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Drivers who've been thrown from their cars


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#201 bill p

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 16:37

On the Saturday live streaming from the Goodwood Revival I'm sure I saw the pilote being ejected from single seat Maserati(?) as it spun backwards

into  a tyre wall.It was only a brief shot obviously so as not to cause offence.......can anyone confirm?

 

See, http://jalopnik.com/...-cra-1634332176

 

Driver, Klaus Wehr, seemed ok but probably had bruises and skinned shins - a lucky man


Edited by bill p, 22 September 2014 - 16:38.


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#202 ron54

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 17:25

Thank you Bill...



#203 E1pix

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 18:27

Ben Pon was thrown out of his Porsche 787 in his only Formula 1 World Championship race - the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix


... and Ben Pon, Sr. drew the napkin-based concept that turned into the first VW bus!

#204 pacerman

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Posted 25 September 2014 - 08:29

John Hough was thrown from his ex Atkins, Glass, Geary T45 Cooper Maserati at Lowood on 9th September 1962.

It was discovered years later that the fuel pump on his car had seized causing the car to suddenly slow and the car was hit from behind. John was thrown from the car and rolled down the track for quite some distance having his clothes stripped from him. He died from his injuries in the ambulance on the way to hospital. The car was held at the Lowood police station while an inquest took place and was returned to the family almost a year later. Johns brother Ralph, who owned the car with John, still has the Cooper Maserati and the ex Moss, Gaze, Davison, Glass, Geary HWM Jaguar which John also raced.



#205 tsrwright

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Posted 03 February 2015 - 02:10

I have read every posting including Michael Henderson's, but can't find when harnesses/roll-over protection were mandated by the CSI/FIA.

 

Does anybody know for sure? Late 'sixties probably, which is far beyond my tiny field of information.

 

I have worked out that the reason Cooper 500s occasionally appeared with a roll-hoop in the early 'fifities was that they will have been to Scandanavia where some/all countries mandated them. Was that  because there was a long tradition of dirt and ice racing?


Edited by tsrwright, 03 February 2015 - 02:12.


#206 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 February 2015 - 03:32

Soon after Niel Allen's 1968 crash...

I'm sure that's in this thread. Within six months, I'd say.

#207 Jimisgod

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Posted 03 February 2015 - 15:21

How did anyone survive being thrown out of a car at those speeds? Wouldn't the G-forces alone break your neck?

Or am I calculating the forces wrong, given motorbike riders frequently fall at those speeds and are, usually, fine after a slide and tumble.

#208 Spaceframe

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Posted 03 February 2015 - 17:09

I have read every posting including Michael Henderson's, but can't find when harnesses/roll-over protection were mandated by the CSI/FIA.

 

Does anybody know for sure? Late 'sixties probably, which is far beyond my tiny field of information.

 

I have worked out that the reason Cooper 500s occasionally appeared with a roll-hoop in the early 'fifities was that they will have been to Scandanavia where some/all countries mandated them. Was that  because there was a long tradition of dirt and ice racing?

I don't know about Scandinavian  roll-hoops, but roll-over bars became mandatory in F1 from 1961. No specificated strength, though...



#209 D-Type

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Posted 03 February 2015 - 17:55

How did anyone survive being thrown out of a car at those speeds? Wouldn't the G-forces alone break your neck?

Or am I calculating the forces wrong, given motorbike riders frequently fall at those speeds and are, usually, fine after a slide and tumble.

It's the shock when you stop the body and not the head that causes a broken neck - or vice versa.  People survive because of the lack of sudden retardation, eg a motorcyclist sliding.



#210 tsrwright

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 10:45

I think I can answer the rest my own question as I came across this today by chance:

 

According to Michael Henderson's report to CAMS on the accident leading to the death of Spencer Flack at Phillip Island in February 2002 which is quoted in the State Coroner's findings of 4 July 2004:

 

He noted three drivers being ejected  from crashing BRM Types P25s, Mike Hawthorn 1956 Goodwood, Tony Brooks Silverstone (no date) and Hans Hermann at Avus (no date) all without major injury.

