[mtakala]

Originally Posted by Barton Farley ↗

Michael Park Rally of Wales 2005....

There must be some more footage of this, although there were no obvious spectators at the scene.

I remember reading that Markko Märtin (the driver) did go and see the car at the Team's garage. The crash had a meaning - the FIA did start a program to improve side impact protection, and improved features were included into the technical regulations a few years later.

I just wonder, as there are no closeup pictures of the car as far as I can see, if even the current regulation WRC rollcage/seats could have prevented the injuries.

And yes, I haven't read the thread all the way through yet, but a big thanks to everyone who posted in this thread. Very rare material indeed.

[mtakala]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

A few photos of the burnt out wreckage of Henri Toivonen's Lancia Delta S4 at the 1986 Corsican Rally that I haven't seen posted before.

Henri and his co-driver, Sergio Cresto were leading the rally when the car left the road and crashed down a ravine, bursting into flames, neither stood any chance of survival.

Hours after the crash the FIA cancelled Group B rallying...

Surprised to see this on page 222.

There is quite a bit of controversy about this accident (as to cause). Allegedly Lancia team collected all video footage, but in recent times a very far away video seems to match the corner and fireball after the car hit the trees. Also that footage contains some of the aftermath, when some drivers who had already finished the special stage, drove backwards to the scene.

Group B wasn't canceled right away (as in hours.) During the following months, there was a discussion of either continuing it with improved safety rules (so called Group S where some body panels were made mandatory to match a production model afaik) or canceling group B. Lancia even made a Group S prototype Delta, but in the end Group A was selected for the following year.

Lancia has been show-running the Group S prototype in recent times. It has been restored into full working condition. Oh what could it have been...

[Buford61]

Scrapbook 6 - you need a photo viewer that will increase size to read text.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by mtakala ↗

Surprised to see this on page 222.

There is quite a bit of controversy about this accident (as to cause). Allegedly Lancia team collected all video footage, but in recent times a very far away video seems to match the corner and fireball after the car hit the trees. Also that footage contains some of the aftermath, when some drivers who had already finished the special stage, drove backwards to the scene.

Group B wasn't canceled right away (as in hours.) During the following months, there was a discussion of either continuing it with improved safety rules (so called Group S where some body panels were made mandatory to match a production model afaik) or canceling group B. Lancia even made a Group S prototype Delta, but in the end Group A was selected for the following year.

Lancia has been show-running the Group S prototype in recent times. It has been restored into full working condition. Oh what could it have been...

Group B was certainly an amazing time for rallying, awesome cars that were fantastic to watch. I think they got a bad press as most of the accidents would not have had a better outcome if they had been Group A cars rather than Group B.

Group S looked even better and could have been great for the sport...

This car in first set of posts was the proposed Audi Group S car rally car....

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by Otimebomb ↗

Terrible crash in the Rolex 24 just now.

Memo Gidley and Matteo Malucelli's huge crash at the Daytona 24 Hours 2014. Both drivers with multiple injuries but thankfully were taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Malucelli was released from hospital on Sunday evening.

Memo had surgery on Monday night to repair a fracture of his lower back, he has already had surgery in relation to a broken left elbow and leg.

Malucelli's Ferrari had lost power and he was travelling at a very low speed at the side of the track before Memo collided with him at over 100mph.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

Edward Gulbeng Eliseian's fatal crash at the 1959 Milwaukee Mile.
Ed was famous for stopping his undamaged car during the 1955 Indy 500 in what would be an unsuccesful attempt to safe Bill Vukovich from his wreck and spinning during the 1958 Indy 500 that started a chain of events that would lead to the death of Pat O'Connor.

On lap 29 of the USAC Indy car 200-mile race at the 'Milwaukee Mile,' Ed spun on oil and rolled over. The fuel tank had ruptured and the roadster erupted in flames, taking over 9 minutes to extinguish. Eliseian was beyond help when he was dragged clear.

