Rally Car Crash Very Close Call

[kellyhound]

Kept his cool though

[kosmos]

He is a real pro...
Nearly died but he did his job!!!

[firedog25]

Deaths happen in rallying on a fairly regular basis. Try to find some Group-B rally videos, that's when you see a sea of people parting around a rally car sliding sideways at 80+ mph in the gravel. I think there's some footage of Henri Toivonen's fatal crash somewhere on the net. That was the end of Group-B. Rally drivers are truly the most talented on the planet, but when they wreck it's epic.

[chris]

damn, I would have totally shit my pants...

[Bebe1353]

I don't know how he stayed so calm I would have peed myself.

[firedog25]

There's still a spectator problem, but there's very little you can do to control that. You tell people "don't stand here" and they still do to get the best action shots or spectator spots to see a car careen past them and pepper them with gravel, mud, snow, etc.,etc. The last time I remember there being spectator deaths in a WRC event was Carlos Sainz in a Ford Focus, he lost it and rolled into a crowd. The last driver or co-driver death I remember was Michael Park about 4 years ago. That was enough to cause the driver, Markko Martin, to quit driving rally cars.

Modern WRC cars are "production" based, the basic shell is a production car, very little else. Maybe the windscreens and the dashboard shape. Group-B cars were pretty much no holds barred, tube framed, purpose built race weapons created to go as fast as possible. Because they were so fast they had to sprout wings to keep them on the ground. Oddly enough, WRC cars are limited to 300hp via a restrictor plate in the intake, but they're just as fast if not faster than Group-B cars thanks to modern pace notes and electronic drive controls. Just to give you an idea of how hard they were pushing technology in Group-B, the Ford RS200 was pushing about 600bhp from a 1.8 liter engine. The Lancia Delta S4 was about the same, Audi used a 2.5 liter five cylinder front mounted in their Quattro S1 but the power outputs were just as stratospheric. Not bad for 1980's technology, huh?

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by firedog25

the Ford RS200 was pushing about 600bhp from a 1.8 liter engine.
Not bad for 1980's technology, huh?

That's amazing
Seen enough vids of spectators getting hit by them but in most cases they stand too close to the track or even in bends.
It's often stupidity rules.
All going for the golden shot on their cams.

[the hated]

i totally understand what you mean firedog, i do alot of motorsport photography and also i'm in a drift team so i see both sides of it lol i've not had any episodes as close as that guy in the vid tho !

I follow the WRC when it comes to my country and have noticed alot of people standing on the outside of bends ( worst place to be ) and have seen a few close calls when the drivers get it wrong, personally i hide behind a nice big sturdy tree and just pop out from teh side to take the pics so at least i have somethign to stop the car from hitting me should i need it..

[firedog25]

One of the bigger U.S. rallies is in my area. I got one of the Subaru World Rally Team's baby onesies for my daughter and took her. We got two of everything they were giving away and I got to talk to the U.S. Prodrive President for an extended period of time. I also happen to have a bug-eye Impreza WRX (2.0 liter, not the bastard 2.5 nowadays), I keep it for sentimental reasons... namely because it was the chassis that Richard Burns took the 2001 Driver's Title in.