[Bortron]

Here's a crash that doesn't seem to have been covered so far, from the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

John Dawson-Damer, driving a 1969 Formula One Lotus 63, veered off the hill-climb course and crashed into the finishing post. Two marshalls standing behind the post were hit. One was killed, the other was seriously injured, with his lower leg severed by the impact.

Dawson-Damer also died, but rather than being due to the crash, it was the cause of it - he suffered a massive heart attack and lost consciousness, causing the car to leave the course.

[Bortron]

Originally Posted by fortythree ↗

Amazing (if a bit crumpled) pic of Alan Mcnish going over the wall in an f3000 race at Donnington Park in 1990. The engine and gearbox that can be seen separating killed a spectator standing just behind the photographer. He was a mechanic on a Renault 5 team in one of the support races, one of his colleagues suffered back injuries from a flying rear wheel.

As one hasn't been posted so far, here's a video of this crash, which clearly shows the poor spectator being hit, plus the aftermath. From how he was covering his head and not running that quickly, he was obviously expecting small bits of debris to be heading his way, and not a 3-litre V8 plus gearbox.

[Bortron]

Posting the McNish video again, as it doesn't look like it worked first time.

[Bortron]

Kieth O'dor is killed in a crash at AVUS in the German touring car championship in 1994.

After winning the first race of the meeting, he hit the barriers in the second race. His Nissan came to a stop in the middle of the track, and was hit side-on by future five-time Le Mans winner Frank Biela's Audi.

O'dor died hours later from severe head injuries. He likely would have been unharmed if he'd been driving any of the other cars in the field, but his was a year-old car that had raced in the British championship, and was therefore right-hand drive.

[Bortron]

In the spirit of Windowlicker, I'm going to post an unusual racing car. It was also hideous and completely useless.

In 1989, Italian businessman Ernesto Vita purchased the design for a 3.5-litre W12 engine (three banks of four cylinders in a W formation) from a former Ferrari engine designer. He tried to find an existing Formula One team to partner with, but failed, so decided to form his own team for 1990, called Life after the English translation of his name.

Vita bought a single chassis from a failed F3000 project, and shoe-horned the W12 in. Unfortunately, the engine was 100-200bhp down on the rest of the field, the chassis was heavy, and reliability was awful. The car was never quick enough to even clear pre-qualifying. It was often 20-30 seconds slower than any other car.

For the last two races of the season, the team fitted an ordinary Judd V8, but the car was still hopeless, and Life disappeared forever after that.

[AlvinKarpis]

Here are some clearer images of Gordon Smiley's fatal crash

[AlvinKarpis]

Another piece of the wreckage and the front page of the Indianapolis Star the following day

[Bortron]

Amazing new photos. Are they better quality copies of ones you posted previously, or entirely new shots?

[AlvinKarpis]

Originally Posted by Bortron ↗

Amazing new photos. Are they better quality copies of ones you posted previously, or entirely new shots?

Just better quality copies of images I posted on the first or second page of this thread.

[Buford61]

Jack McGrath was a great driver, remembered for his furious duel with Bill Vukovich for the lead at Indy in 1955. Vukovich didn't live through the race and McGrath didn't live through the year. My family and I were eating breakfast in the same restaurant with him and his car was on the trailer outside. They were heading for Phoenix. He didn't come back.