3, the TR2 is from '55 (Grid 2) and the TR3, TR3A, Peerless GT were all from '58 (Grid 3 with the GTS).

Not sure what other Triumph would have been on Grid 4 with the GT40.

[Truckosaurus]

The TRS was in Group 4 too.

[lafr]

A picture of the end result can be seen here

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?p=2&f=25&t=286957&h=0

[Spydaman]

I've got a picture on my phone of it on a flatbed being taken back to the pits. It looked like a right-off to me but I'm sure it will be repaired. Still a sad sight though as was the red car (Lotus?) that rolled at the Dunlop chicane. I'll post it when I can.

[cinqster]

Didn't see the Spyder there Neil...hope you weren't letting the side down!

[Tim in Belgium]

Spydaman said:

I've got a picture on my phone of it on a flatbed being taken back to the pits. It looked like a right-off to me but I'm sure it will be repaired. Still a sad sight though as was the red car (Lotus?) that rolled at the Dunlop chicane. I'll post it when I can.

Yep, it was a Lotus Elite that rolled, amazing how well it survived considering, although the door did fly off. The driver was out of the car pretty quick, but it was evident from his body language that the magnitude of what had happened soon hit him.

edited for spelling

Edited by Tim in Belgium on Friday 14th July 10:34

[ettore]

Autosport state that Newey suffered a brake failure into the second chicane at an estimated 180mph. I suspect that would have shaken him up.

[Spydaman]

Cinqster, I saw your car (and very nice looked too) but I went in this for a change The green one)

Edited by Spydaman on Friday 14th July 13:54

[Matt H]

It won't be a write off, its worth circa £2 mil