One of the dark aspects that sit behind the Nurburgring's Green Hell nickname has to do with the track's corners having the potential to turn one's car into a... pinball ball.
The latest example of such an unfortunate situation took place over the weekend, with a Subaru WRX STI driver introducing his Impreza to the guardrail twice in the course of one spectacular crash.
The accident, which happened during yesterday's Touristenfahrten (Tourist Days) session, saw the unprepared wheel barer being surprised by the Arenberg corner.
You know, the infamous section of the Nordschleife that likes to put Megane RS hot hatches on their roofs and send BMW nose-first into the protection element on the left side of the track.
The driver entered Arenberg fully sideways, going for a sequence involving spinning, crashing, some more spinning and an extra touch of crashing. Fortunately, though, the two impacts, which affected both corners of the STI's face, don't seem to be the kind that can total a ride, so at least this Subaru lived to tell the tale.
There are multiple lessons to be learned here and we'd like to start with a classic: if you're not ready to countersteer as fast as you should when lapping the Ring at full pace, then dial things down. Let's call this square one, shall we?
There are many ways in which both impacts could've been avoided. And we're not talking about overly advanced maneuvers such as the reverse gear stunt pulled by the BMW M4 Coupe driver who didn't even scratch his car after making a similar corner entry to the one seen here.
There's no easy way out of such a situation, but here's an example: you could use the handbrake (providing your car has a mechanical system that works well) to let the car complete an 180-degree turn once you figure out there's no time to recover it.
Execute such a stunt well and you'll find yourself on the correct line, but driving backwards - that's the point where you can use first gear to generate forward momentum, which will offer you some serious deceleration. Nevertheless, the kind of skill required to pull such a save means we're back to square one.
And to give you a complete view of the crash, we added two Nurburgring videos below.
P.S.: This has to be the opposite of the Audi R8 Aremberg crash we showed you a while back.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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