It takes a special kind of racing course to introduce unseen-able crashes such as the one that took down a priceless Mazda 767B racecar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Hillclimb offers just that.
Mazda is sponsoring the FOS and they're doing it from the bottom of their rotary heart - they're celebrating Wankel power, so moves such as cars hanging up in the air are on the house this year.
Alas, the hostilities now also include an accident that put quite a dent on the 767B senior racecar.
The track machine set out to perform a timed lap on the Hillclimb, part of Mazda's sponsorship. To get an idea of the unfortunate event's magnitude, we'll mention this is the kind of four-wheeled gem that usually does moderate-pace demo laps, not bonkers-speed timed runs.
The Mazda understeered through the Molecomb corner and ended up smashing though the hay bails. And no, "smashing" isn't an overstatement - these protection elements may look rather friendly, but crashing into them is a bit like a high-altitude jump that sees you landing on water in the wrong position.
While the driver seemed to be okay (he did proceed to a medical check though), the car was not. Sure, Mazda will rebuild this 767B, but it will be a painstaking process. Truth be told, the livery on this car is enough to make us lust for it - the green-and-orange theme is familiar to those remembering the 1991 Le Mans race, when a similarly dressed 787B (the crashed car's successor) took the win.
Ouch, why does the Hillclimb keep claiming cars?
The four-rotor, 767B is just one of the cars that have taken a serious hit at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015.
Truth be told, the 1.12-mile race is like a Jalapeno, little, but painful. First of all, the course is tighter than a Porsche's ball bearing. This means that, by the time your posterior tells you the grip has fled the scene, you're already seriously close to those pieces of hay.
Then there's the intensity of the action. The spectators are as thirsty as those attending Group B races back in the day, so those hay bails are there for a reason.
The public's pressure is a joke compared to the track configuration though. If you're fast, the fun is over in about one minute, so this is all the time you've got to negociate an ups-and-downs course that's as unforgiving as they get. Check out the map below to familiarize yourself with this hardcore playground.
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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