 

Late in 1967 Louis Stanley had a six point harness designed by Michael fitted to Jackie Stewart's BRM and this was later fitted to Stewart's Matra. By the end of 1968  all active F1 cars were fitted with harnesses and "in 1968" FIA made belt anchorages compulsory along with recommendations on harnesses. However 6 point harnesses were not mandated for F1 until 1972.

 

Can anyone add to that please and/or suggest sources?

 

PS I was staggered to read that Spencer Flacks' fuel, according to his mechanic's statement, was "10% nitromethane" !


Edited by tsrwright, 06 February 2015 - 11:05.


#211 Ray Bell

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 12:23

Hans Hermann's ejection was at the German GP of 1959...

He was dumped out as the car flipped, there's lots of photos of that around.

#212 Tomas Karlsson

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 21:20


I have worked out that the reason Cooper 500s occasionally appeared with a roll-hoop in the early 'fifities was that they will have been to Scandanavia where some/all countries mandated them. Was that  because there was a long tradition of dirt and ice racing?

When Sweden had their first rules for the 500cc "midgets", or F3 as it was to become, in early 1948, roll-hoops were mandatory. So the Swedish Effyhs and Swebes had them from the beginning and all imported cars, the first Cooper in May '48, had to fit them. And they worked, quite different from the flimsy bars on the FJuniors and the F1 cars from '61.

There also had to be a hoop in the front over the dash-board. As many drivers also had waist safety-belts, there were several drivers who could walk away from wild rolls. There were two drivers killed though. One when the car slided into a telegraph-pole and one when the the driver were not wearing a safety-belt. Sture Selander fell out of his Effyh at Gardermoen race in Norway in 1949 and was killed by the somersaulting car.

The reason for the roll-bars was because the "midgets" were only thought to be racing on speedway and trotting ovals.

It was a pity that the rules weren't carried over to other types of racing cars.


Edited by Tomas Karlsson, 06 February 2015 - 21:21.


#213 DUFFY

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Posted 07 February 2015 - 10:09

Hi All,

 

Anyone identify this car and driver?

 

https://revslib.stan...log/ks366gs8360

 

Tony Stanton, Compiler of the Rochdale Olympic History Archives.

 

 



#214 tsrwright

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Posted 10 February 2015 - 08:50

When Sweden had their first rules for the 500cc "midgets", or F3 as it was to become, in early 1948, roll-hoops were mandatory. So the Swedish Effyhs and Swebes had them from the beginning and all imported cars, the first Cooper in May '48, had to fit them. And they worked, quite different from the flimsy bars on the FJuniors and the F1 cars from '61.

There also had to be a hoop in the front over the dash-board. As many drivers also had waist safety-belts, there were several drivers who could walk away from wild rolls. There were two drivers killed though. One when the car slided into a telegraph-pole and one when the the driver were not wearing a safety-belt. Sture Selander fell out of his Effyh at Gardermoen race in Norway in 1949 and was killed by the somersaulting car.

The reason for the roll-bars was because the "midgets" were only thought to be racing on speedway and trotting ovals.

It was a pity that the rules weren't carried over to other types of racing cars.

 

Tomas, useful information, thank you. Was it only Sweden or Denmark too?



#215 Tomas Karlsson

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Posted 10 February 2015 - 09:32

I think Denmark had their rules from 1947 and as far as I know they also had rules about roll-over bars. But I don't know how long these rules existed. There were almost only oval tracks in Denmark by that time and their midget-rules consisted of several classes, where up to 500cc was one. So you could also find roll-over bars on bigger cars in Denmark in the late Forties.

When the international F3-rules were set in 1949, the Danish and Swedish rules were mixed with the British. Unfortunately the roll-over bars disappeared in the process.

 

I found it! Denmark got their midget-rules in August 1947 and they had mandatory roll-over bars. They had four classes -500, 501-1100, 1101-2000 and over 2000.


Edited by Tomas Karlsson, 10 February 2015 - 11:53.


#216 Graham Clayton

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Posted 11 April 2015 - 08:55

After Bert McNeece was thrown from his #27 car at the Lakeside Speedway at Denver, Colorado in 1939, he landed on top of the cars of Bill Logan (#44) and Harold Mainard (#19) , as seen in this amazing photo:

600-WD-632.jpg

 

Source: http://www.coastal18.../600-WD-632.jpg