67Conti posted the link to this hair-raising compilation of folks flipping their cars on open days at the Nurburgring. Seat belts? Nein, mostly. Helmets? Nein. But drivers entering this tricky curve at Adenauer Forst too fast create a cavalcade of flips, pirouettes, gyrations and other assorted ways of crashing their little cars.
Note how many of them are either rear engine cars with swing axles, or BMWs with their semi-trailing rear axles that were also notorious for oversteer at the limit. Opel Kadetts were of course also notorious flippers, as Bob Lutz proved. Also note how all the Porsche 911 kept from flipping, no matter what their drivers dished out at them.
As a contrast, here’s some crash scenes from 2017. The difference in the speed, control and safety are vast, but there’s still plenty of bad driving.
That never seems to go out of fashion.
Thanks Paul, thought you would enjoy the swing axle flip show.
That second video looked a lot more expensive…
What strikes me is how flimsy most of these cars were and how easily they fell apart and broke glass. OMG that guy who was thrown from his Beetle – wow that was heartstopping!
Here’s a extended (33 minute) version of the 1970 Nurburgring video.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dy1mnnXJuyzQ&ved=2ahUKEwiyrrefzIndAhUHCTQIHehLBj0QtwIwAnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3OQoXZAsaRcfgrXLpm-k3Y
I was SO worried when I saw the convertible Beetle!
+100 !!
And it had four people in it, too. Perhaps that helped keeping its wheels on the ground?
No convertible Beetle (or Renault Caravelle, or Fiat 850 Spider…) for me after seeing this video.
You are aware that these are all inspired on Hans Ledwinka’s Tatra 87?
Yes, Rammstein, I am aware.
I’m sure you know they didn’t really do rear-engined convertibles… except one or two four-door T87 for the Kommandantur (circa 1941) and a T600 cabriolet for “Comrade” Stalin in 1949.
Czech secret weapon indeed.
It certainly gets your attention!
The weight may have helped, putting a bit more of it forward, but it’s also that it’s a Superbug, without the awful swing axles. The wheels never tuck under, and it’s mainly that, combined with some deft/lucky driver reactions, that saved their necks.
You’ve put your finger on it. The swing axles were notorious for jacking up, which caused the tucked under steel wheel rim to make contact with the pavement (or dirt), which then meant that all the momentum was turned into flipping over, rather than sliding or skidding.
The Superbeetle convertible behaved like the 911s, keeping the wheels perpendicular to the pavement and allowing the tires to scrub off speed. This convertible was a graphic example as to the shortcomings of swing axles and the improvement of the proper irs.
I only saw one IRS Beetle flip, at 6:25 the yellow and black Beetle, looks to be a 1973 GSR, has the big round taillamps that came out that year, the video is newer then 1970. All the other IRS Beetles just spun out.
I once spun my ’73 Sport Bug on Angeles Crest Highway soon after I installed my 1835 cc engine, I kept it floored and it followed the curve but did a 180 in the process!
IIRC, the IRS was introduced on the Beetle in 1969. They _should_ have been introduced a lot sooner.
1969-1970 is the sweet spot for Beetles. 12 volt ignition, proper IRS and the 1500 or 1600 single port.
I replayed that part several times. Props to him. He was really wheeling it and stayed ahead of it .
One big difference: In Germany, the track owners don’t get sued successfully.
I’d seen this before, I had assumed that they were actually TRYING to flip the cars. But in 1970 those would have been fairly new cars, so then I’m thinking why oh why are they doing that with their actual cars?
But I also see there is no shortage of people willing to crash their daily driver even today.
And I didn’t notice before that none of the Porsches rolled over. Very interesting…
Oh man; hair-raising is right. That was painful to watch. You can only hope most of these people escaped without lasting injuries.
On a sad side note: Rest In Peace, John McCain. A true hero.
Despite the inherent dangers of the vehicles of the day, especially those with oversteer-prone suspensions, and perhaps because of them to an extent, I found the first video entertaining. They were not going terribly fast, and it seemed that most of the cars were just flipped back over and the drivers walked away, perhaps a little dazed and a few Deutsch Marks poorer, after each misadventure.
I found the second video frightening. The cars were going much faster, and the crashes were thus much more dramatic, and, as Ed Stembridge noted, the vehicular carnage much more expensive. I understand that modern vehicles are designed to crumple in crashes, and the panoply of safety features gives drivers a better chance of survival in crashes, but it is hard for me to fathom people risking their lives and their nice cars so recklessly. It appears that they enter this set of tight turns ignorant of what lies ahead.
Do they run the course ahead of time to familiarize themselves with it, or do they just go for it? It seems a very bad idea to allow inexperienced drivers to run this course at such speeds. Though they may have a right to risk their own cars and lives, they do not have a right to endanger other people’s lives and property in the process.
I like the Lemons races. They have spinouts and entertaining foolishness, with controls in place to make sure all participants live to see another day.
