Club Arnage

Well not quite, hehe...

I was playing the Group C mod, for the game F1 Challenge, driving round Le Mans in my Peugeot, and THIS happened! :D :O :D

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_000.jpg)

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_004.jpg)

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_001.jpg)

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_002.jpg)

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_003.jpg)

(http://members.lycos.co.uk/mikehoyerf1/GroupC/GRAB_005.jpg)

I ended up against the wall at Mulsanne corner... spectacular!

Btw, this was NOT planned, it just happened... I think the GroupC default setup for Le Mans needs some major tweaks, ride height is too low, and it's too slow down the Mulsanne straight...

Shame your weren't playing in a merc!

Yeah it was, but I haven't got a 99 Merc, only one I have is the Sauber, and I couldn't get that to crash :D

What game is that ?

did that happen that long ago!

It's F1 Challenge 99-02 by EA Sports, then a free Group C add-on, so you can drive early 90's Le Mans cars. The Le Mans track is awesome! That is the pre-2002 version, however there is also 2002 onwards, and no-chicane versions.

It's great stuff, proper simulation, rather than arcade.

The real thing looks better!
H


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Does anyone have a copy of the movie file that was going round with the merc flipping, changed the pc a couple of times and have managed to loose the file.

I've got it somewhere, the one going into the trees (Dumbreck), I've also got a video of the aftermath of Webber's crash.

Abs,
I've got a 16 second 1 MB mpeg on my PC.  PM me your e-mail address and I'll forward it to you.

On the Friday before the race that year, we parked the car by this hill and then went off through the woods trying to find to road (that is open during the race).

I rember saying that when the race is on we should track back through the woods and watch the race, which would have been close to where it landed. Luckily we ended up drinking around the time instead.

BigH, is that a pic of the morning warm-up flip?

Oui, LMD.
Here's a pic a couple of frames further on.
It's mindboggling to think that Merc thought it would be ok to send out the cars in the race. I would imagine Drumbreck wasn't exactly thrilled with the team management after his episode. Mind you, I doubt if he complained much in case he jeopardised his future with Merc.
I wonder if the Viper driver knew what was going on? It's difficult to judge the depth but it looks as though he drove underneath the Merc after it went airborn.
If he did see it all, I think his reaction may have similar to the driver who watched the EB110 snap sideways in front of him and pirohuette down the Mulsanne in, err, 94?, ish. A short stop for new overalls, a shower, and plenty of Johnsons Baby Powder...
H

and here is the file...



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"Can I come out now please?...."






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I suspect that blow-overs are a bit of an occupational hazard in sportscar racing, on low downforce circuits in particular. A Porsche 911 GT1 suffered an almost identical accident at Road Atlanta in 1999 (I think). The 'yump' in the track, both on the Mulsanne and at RA was thought to unsettle the front suspension (aided by the loss of a front canard, in the case of the Merc), allowing air to get under the front of the cars, which were both worryingly aerofoil shaped in profile. The Wright brothers theories took care of the rest. I'm fairly certain that a Sauber took flight in an early 90's practice session too - no doubt one of our experts can confirm or deny. I think it did a full 360 back-flip and ended up back on it's wheels.
The most troubling incidents on the straight in recent times seem to have stayed on the track. The Nimrod collision in 84 (or was it 85?) involving Olson and Salmon was very, very scary though neither car broke the surly bonds of earth. Both La Fosse and Gartner only became airboune after colliding with the guardrail, I believe.
I met Peter Dumbreck recently - he was obviously weary of recounting the details of his flight, but he said that the front end lift happened so gradually that he was only aware of it when the steering wheel stopped working!
 

On the CA site in the race history, 1999 coverage...

www.clubarnage.com/lm99/99images/1999_race/index.html

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page theres an MPEG of the Merc...

Scary...

Road Atlanta has been the scene of several alarming blow-overs.  In addition to the Dalmas flip in '98, Bill Auberlin repeated the trick the following year in a BMW LMP, same spot, almost identical gyration.  These two joined an illustrious list that includes the late great Mark Donohue, Denny Hulme and Hurley Haywood who all flipped Ca-Am machines over the Road Atlanta Flugplatz in the early seventies.  Donohue being the only injury of the lot when the tail section of his Porsche 917/10 became detached in an accident horribly similar to the one that claimed the life of Bruce McLaren at Goodwood in 1970.  The Dalmas and Auberlin flips both coming when they were running closely behind another car when cresting the brow.  The Sauber flip happened in the mid-eighties with John Nielson at the wheel, the machine amazingly coming to a rest right side up but with a very rattled Dane behind the wheel.
John

Blow overs aren't restricted to roundy roundy racing.

Drag racing has had it's fair share.
This picture of Don Garlits' blowover resulted in a Vertical wheelstand, smashing the rear wing and damaging the rear end - all whilst at 200+mph.

The car then rotated on it's rear, dropped onto 4 wheels (smashing the front part of the chassis) and started back towards the start line!!

Two blowovers in close succession prompted Garlits to pull out of drag racing shortly afterwards.

(http://www.draglist.com/photoimages/Photos-2000/Big%20Daddy%20Don%20Garlits%20Blowover.%20Photo%20by%20Mark%20Hovsepian.jpg)

Then this happens

(http://www.nhra.org/2003/news/september/images/vandy2.jpg)

Boats can do it too

(http://www.sclakes.com/pictures/Broussard_Blowover.jpg)

This is all that remained of Mark Donohue's Penske Porsche 917/10
after the rear bodywork tore off cresting the hump on Road Atlanta's back straight while testing two weeks prior to the start of the 1972 Can-Am season.  The fact that he came away from this with nothing worse than a couple of torn knee ligaments is nothing short of mind-boggling.
John

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I have a very nasty collection of movie files that a mate supplied me - mostly grusome F1 stuff from the 70s