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Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:25 am
by Mr Footlong
Watching this now - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... est_Years/

Hour long documentary on the Group B Years.

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:30 am
by Dave_Hedgehog
its available on a certain infamous web site with a piraty theme for anyone that wants to keep it for prosperity

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:54 am
by hammy969
Recorded it from bbc4 when it was on through the week.
I've watched it twice already!!!

Brings back memories from my youth. Ari and Henri.... Mental

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:49 pm
by drybeer
Obviously I'm too young to remember some of that compared to you Stewart...

:biggrin3:

But it was the Toivonen crash I remember most vividly...

Horrible, horrible way for him and Cresta to go.

I hope they were unconscious from the impact!

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:45 pm
by AdamM
Amazing programme, just cant believe how close the fans could get to the cars, the RS200 crash was shocking, nearly bought a tear to my eye.

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:05 pm
by hammy969
Went Finland 2 Years ago. There is no way they would let that close now!

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:46 pm
by Mr Footlong
Invitation to be flamed but the spectators all over the road/right on the edge of the roads were all flaming retards and while I grimaced when I saw the RS200 crash, one of those things. Tip, if doing something like that, try to be on the inside of a bend, up a hill and ideally up a tree well out of harm's way.

I appreciate the thing needed better organization but how could the organizers realistically police miles of spectator space in the arse end of nowhere? The spectators were beyond stupid 99.9% of the time.

As soon as I head the Lanci design where they sat on the petrol tanks I cringed as I could see that going horribly wrong and I actually had no memory of the crispy bbq crash...

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:01 pm
by drybeer
Those cars were so cool with their high power and almost zero weight!

F1 cars used to have the fuel tank at either side of the driver's legs (1960s - 1980s). Jacky Stewart's crash at Spa had him trapped in the cockpit, sitting soaked in the stuff for nearly half an hour before fellow racers and locals (luckily) got him out of the wreckage! He was lucky he wasn't barbecued in addition to injured.

The Lancia still had this poor foresight in design, but back then wasn't really any safer in any other manufacturer's car.

Rallying hasn't moved on as quickly as F1 in terms of safety kit. That being said it's not that many years ago that the F1 circuit had that awful accident where the marshal was killed by a wheel and tyre which became untethered… Australia I think?

And that was with safety net fencing and etc. protecting the spectators!

There will always be freak accidents in motor sport, but the appalling safety rules in rallying back then were bound to leave them too open for this type of accident happening.

With our "20/20 hindsight" every problem looks like it was easy to spot!

Rallying fans still see those years as the halcyon days of rallying when you could get close to the action. It's more sterile now and nowhere near as involving for the fans.

Re: Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:16 pm
by Timster
Mr Footlong wrote:Invitation to be flamed but the spectators all over the road/right on the edge of the roads were all flaming retards and while I grimaced when I saw the RS200 crash, one of those things. Tip, if doing something like that, try to be on the inside of a bend, up a hill and ideally up a tree well out of harm's way.

I appreciate the thing needed better organization but how could the organizers realistically police miles of spectator space in the arse end of nowhere? The spectators were beyond stupid 99.9% of the time.

As soon as I head the Lanci design where they sat on the petrol tanks I cringed as I could see that going horribly wrong and I actually had no memory of the crispy bbq crash...
Agree 100 %

Watched this last week. Great prog.