Do you remember a time when crash videos didn't exist? We don't, since the Nurburgring and the Russians feed us with a daily supply of harsh life lessons. Today, we've lined up two old performance cars with polar-opposite handling characteristics.
It's not as violent as skaters needing spinal surgery, and there are also valuable life lessons here... somewhere. Oddly, it seems to be the same for both these drivers: adjust your speed.
For the record, the crashes happened on consecutive days and at different locations on the famous German track. First comes the previous generation Audi S3, which went out of production a few years ago. Compared to the current car, it's down on power, but the short hatchback body and the 2-liter turbo engine are still there.
Carrying too much speed into a sweeping corner, the white 3-door model exhibits what we call terminal understeer. It doesn't look like the wet road conditions are playing too much of a role because breaking the driver actually isn't using the brakes as much as he should.
The right-hand drive model hits the barrier on the passenger side and rips the suspension to hell. Thankfully, the guy sitting closest to the impact was okay.
Next up, we have a BMW crash at a blind crest that has claimed thousands of Megane RS's. The 1 Series Coupe is once again carrying way too much speed. The Clio RS in front of him looks like a pedestrian by comparison.
After a couple of failed correction attempts, the 1er slams into the barrier hard making a mess of the entire road. Fortunately, both the people in the car look like they are perfectly alright. That's a testament to the safety of that car if ever there was one.
It's a case of safety last, as they are wearing shorts, sneakers and one of them is putting is baseball hat back on. And while we are on the subject, some track tires and suspension might have been useful in this scenario.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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