tinyurl.com/934z8s3
DT report
Terrible for the family
Many years ago it was mooted that high powered cars needed drivers, not just punters with lots of cash.
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Surely the most important element is a brain.
30mph limit on the road!
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Mail report includes picture of wreckage. Some discrepancies - DT says he was 'declared dead in the mangled wreckage', while Mail says he was found 10ft away, claiming he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Sad.
tinyurl.com/d9fhyqo
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If the report of location is correct, this is within a 30mph area. From Streetview and memory there does not appear to be armco or other heavy weight fencing.
So was he just very unlucky or being absolutely crazy? Can you rip off the front of a supercar at 30mph?
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>> and memory there does not appear to be armco or other heavy weight fencing.
'metal fence running along the perimeter of a building supplies depot' ?
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goo.gl/maps/UMaF6
looks like a wire fence! ?but maybe it has been replaced.
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I don't think these are easy cars to drive anywhere, even if one is experienced. Rowan Atlkinson has crashed his Maclaren twice. Some one less experienced wrote off a Lambo convertible a few weeks ago, giving his son a track day thrill. Some TG person crashed a Swedish Koeinnigs thingy a while back.
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In none of these cases were the drives driving in a way acceptable on public roads, however.
Drive a 1.3 Fester beyond it's (and the driver's) limits and the outcome is similar.
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I think I know what I'm doing in a car..and have had some top drawer courses to go with it, inc an advanced police driving course and gaining an NVQ in (police) driving assessing...
...but...given one of those types of machines, I'd need more, much more, to drive it in anger.
The performance so far outweighs what you'd be used to, you are in a different territory.
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I imagine (because I haven't driven one of these ultra super cars like the Zonda or F1) that it's less a case of difficult to drive as easy to drive badly.
The nearest I've got was a driving a '96 Ferrari 456 for a few miles recently. Apart from what I considered to be a fearsomely heavy clutch, and a worry about finding the wrong gear, it was fine - and more recent supercars will have sequential paddle jobs and two pedals I suppose, and more/better electronics if not switched off.
I didn't test the acceleration overmuch as I didn't want to be the one to crash it, but an earlier demo from the experienced owner was enough to feel the neck snapping nature. It could certainly catch you unawares if you didn't build up to it, but you have to be an idiot not to.
You can have an accident in anything, but I guess the nut behind the steering wheel gets progressively more critical as the power goes up.
Last edited by: Manatee on Tue 21 Aug 12 at 18:04
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>> I don't think these are easy cars to drive anywhere, even if one is experienced.
>> Rowan Atlkinson has crashed his Maclaren twice. Some one less experienced wrote off a Lambo
>> convertible a few weeks ago, giving his son a track day thrill. Some TG person
>> crashed a Swedish Koeinnigs thingy a while back.
>>
But were they pushing it when they fell off the road I wonder?
Is 'difficult to drive' a polite way of saying not for someone with a clod hopping right foot that is rough with a car?
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>> Is 'difficult to drive' a polite way of saying not for someone with a clod
>> hopping right foot that is rough with a car?
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Pretty much...a "let's see what it can do" mentality.
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>> But were they pushing it when they fell off the road I wonder?
In cars with such immensely powerful engines it's possible to go from a gentle 30mph up to 60mph in two or three seconds. That's a huge amount of energy to deploy in a short space of time and not at all easy to control. I suspect the Zonda accident was the result of no more than a couple of seconds' squeeze on the throttle at the wrong moment. Quick squirt - whoops - bang.
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From our favourite newspaper:
'William Baranos, who was in his 50s, is believed to have been driving at high speed in a 30mph zone'
‘It would come up towards the roundabout at breakneck speeds and brake hard, go round the roundabout and then fly back the other way,’
'He was not thought to have been wearing a seat belt'
Darwinism?
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Looking at the photo the passenger cell is intact without any intrusions which implies that unless the deceleration was sufficient to pull internal organs apart (aorta from heart springs to mind) that both occupants could have walked away relatively unscathed.
Implies that the driver wasn't wearing a belt I'd contend so the Darwinism theory holds IMHO. Such a tragedy for his family.
As to the car, IIRC these cars have no safety aids like stability control so the driver needs to be good. I saw a Zonda S crashed in Kowloon in a 50Kph area, it looked similarly dishevelled and I don't believe the (pop star) driver had been going all that fast, the carbon fibre bodywork is easily shed from the underlying reinforced cage which (with belts/harnesses) protects the occupants.
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Wed 22 Aug 12 at 03:38
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Pagani - 50 yo dies, passenger survives - IJWS14
