Ooops DN 19/07/2011

[Porter]

[Loaded]

Originally Posted by rstoughy

Drifting and the ring dont really go

Holy fuck........!

[RonBurgandy]

102k on the clock and wants 13500 big ones for it and was only doing 15mph albeit backwards heading for something tougher than a car, its popped up for sale on pistonheads with a bit of an appology tagged along with it, nice pics tho

[sailorbaz]

Good find, bloody shame though. Someone will get a good buy no doubt though. Hope she stays on the road but at 100K I can see it being a track whore soon,

[alclark]

Always bad to see people crashing. Hope no one was hurt!

But there's nothing complicated or dangerous about drifting at the 'Ring any more than any other track. Looks like poor Nick (?) just had a moment of error and made the classic mistake of braking during a spin - rear wheels have already lost traction and brakes just cause the car to rotate faster, and downhill in this instance.

In that instance, you would want to just shut down the throttle and let the back end grip first before braking.
[/suckingeggs]

[shane@mbtech]

Originally Posted by alclark

Always bad to see people crashing. Hope no one was hurt!

But there's nothing complicated or dangerous about drifting at the 'Ring any more than any other track. Looks like poor Nick (?) just had a moment of error and made the classic mistake of braking during a spin - rear wheels have already lost traction and brakes just cause the car to rotate faster, and downhill in this instance.

In that instance, you would want to just shut down the throttle and let the back end grip first before braking.
[/suckingeggs]

2ft of grass then Armco is more risky than 50ft of kitty litter.

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by lawsy

2ft of grass then Armco is more risky than 50ft of kitty litter.

Amen to that brother....

[alclark]

Depends how you look at it. Not that many tracks actually have 'that' much run off - Bedford, Silverstone, Cadwell, Brands Hatch etc all have 'drifty' sections with armco or walls literally next to the track edge too which regularly collect cars. You drift in a context of a safety margin, can you escape for example in the situation of a spin, or a car parked across the track - if there is oil can you collect the car before a wall etc.

I don't consider the 'Ring to be any more dangerous, but it is a hell of a lot more expensive if the worst does happen. I've done 720 odd laps there and touch wood havn't crashed once, and I slide the car more or less constantly as I'm a big child. :D

Anyway, glad to see no one was hurt, after all it's only a car! Hope the sale of the car is quick, good value for someone!

[shimmy]

The chances of crashing at the Ring have got to be substantially higher than any other track (that I know).


I know of dozens of people that have crashed at the Ring bu I struggle to name anybody I know and onl a couple of people I don't who have crashed on a circuit.

But if it's suits your risk profile to tell that to yourself en fair play, if it gets you out there drifting

[alclark]

On percentages, the 'Ring has far more 'completed safely' laps than most circuits. You can probably imagine 60-120 cars on a regular circuit trackday, you might see anywhere between 1 to 3 crashes if any, where as many as perhaps 2500 cars might lap the Nordschleife on a busy weekend day, and 10-15 prang, maybe 2 or 3 significant closures.

I'd say, and most regulars would agree, that was more the fact that the 'Ring is simply an inherently difficult track. It's 4-6 times as long as most circuits and it takes so long to really learn, coupled with the fact that most of it's blind, often filled with slow moving traffic, changes every year, and a place where a lot of people go to drive often far faster than their real ability or knowledge allows. And as it's so far away, most have to re-learn it to a certain extent every trip if they only go once or twice a year.

The most common crash on the 'Ring is generally classed as 'Single Vehicle, Knowledge Bank Empty'. In this case, perhaps judgement temporarily gave way to awesomeness from the Metgesfeld2 drift, and went in to Kallenhard and turned too late. You need to be initiating a drift well before the racing lines turn in point if you want to drift there.

As long as you keep that safety zone in mind, and to a certain amount stay lucky with oil spills and mechanical failures, then it's as safe as anywhere else, and much more amazing and rewarding, I firmly believe.