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[w3526602]

Hi,

I watched the start of Le Man on TV ... even the crashes were boring.

Try a Google for  "Le Mans 1954 crash. Newsreel film". Distressing footage of probably the worst motor racing accident ever. I don't know how many were killed, but I think it was in the hundreds. Sort of concentrates the mind.

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[Alan Drover]

It was 1955, 34 fatalities and 120.non fatalities.

[w3526602]

Hi Niel,

Thanks for the corrections ... not as bad as I thought ... but still bad.

I have read that the initial crash was caused by a car with the new disc brakes being able to slow down faster than the car behind.

I also read that one driver reckoned he owed his life to the driver in front raising his arm vertically above his head ... the international sign for ... "I'm in deep do-do!"

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[w3526602]

Hi Neil,

Google ...

What was death toll of 1954 Le Mans race?

The answer I'm getting is 80 to 84, with suspicions of much higher toll.

A Google for the Pathe news-reel footage shows what I think is a loose engine flying over then into the crowd. The commentator sounds like he is in tears.

I'm not being morbid, just wanting to remind people that motor racing is dangerous.

I am still trying to trace footage of a film I saw as a teenager (mid-1950s?) I'm sure it starred Cesar Romeo (sp?), and the film might have been called THE RACER ... or maybe it wasn't. 

The scene involved a red single seater racing car, in a pre-war race, in Monte Carlo. A white poodle in the crowd spied a cat on the other side of the track, and went into "pursuit mode". The driver swerved to avoid the dog, went off the road, through some straw bales, across a courtyard, up a flight of stone steps, and along a balcony, and crashed to the wall at the end.

I've seen the same shot in a film called "Such Men are Dangerous" (modern version?) about a pre-war playboy, who singly handed (with a machine gun) held up the enemy trying to cross a bridge, during WW2 (just long enough), before being killed.

I sometimes wonder if the racing crash sequence was actually in the script? I mean ... where would you find a "stunt" poodle?

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[w3526602]

Hi again,

Try ... https://www.britishpathe.com/video/selected-originals-le-mans-disaster

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[Youngun]

Worst part of the 1955 crash was the rear axle sailing through the stands at head height...

Neal

[Wittsend]

On the bottom of all/most motor sport posters, advertising is the strap line:- "Motor Sport is dangerous".

Killing spectators on rally stages was/is quite common 

[w3526602]

Hi,

The winner appears to have been Mike Hawthorn, who was later killed in an RTA, assumed to be when he "lost it" while driving his Jaguar (2.4? 3.4?) saloon (aka "sedan" to our colonial cousins) in the wet ... memory says on the Guildford by-pass.

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[Youngun]

Killing spectators on rally stages was/is quite common 

The death toll with rally fans was because they'd stand on the course as a barely controlled saloon car slid towards them at high velocity with no hope in hell of stopping and step out of the way at the last second...
It wasn't the group A cars crashing that killed the Group A class, it was the fans they took out in the process

Neal

[Matt Reeves]

The death toll with rally fans was because they'd stand on the course as a barely controlled saloon car slid towards them at high velocity with no hope in hell of stopping and step out of the way at the last second...
It wasn't the group A cars crashing that killed the Group A class, it was the fans they took out in the process

Neal

Do you mean group B Neal? I thought it was the death of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto in Corsica in 1986 that ended group B? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zpzOf4-6GoE

[Matt Reeves]

Few people seem to know his name now, but a successful racing and rally driver who was a contemporary of Mike Hawthorne was Ken Wharton. Ken died after clipping a post in his Ferrari during a race at Ardmore New Zealand in 1957. The crash was filmed and can be found on YouTube (I'm purposely not posting the link) as Ken was ejected from the car, in the mid 50's it was still not uncommon for racing drivers to not wear seatbelts for fear of being trapped in a burning car.

I have an interest in Ken as I have a small collection of rally plates from his cars dating from the time he spent rallying in Europe in the early 50's.

[Youngun]

Yes, sorry Group B... spell check changed it to A

I think it was a combination of crashes and suicidal spectators (literally a combination in some cases)

The same year at Rally Portugal, Santos went off in his RS200 killed a couple of spectators and injured another couple of dozen... I think the Toivenon crash just nailed the lid on it

Neal

[w3526602]

Hi,

I believe that military fighter pilots are in deep do-do if caught playing silly b*****s at low level.

Douglas Bader's crash, depicted in the film "Reach for the Sky", sort of concentrates the mind. Is the anybody here who hasn't seen the film? I assume Google can find that scene from film.

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[w3526602]

Hi,

Find the film here .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LgYtZ0yLCM ... every red blooded British lad should watch this film. The crash (while showing off) is depicted in the first few minutes.

Bader went on (without his legs) to fight in the Battle of Britain ... and led the WW2 Victory Celebration fly-past over London.

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[Alan Drover]

The 4 rotor Mazda at Le Mans some time ago was an interesting vehicle. Extremely noisy I heard. Rotary engines were banned afterwards.