A photographer who saw the crash said later, 'Elisian did a half spin and hit the wall with the left rear, approximately 50 ft from where I was sitting. I started filming. There was no one to block my view. The car did not bounce off the wall, instead the left rear tire rode up the wall and the car turned over. It did a half spin, so it was facing the right direction, but upside down, and leaning to the right, blocking Elisian’s exit. Then, Whooof, the car burst into flames. Why? It seemed harmless to that point. I had to stop from time to time to wind the movie camera. I thought I saw some movement in the cockpit area. A guy with a CO-2 extinguisher ran from the infield and started spraying. The fire got worse because things started to burn other than the methanol fuel. The race was stopped, and big fire trucks arrived on the scene and started spraying everything. At this point I knew I had just witnessed a human being burning to death. The bulk of the flame was in the cockpit area, similar to Pat O’Connor’s car at Indy in ‘58. But Pat was beyond knowing. Elisian, on the other hand, had just suffered a most horrible and painful death. The car was within 10 feet of the first turn bleachers. I was told later that the spectators felt the heat of the fire and the spray of water and chemicals trying to extinguish the blaze. The safety crews placed blankets against the fence to shield the spectators from what they might see. From my vantage point, I saw just a brief couple of seconds, and that was enough. The first turn looked like a war zone. It was quite a mess for just one car.'

A member of A.J. Foyt's pitcrew remembers, 'Elisian came along and didn’t see the oil and he slid into the wall. The car looked like it wasn’t going to roll over at first… Then it went past its balance point and flopped over. I saw him reach down and start to unbuckle his seat belt. A little trickle of flame came down out of the cockpit and onto the racetrack… There was no explosion. The fire just flared up before anyone could run across the track… Jimmy Bryan and some of the other guys were down there and they could hear him screaming… There was no way you could get to him.'

Original post from page 156.

I wanted to put the newspaper article just posted by Buford61 with an earlier post of mine. The article and photo are amazing and tell the very tragic and very public death of a real gentleman driver. The photo was taken just seconds before poor Ed's car was engulfed in flames...very similar to Lorenzo Bandini's F1 crash at Monaco in '67.

RIP Ed Elisian....

[windowlicker]

Californian racer Cal Niday's crash on lap 170 of the Indy 500 in 1955. It does get forgotten due to Bill Vukovich earlier fatal crash, but this inflicted serious injuries and Cal never raced the '500 or a champ car again as the impact had left him with reduced vision.

Cal took part in the '500 in 1953 to '55, with a 10th place finish in 1954 and a best qualifying of 9th in 1955.

Niday had lost a leg in a motorcycling accident when he was young. He was also the first driver to wear a modern style Bell crash helmet at Indy. He lost his life after crashing a vintage midget at Willow Springs raceway in 1988.

[Buford61]

" the very tragic and very public death of a real gentleman driver."

Actually while Ed Elisian's death was of course tragic and awful my understanding is he was the farthest thing from a gentleman. He was a hard drinking hard gambling tough guy who got into fights and alienated just about everybody. Suspended from USAC for punching an official, and widely blamed for Pat O'Connor's death due to his bonehead move in turn three in the 1958 Indianapolis 500. He was the most controversial driver of his time and while quite skilled, I don't think anybody would have called him a gentleman.

[windowlicker]

Very interesting info...I was always impressed by him stopping his undamaged car during the '55 Indy 500 to try to safe Vukovich, not many people did that then or now for that matter...I supposed I thought that act was pretty gentlemanly...

[windowlicker]

...from wiki, 'In the 1955 Indianapolis 500, he stopped his car in a futile attempt to help Bill Vukovich when Vukovich's car crashed and burned during the race. He is one of only two drivers in Indy 500 history to stop a non-damaged car to help another driver, the other being Gary Bettenhausen. He received a sportsmanship award for his efforts, as well as the wrath of the car owner.'