View Single Post
Old 3 May 2010, 09:57 (Ref:2683673)   #70
Malfunction Junction
Racer
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 436
Malfunction Junction should be qualifying in the top 10 on the gridMalfunction Junction should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Some years ago Markus Winkelhock, not a hack by any description, managed to roll one of these things over on the Nordschleife, IIRC without the assistance of any other driver.


As for those who don't want a physics lesson, look away now, even though I'm going to resist facepalming at the arguments in favour of acceleration while upside down or on wet grass.

Numerous racing cars perform poorly while travelling across an irregular surface. Even those designed for irregular surfaces (rally, speedway etc) often don't remain in contact with that surface when rolling dynamically (while in motion). We wouldn't need roll cages otherwise.

It is conceivable that a car travelling across, say, a gravel trap may be elevated above it's normal distance from the surface. Placing a compressible obstacle across the projected path requires consideration of whether the vehicle may adopt a trajectory as a result.

In other words, if a car's rolling over the sand trap, it's centre of gravity is going to be higher so it's going to be easier for it to be flipped over the tyres into the fence/crowd. Add rows of tyres to approx 1.5 times the height of the vehicle while stationary and you should be able to manage even rollovers.

That said, the circumstances prevailing here are exceptional, the sunday accident at the same spot being much more representative, but now that it's happened, it needs to be addressed.

This will probably require a bit of earthworks to elevate the spectator area, but it's not too bad.

On the same topic, it still amazes me to see how poorly protected some marshalling points are, but that's another thread....
Malfunction Junction is offline  
__________________
david5: Just because something is popular, doesn't mean it's right, look at blowflies eating horse **** for instance.
Quote