Documentary of 1955 crash

[lowdrag]

I recorded it this morning, but if you are interested it repeats twice today on PBS America under Sky Documentaries, the last one being at 21.30. I just loved Norman Dewis' comment on passing the Mercedes at 193 mph!

[V8covin]

I watched that but have difficulty believing a car with 300bhp could do 190mph.
The crash was horrendous,thank god health and safety became important ....but unfortunately not important enough to stop the deaths at group B rally events

[Great Dane]

Was shown on the BBC and repeated ad infinitum a couple of years ago.... I even made a dvd cover for it. I first saw it and read the next day that Fitch had died

[alfie2244]

My ex cared for Lance Macklin in his final years and I know this tragedy haunted him terribly.

[lowdrag]

V8covin said:

I watched that but have difficulty believing a car with 300bhp could do 190mph.
The crash was horrendous,thank god health and safety became important ....but unfortunately not important enough to stop the deaths at group B rally events

Not at all impossible when you look at this. The 2.93 ratio, extremely rare today, was used for Le Mans. 170 mph equals 5825 rpm. Jaguar engines were supposedly redlined at 6250, but Norman Dewis confirmed to me many years ago that the Le Mans engines went further than that

[williamp]

So top was direct drive??

[lowdrag]

Good grief no! A direct top would give 4,000 rpm at 80 mph and 8,000 at 160 mph. This is way into overdrive country.

[V8covin]

But it's not just revs and gearing is it else a car with 100bhp would be able to do it.

[99dndd]

They had a lot less drag too, as aerodynamics were focused on streamlining rather than downforce.

Any idea if there are any repeats? I'd be interested in seeing this.

[Man-At-Arms]

99dndd said:

Any idea if there are any repeats? I'd be interested in seeing this.

no longer available on BB iPlayer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sfptx

but can be found on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpOTNcro2wU

[RL17]

Is it called Deadliest Crash Disaster at Le Mans
it was on Yesterday channel - can be found on UKTV player with BT TV, also showed a series on 60s drivers such as Surtees etc