Especially when driving fast cars, we all want our wheels to be as close to the corners of the vehicle as possible. The wide track aspect that derives from such a layout ups the ante on the handling front. And, as long as we're not dealing with formula-type racecars whose exposed wheels can become dangerous, the setup doesn't seem to bring any safety hazard.
Well, you can forget about the safety impression after watching the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, which shows a rather unexpected crash involving a pair of fast hatches.
The action took place on the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands, involving hot hatches that had been turned into racecars - the machines got in on during a race that took place over the weekend. And we can see a Renault Clio RS Mk III willing pass a Ford Focus Mk II, with the driver of the French machine misjudging the gap between the two vehicles.
With both hatches following the path mentioned in the intro and the Ford packing a custom setup that facilitated this, their wheels touched (as we sometime see in F1 accidents), which sent the Clio flying.
The Renault landed on its right side, sliding on the track for an about 30 inches (metric system followers should make that 75 cm), but was lucky enough not to end up on its roof. In fact, the car came back on all four, but it did hit the concrete barrier on the side of the track shortly after its forced landing.
Fortunately, the driver reportedly walked away unharmed. So while emergency responders reached the site of the crash swiftly, the only task they had to cover was taking the car off the track.
Mistimed overtaking or not, this guy can probably consider himself a lucky man after going through such an accident without getting injured.
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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