www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21484373
The joy of watching a live rally (to me anyway) is the lack of faff and officialdom...but...some people do seem to stand in the most unwise places.
There aren't many motorsports activities where you can get that close.
Balance about right..and this an unfortunate incident...or more work needed to make it safer?
I'm with the former statement.
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>>Balance about right..and this an unfortunate incident...or more works needed to make it safer?
I've seen some UK spectators stand in some remarkably daft places and I suspect most don't see the course as a driver would and work out the possibilities of error.
But, until we learn what occurred, pointless speculating.
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MOTOR SPORT IS DANGEROUS.
You see it everywhere at any motor sport event. I've been seriously frightened when marshalling and try to put something solid between me and anything wayward.
Trees tend to have more stopping power than lampposts.
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Stuff happens.
One thing I feel the need to comment on is the fact that the Rally was abandoned. Now we don't want a Heysel situation when a football match went ahead while 39 bodies were still warm, but I think people tend to over-react when a death occurs these days. Sad as it is life has to go on and I think as a nation we really need to man up a bit like we used to do pre Diana.
That's not intended as a lack of sympathy to the family of the poor woman, BTW.
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I have also seen marshals shifting spectators from obvious loss of control car trajectories, but they can't be everywhere. Many people seem to suffer from common sense failures or even a lack of a sense of self preservation.
As Slidingpillar, until we know..............
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 16 Feb 13 at 19:25
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Very sad.
Spectator wise things have moved on since these days:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdy8CG09rSU
Issue is that often spectators do not comprehend all the potential danger area for when a car is either too fast or has gone out of control. Despite Course Cars, Safety Cars and Marshals spectators are transient particularly in large venues such as forests where it would be impossible to put Marshals every 100 yards.
Ultimately, as is always signposted on access points, 'Motorsport is Dangerous'
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At rallying, this type of thing, whilst not common and cant be be described as usual, is not unknown. I think its generally accepted that rallying is the most dangerous of motor sports for spectators and crews, and there has rarely been a knee jerk reaction in the past.
Whilst killing the most spectacular views ever seen in motorsport, I think everyone accepts that banning Group B machinery was inevitable, as it was becoming a clear risk. Today its much safer.
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>> I think everyone accepts that banning Group B machinery was inevitable
They're still out there. I've marshalled a couple of times when they've been giving 'demonstration' runs. Vauxhall Viva V8 anyone?
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>> >> I think everyone accepts that banning Group B machinery was inevitable
>>
>> They're still out there. I've marshalled a couple of times when they've been giving 'demonstration'
>> runs. Vauxhall Viva V8 anyone?
>>
Baby Bertha?
www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/large/2361/Vauxhall-Firenza--Baby-Bertha-_3.jpg
Yes I know she's a Vauxhall Firenza ;-)
Last edited by: swiss tony on Sat 16 Feb 13 at 22:36
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I knew a guy who fitted a Ford V6 engine in a standard looking HB Viva, the only give away was the wider steel wheels. In its day it was an effective "Q" car.
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I wouldn't mind if they banned road rallies. For some reason our road is on a favoured route. One night a year we get more traffic than in the whole of the rest of the year, and it's constant speeding rally cars all night.
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People are wimps these days. Read Denis Jenkinson on co-driving Moss in the Mille Miglia, driving into an apparently unbroken dense crowd of spectators at 120mph on the way into Pescara and watching them part ahead of the car like the Red Sea... what Jenkinson couldn't fathom was how Moss always seemed to know which way the road was going when it wasn't dead straight.
Of course there were nearly always spectator deaths or injuries in the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio, both races really held on public roads. It went with the territory. An Italian playboy whose name I forget won a mid-fifties Targa in an open Ferrari, 'chainsmoking Havana cigars' and refreshing himself en route with 'the best part of a bottle of brandy'. That's what I call class.
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>> open Ferrari, 'chainsmoking
>> Havana cigars' and refreshing himself en route with 'the best part of a bottle of
>> brandy'. That's what I call class.
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Strangely, he never takes part in the West Wales Cilgwen Rally.
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>>Baby Bertha?
No this: The UK Firenza coupe was also offered in South Africa, with a special batch even having the small-block Chevrolet V8 stuffed in to make for a veritable wolf in sheep's clothing.
(Wiki).
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I remember one of the old drivers saying how terrifying it was to drive the Mille Miglia.
Not because of the rally itself, but due to the way the Italian spectators would stand in the road to get the best view, move aside at the last possible moment and then move back once you'd passed.
Apparently it took nerves of steel to drive, flat out, directly into a never-ending wall of human meat......
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Not nice, raft of legislation to follow? - Slidingpillar
