Last Call- Seatbelts Save Lives? Edition

That’s Hans Hermann crouched down there, underneath the flipping car- the flipping car that, until just moments before this photo was taken, he was piloting. The crash, at the 1959 AVUS F1 race, was caused by failure of the brakes on Hermann’s BRM. Amazingly, he walked away from the accident with only minor bumps and bruises.

Image source: [pixdaus.com]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

  1. Goingincirclez Avatar

    It's not the lack of belts that saved him – it was the sheer unfettered mass of his balls calmly planting him to pavement as everything went to hell.
    Of course, considering the apparent incoming trajectory of the car, that photographer could probably throw down as well where nut size is concerned.

  2. smokyburnout Avatar

    Well, the car doesn't appear to have any sort of roll hoop, so I'm not sure strapping yourself to such a machine would be a good thing.
    Also, a 1959 BRM would be too old to have the 1.5L V16 but too new to have the 3.0L H16 🙁 .

    1. Han_Solex Avatar

      For a few points in time, BRM was like the end all and be all of awesome motors. Too bad they weren't more reliable …

    2. Han_Solex Avatar

      Also, I don't think I've ever looked at the hard stats for the V16 – abso-freaking-lutely amazing. 12000 RPM, 600 HP, from 1.5L in 1951!!!!!!!! That's unbelievable.

      1. smokyburnout Avatar

        The funny thing is, if they built a larger, naturally aspirated engine (Ferrari's was 4.5L), maybe they could've had the reliability to win a race or two but nobody would remember them now.

  3. CptSevere Avatar

    What's that thing on the left, a rolling gasoline tank? If this calamity had been aimed just a yard or two in that direction, this photo would be just that more dramatic, and I doubt that neither the photographer nor the driver would have been so lucky.

    1. Froggmann_ Avatar

      That would be a fire extinguisher.

      1. CptSevere Avatar

        Good. From the looks of this, they were going to need one.

  4. marque911 Avatar
    marque911

    Lucky driver, lucky photographer.

  5. blueplate Avatar

    Wow, to the power of yikes. Is that a chair on the left for someone to man the fire extinguisher? Looks like the photographer stood his ground but that guy might .. not have.

  6. snookie Avatar
    snookie

    rollbar much?

  7. engineerd Avatar

    Hans hunkers as his hoopty hovers.

  8. scroggzilla Avatar

    It was this same race where Jean Behra was killed when his Ferrari skidded over the top of Avus's banked turn, striking a flag pole.

  9. joshuman Avatar

    Unlace a shoe. Tie the ends of the laces together. Put your fingers in the middle and pull tight so you have two parallel lines with two small corners at the ends. This is a rough approximation of the AVUS ring. Bonkers.
    <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Circuit_AVUS.svg/250px-Circuit_AVUS.svg.png&quot; style="width: 250px; height: 231px; border: 0" alt="imgTag" />

  10. SeanKHotay Avatar
    SeanKHotay

    Same AVUS as von Frankenburg’s Miracle of AVUS in ’56?

  11. SeanKHotay Avatar

    Same AVUS as von Frankenburg's Miracle of AVUS in '56?