Likely inexperience combined with no instructor familiar with the track in the passenger seat, adrenaline, and finally the “red mist” of developing judgement fatigue on a challenging course like the ‘Ring, aka “The Green Hell” led to the outcomes we saw, and will continue to see year after year into the future.
The Nurburgring has been so thoroughly replicated in most racing games in the last decade+, I bet a sizable portion of newer drivers may actually be intimately familiar with the route. Perhaps too familiar, assuming their boss driving with their index fingers and thumbs translates to feet and arms in a real car, so no need to take it easy. I know I never spun out or flipped over in that corner!
Maybe. Not even the greats (Fangio et al.) ever admitted to being across the whole course – varying weather conditions at different parts of this broad geographical footprint being a significant factor. Of course, in olden times these drivers could count their laps of the ‘Ring in the hundreds (and that was the experienced ones), whereas these days its possible to do thousands of laps in replicated form – with the help of home pizza delivery (and an empty soft drink bottle).
The difference in the two videos seems to be the cars in the first drivers are exceeding the limits of the cars while in second those are capable cars but being past the drivers limits and the newer ones certainly crash better.
Well I’ll be damned, a few drivers were actually safely tossed from the cars lol
First video certainly demonstrates the slow car fast mantra well, and I agree, that the second video was more hair raising to watch, I don’t know if it’s the lack of tire screeching but *most* of the wipeouts in the first one seem more fun and ego bruising than tense and scary like the second.
Old cars handle a few prangs if you get the right one Ive rolled a Singer Gazelle and a Humber 80 both badge engineered versions of the Minx I have now both drove away from the scene neither even broke a window just some dents and gravel rash on the roof, over built and underpowered a bit like those Beetles
If purely mechanical cars like these would be re-introduced today, the death toll on our roads would increase dramatically, most people have not got a clue of how they are helped and often saved by electronics.
Nor do they have a clue of what they are doing and how safe cars are today.
In Europe ‘petrol heads all boast about RWD, 700 BHP in a Mercedes AMG C class, totally impossible to drive without the constant aid of Robert Bosch electronics division.
In those days FWD was the thing in Europe, cars like Mini, Autobianchi and Citroën were leading the way, Mini was so successfull in rallies because it was small, nimble and had FWD, BMC preferred the Mini over the Austin Healey, the MGB and the Austin A40 Farina.
The road toll in New Zealand is on the rise again but we have a lot of roads like the nurburgring but with traffic in both directions and an awful lot of imported used late model cars.
Do they charge extra to sweep the track, after you ball up the family car?
On public days, yes, according to a Nurburgring FAQ I found. At least there seems to be a “Car Recovery Fee.” The public sessions actually sound like a real mess, with long delays, big crowds, and inevitable accidents. Still a thrill to drive, I imagine, so long as you know what you’re getting into.
I want the towing concession at the ‘Ring!
The first video is proof, if ever it were needed, of the dangerous, wholly inappropriate fitment of the cheap swing axle in daily road use. Probably killed and maimed more people than any other motoring invention, after the rigid steering column.
The second video is resounding proof of the wholesale changes largely forced onto a recalcitrant industry regarding safety in the intervening decades. It’s also proof that a modern-tyred and suspended car has to be going at a hell of a bat to let go. And then when it does, momentum is very unforgiving.
Best Nurburgring film, in my book is this:
https://youtu.be/5_PIXCxZiZc
I love it! Those Renault van and Transit drivers are damn good. Or damn fools, perhaps.
How pissed-off would you be to pay whatever Euros it is to then find a dirty great tourist bus blocking your lap!
The driver of the Renault van (Frank Habitz Trockenbau) is a regular there. He can be spotted gunning his van down the Ring nearly every week apparently, and he’s pretty good at it judging by this video.
More curious I found that rental lorry, with the load hatch opened. Avis will be happy.
Yep – the 911s end up facing backwards. Notoriously typical.
So many wrecked Beetles! Heinrich Nordhoff wept!
The soundtrack reminded me a lot of Kraftwerk’s stuff. Put on headphones for the full effect of the introduction 🙂
Here’s a sample
I presume the Nurburgring is surrounded by breakers’ yards, so that the wrecks don’t have to be moved very far…..
I visited Nürburgring a few years ago and was bemused to see so many Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32, R33, R34, etc.) with British numberplates. I don’t think I’ve seen all generations (from 1990s onward) of Skyline GT-R in one place that’s not a museum or car meet.
The oddest vehicle I saw was a long-wheelbase, high-roof Ford Transit van with four or five passengers and a toddler in his booster seat, racing down the track.
As others have said, it’s hard to imagine so many people destroying their daily driver on a whim.
Then there is the video of the guy who overcooked it on the Autobahn.
The music in the 1970ish clip doesn’t sound right for the on screen mayhem. Seems they could have used something from the Benny Hill Show, or better yet, this classic.
Note at 1:18 in the OP video, the passenger smashes the side window with his head… hair-raising indeed