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Wish him all the best for his recovery from this horrible accident.
I wish him a speedy recovery.
That car looks like a typical jet dragster, and lacks the level of aerodynamics found on an unlimited land speed record car.
In the world of drag racing, the IHRA and NHRA stopped allowing jet dragsters in competition some years ago for safety reasons, and since then has restricted them to making exhibition passes.
Here's the site for the team that holds the unlimited land speed record, at over 760 mph, which is also just over Mach 1:
[thrustssc.com...]
I wish him a speedy recovery.
^^ heh.
Why not just take a belt and strap yourself to a jet engine? I mean what do we learn from this? Do we intend on building highways for vehicles that can travel at 700 mph? Do we need to understand how to steer a car at those speeds?
If I'm going that fast I want 30,000 feet of air under me...
I think there are plenty of reasons some good some not so good.
- Fun.
- Entertainment
- Excitement
- Science
- Pride?
We are humans, we are made to be adventurous and curious as to how things work / will work / could work.
I seriously hope that Hammond recovers fully from his brain injury and that in a couple of months (or weeks) time everything is back to normal. This is a gruesome accident and the only one in the history of Top Gear.
The last guy who broke the UK land speed record, Colin Fallows, is an expert in UK jet car technology and - notably - one of Britain's most experienced drag racers - not an adrenaline-junkie motoring journalist.
Hammond needs to consider the difference between journalist and stuntman. (And then go and do some proper stunt training).
Initial reports are saying that he DID break the record though
I mean what do we learn from this?
What do we learn from motorsport in general? We learn a lot. Many safety devices that are in your car, right now, are learnt from the people who take the risks.
1 in 4 people who die, die from car accidents. An aeroplane goes down killing 500 people and it is headline news but 100 car accidents killing 5 people each doesn't even make the small print.
Your car, especially the safety devices, right down to the even your wingmirrors, is probably 50% invented due to motorsport. Due to people taking risks.
Motorsport does kill. But it saves many more in the long run.
Let those who want to take those risks save those who never even have to understand them.
I read that the Sugarbabes want to sing for Richard. Earplugs are commonly used in motorsport. Hopefully the hospital have forgotton to remove Richards!
I do understand that motor racing has resulted in the evolution of safety devices in cars. But he was driving a jet engine, not a car.
Best wishes on his recovery.
[edited by: JudgeJeffries at 1:49 am (utc) on Sep. 28, 2006]
The land record for driving a car IN the UK is much less. This was the record that he may have been trying to beat.
Reports say that he'd agreed not to do the journey both ways as that would make the record official (which the current UK landspeed record holder didn't want). If correct than it means that Richard Hammond wasn't even trying to do an official record.
This would suggest that it was just one of those "cool" Top Gear moments - i.e. something interesting done in a car for the sole purpose of keeping us entertained.
I feel really sorry for him. It should be noted that if the BBC had even the slightest doubt over the safety they would not have allowed it to go ahead - while he's an experienced driver he is still just a presenter. If the BBC had given the go ahead then Richard Hammond would probably have assumed that everything was on the level. An investigation is being launched by the BBC to check that their own safety proceedures were followed correctly.
I'm sure that the car has been driven many times without incident - Richard Hammond had driven it several times that day without incident. It may well have been a freak technical glitch that no driver could have done anything about.
Personally I don't think that Richard Hammond was really thinking that he was taking any kind of substantial risk when he woke up that morning. While I'm sure that he enjoys the feeling of acceleration while driving cars I very much doubt that he could be considered a serious risk taker - he isn't a professional race car driver, he's not into extreme sports as far as I know, he's just a likeable presenter who - like his fellow presenters (one of which was actually meant to do this thing - but had to pull out) - does things to keep Top Gear being the most entertaining car show on TV.
[edited by: TravelSite at 9:18 am (utc) on Sep. 28, 2006]
