Cracked: Terrifying Historical Car Races

http://www.cracked.com/article_19175_the-6-most-terrifying-historical-car-races.html

Like any sport that relies on a combustible engine and hundreds of pounds of sharply angled metal, car racers generally accept a certain amount of mortal liability when they compete. Today, there are tight safety precautions to ensure that the threat of death and mayhem is minimized as much as possible, but none of that would have been possible if not for the lawless absurdity and charred corpses early motorsports kept spitting out. With that, here are the races throughout history that catered purely to those who were just plain sick of living.

The year 1903 was a magical time when cars had advanced enough that they could go more than 60 or 70 MPH, but not enough so that any safety measures had been invented.

Funny and eye-opening read.

Pairs well with this: Killed Myself When I Was Young from The Jalopy Journal on Vimeo.

Thanks for the link. I'm a huge fan of cracked.com. Whole lot of goodness there.

Margie

I love their science coverage....they are usually accurate while being fun to read.

Example:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19161_the-6-creepiest-things-hiding-in-your-dna.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19149_5-bizarre-accidents-that-helped-invent-modern-medicine.html

Cracked can't get enough clicks imo. Great articles that are as fun to read as oil wrestling with all the Kardashians.

I told one of the younger folks that Cracked used to be a print magazine (and competitor to MAD), and he boggled. And yeah, they're still better. I sent the link to their article on the "8 most badassed demonstrators" to my liberal buddies for MayDay.

hahahaha this is the best:

See that ridiculous banked curve there, with nothing to keep you from flying off the edge? They called that "The Wall of Death." In case it's not clear on the picture, there is no crash rail around the top of that curve. Get it wrong coming into that corner and you're going to be launched into the goddamn sun. And don't think that didn't actually happen at some point because it totally did.

JoeyM wrote: I love their science coverage....they are usually accurate while being fun to read. Example: http://www.cracked.com/article_19161_the-6-creepiest-things-hiding-in-your-dna.html http://www.cracked.com/article_19149_5-bizarre-accidents-that-helped-invent-modern-medicine.html

Well, they pretty much allow anyone to submit lists. So the science (or any other) coverage is only as good as the submitter. Plenty of neat stuff in their lists, but plenty of blatantly wrong stuff too.

That said, about once a month I get sucked into reading a E36 M3load of cracked lists, because they're awesome.

friedgreencorrado wrote: I told one of the younger folks that Cracked used to be a print magazine (and competitor to MAD), and he boggled. And yeah, they're *still* better. I sent the link to their article on the "8 most badassed demonstrators" to my liberal buddies for MayDay.

did that "younger folk" even know that MAD is a magazine that you can buy, and if he did, did he ask if it was based on the tv show?