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180 MPH Unintentional Drifting Is a Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash

It's safe to say we now live in the age of drifting. Your neighbor does it in his rusty Nissan, performance carmakers include it in their driving courses and even Toyota makes use of it in its new Prius commercial.
180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash 6 photos
Photo: Facebook screenshot
180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash180 MPH Renault Sport R.S. 01 Eau Rouge Near Crash
Heck, Nissan has even gone for the world record with a sliding-prepped GT-R (obviously) and the feat resulted in a 189 mph (304.96 km/h) slide. But what about the other part of the Renault-Nissan alliance?

Well, the French automaker currently refrains from building rear-wheel-drive machines that would allow it to engage in such activities, but there's one exception: the Renault Sport R.S. 01.

We might be dealing with a racetrack-only machine, so its appeal is extremely limited, but this is also what boosts the wow factor of the thing.

And the carbon circuit toy, which is animated by a GT-R twin-turbo V6, has recently demonstrated what happens when a drift performed at the speed mentioned above happens unintentionally.

The piece of footage at the bottom of the page shows racing driver Markus Palttala going all out on Spa-Francorchamps on Friday. However, as he passes through Eau Rouge (the small initial curve) and Raidillon (the linked uphill right-hander) a blistering pace, crossing over the vibrators sends the rear end dancing.

The racer reacts swiftly, but, given the kind of speeds seen here, his post-slide behavior could only do so much to prevent the whole episode from turning into a brutal accident.

While we can't see the exact speed at which the R.S. 01 is racing, the 180 MPH (290 km/h) crude estimate in the title is based on two simple factors: the racecar has a top speed of over 186 mph (300 km/h) and we can see it almost reaching the top of its sixth and final gear in the clip.

Fortunately, the incident only hurt the rubber on the machine, so Markus could be relaxed about it, posting the footage on his Facebook page.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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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.
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