Tuesday 11th February 2014

St Ursanne hill climb: Time For Tea?

The Swiss aren't too tolerant of fast driving usually, but they make the odd exception

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Say you've been asked to organise a hoon somewhere in Europe. Your first job is to come up with a short list of countries where you and your buddies might be able to hinge back the cranium, remove the grey matter, and give it loads. In a responsible manner, of course.

Switzerland probably wouldn't be the first country you'd think of. In fact, it would probably be the last. Not because they're short of spectacular roads - far from it - but because the Swiss aren't generally known for giving a warm welcome to hooners.

Time to recalibrate that stereotype. Saint Ursanne is a tiny medieval town in the Jura canton. Usually, it's a quiet little place, with only the gentle clink of glühwein glasses to disturb the Alpine peace, but for one weekend a year they let folk go utterly bonkers in cars.

Folk like David Hauser, who last year did this in his Dallara GP2 on St Ursanne's unfathomably risky 5km hillclimb route. Check this for an idea of what Going Really Fast looks and sounds like from behind the Armco, or trees. You might note a passing resemblance to parts of Monaco's GP circuit. You might also experience a certain shrinking sensation behind your flies.

The most sobering news is that this performance was only good enough for third. Hauser's Dallara was the fastest open-wheeler, but two Osella prototypes went quicker. Eek.

If you're anywhere near the Jura district on the third weekend of August, or anywhere in Europe to be honest, you owe it to yourself to set the sat nav to St Ursanne.

See the onboard video here

 

And the spectators' view here

[JMF894]

Just goes to show how inadequate most of us are behind the wheel.................

Awesome

Jimbo

[British Beef]

Jesus!

No margin for error there, F1 is not quite as exciting with its football pitch size run off areas (apart from Monoco)!

[BBS-LM]

Bloody hell, that make F1 look slow.

[McWigglebum4th]

British Beef said:

Jesus!

No margin for error there, F1 is not quite as exciting with its football pitch size run off areas (apart from Monoco)!

Thats a fecking motorway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXtIt4xd_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Lopg7YbUY (1:30 in)

Doune brings a whole new meaning to narrow

[British Beef]

McWigglebum4th said:

Thats a fecking motorway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXtIt4xd_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Lopg7YbUY (1:30 in)

Doune brings a whole new meaning to narrow

Not wrong, Ive seen women struggle to park in bays wider than that!

[timelord]

The lengths some people go to to catch the first ski lift!

[XTR2Turbo]

impressive flat left and right at 31 secs and 48

Edited by XTR2Turbo on Tuesday 11th February 17:30

[Housey]

Base jumping is for wimps.

[UltimaCH]

It is a great spectacle to watch having seen it a couple of times. Some serious shunts also...

[callahan]

Fantastic. I can't quite get my head around the speed of reaction that is needed to do something like that. Bonkers.

Questions is, which car would you most like to see on there, with which driver (past or present for both)?

Colin McRae in a Group B car would have been interesting.

[roland82]

BBS-LM said:

Bloody hell, that make F1 look slow.

That's the first thing I said. Extremely ballsy driving.

[lankyarcher]

callahan said:

Fantastic. I can't quite get my head around the speed of reaction that is needed to do something like that. Bonkers.

Questions is, which car would you most like to see on there, with which driver (past or present for both)?

Colin McRae in a Group B car would have been interesting.

There you go....

http://youtu.be/4nrokRanX4k

[CO2000]

roland82 said:

BBS-LM said:

Bloody hell, that make F1 look slow.

That's the first thing I said. Extremely ballsy driving.

"only" 450-460 bhp too!

[vincegail]

I first read it as 'St Insane'

[smashbro]

The guy does some quality videos! Happened across them a while back, searching for a 935RSR video! Looks a fair old drive to get to, but the roads and hillclimb event would be more than worth it.

Edited by smashbro on Tuesday 11th February 20:13

[Gandahar]

It only looks that fast because he is so low. If you used a motorbike, perhaps one that does the TT in a faster time than any car has ever done, then it would look a lot more sedate from the more vertical viewpoint.

[LY99]

From the same event

http://youtu.be/rAupDVTf9_w

Edited by LY99 on Tuesday 11th February 20:34

[vincegail]

LY99 said:

From the same event

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAupDVTf9_w

linky not working, this one is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAupDVTf9_w

[LY99]

vincegail said:

LY99 said:

From the same event

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAupDVTf9_w

linky not working, this one is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAupDVTf9_w

Ta

[boxerTen]

Good grief!

If the course is exactly 5km then average speed is 165 km/hr! - looks like he is well over 200 km/hr for most of it though.