Richard Hammond from the UK's "Top Gear" TV programme talking through the moments when he crashed in a Jet Car at 288mph ..... and lived Just loaded up on www.V8Hotrod.com Cheers Ratman
Gary Gabelich crashed a Bonneville going twice that fast & a bit more!! Thats pretty hairy tho, glad Hammy Hammond seems to be making a full recovery
Wasn't Art Arfons over 600 mph when he turned over at Bonneville ? Edit : I found this at "speedace". "In 1966 Arfons returned once again to Bonneville, but reached an average speed of only 554.017 miles per hour. (891.604 km/h) On run number seven at 8:03 AM on November 17, Arfons crashed his vehicle travelling 610 miles per hour (982 km/h) when a wheel bearing froze. He subsequently built another Green Monster land speed record car, but sold it to California rancher Slick Gardner without ever driving it."
Best not get into a who crashed at the highest speed thing here, point is, Hammond is a TV presenter, this accident raised all sorts of questions as to whether programming made them take unneccessary risks to make the programmes more exciting. He suffered massive head injuries in the accident and has made a recovery that can only be described as miraculous. The accident happened months ago, and this is the first time this footage has been released. This was /is big news here in the UK and it's chilling to watch. Hard to believe he's there is such cheery form to tell the tale. Thanks for posting the link. Mart.
Just added a link, from "Top Gear", showing a computer-generated reconstruction of what happened using the jet cars telemetry data. Cheers Ratman www.V8Hotrod.com
Found this .... Blame Game has started I think ! Quote.... "Mr Hammond had a puncture and carried on with the tyre deflated" Unquote err, yeah mate at 288mph, you would be ! This is the press release ..... The owner of the jet car involved in a high-speed crash which nearly claimed the life of Richard Hammond appeared to lay the blame for the accident on the Top Gear presenter. Dramatic footage of the crash clearly showed the car's right front tyre shredded following a blowout as Hammond tore down an airfield runway at speeds approaching 300mph. He appeared to lose control of the dragster, which veered off the runway on to the grass before overturning. But in TheSun newspaper, Colin Fallows suggested Hammond was to some extent to blame for the crash by "failing to adhere to the briefing". He said: "Mr Hammond had a puncture and carried on with the tyre deflated", adding that Hammond "stood on the brakes" after the blowout. He said: "Once these cars are in motion you don't touch the brakes. You stay on the prescribed line and should always be aware of the unexpected. "By failing to adhere to the briefing, what would have been a controllable incident ended in a major accident."
Wow-that must of been a rush! You know at that speed, he probably didn't even have time to register the accident-that's insane!
He said i got 10,000 horsepower n the biggest crash ever........BEFORE he started the run in which he actually crashed ................
skimmer, yeah and I love the bit where he says "I feel so alive" .... ! after a great run ....next run was the ill fated one. I think it would have been his epitaph !
Its so funny when he describes how it stops. "The rollbar and my head dig into the ground which slows it down"
Breedlove crashed at over 600 MPH - if I remember right, he's crashed more times than anybody doing record runs over 300 and lived to tell about it.
Obviously he's never had to control a car with a blow-out at speed. Touching the brakes or not will make little or no difference, you're along for the ride and that's that. And Hammond is a professional, despite appearing to do irresponsible things on Top Gear and Brainiac*. He's not about to ignore any safety advice or instructions in something he knows can kill him. *for the non-Brits, Top Gear is a motoring show for boys. All supercars and doing funny stunts. like building a rocket powered Mini and putting it on a ski jump, or playing soccer in small cars. Just the other night, the same night they aired the above footage, the team of three presenters took over a road building crew and resurfaced a road in 24 hours because the council said they'd take a week. You can't do stuff like that without following safety protocols. And Brainiac, also hosted by Hammond, is like a British version of Mythbusters, where he uses science to amuse and entertain. Like seeing how best to propel yourself with a fire extinguisher (I think it was a shopping cart). It's all very silly but potentially very dangerous, so 'failing to adhere to a briefing' is not something Richard Hammond is likely to do.
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