Those Finns Know How To Crash A Car Right!

Do rally cameramen really have balls that big? Or are they just using a zoom from safety? Some of those shots look like the cameraman was backpedaling to just barely dodge flying death while keeping the subject in frame.

some of them WERE backpedaling. One shot showed the cameraman moving about three steps to help open the door when the car came to a halt.

That said, there is a reason I got out of rallying.. and that is it. I had a nasty "off" one too many times and did wind up on my side. I was not hurt, but I was sore for a week and I had abrasions from the belts.

I have mixed emotions about some of those crashes... would I want to roll a few dozen times or come to a rapid halt with something?

I guess I had two thoughts. First is it a car crashes in the woods and no one is there to video it, does it still make "...pure crashing sounds." The second thought is the saying, "There are two types of rally drivers. Those that have rolled a car and those that will."

That laughter is great

carzan wrote:

Travis_K wrote: What is the little white car that rolls off the side of the road with the mini behind it? It looks farmiliar, but i cant think of what is is. Maybe an old opel?

Looks an awful lot like a Trabant, to me.

That's what I was thinking as well - early-ish Trabant, not the later more boxy one. Seems that Ladas also crash pretty well, they certainly seemed to crash enough of them.

What's Finnish for that'll buff out? Seriously, was like watching a fishing show, wanted to stop but was mesmerized. Didn't really cringe much for most of the cars, but did when the 2002 and the Cortina got wadded up.

A few thought came to mind as I watched this;

1) I thought that Finns were supossed to be great drivers? I can under-steer into snap over-steer into a ditch on a dirt road at much to high a speed just as well as any of those guys.

2) May be they are, but are also awful navigators?

3) I wonder how many of those cars will live to rally again?

4) Does anyone ever complete these rallys, or does the last driver to roll win?

5) This makes dirt biking look pretty safe

6) As already mentioned, I want my cage built by a Finn

7) HaHa, I saw a wartburg!

8) Since it a well known fact that NASCAR thinks that crashing is good for TV ratings, why don't they sponcer a US rally series or import coverage of european rallies and rally-x (BTW this crashing is fairly tame compared to euro rally-x which is basicly moto-x for cars). Or at the very least they could import a bunch of Finnish drivers. Forget I said that, keep NASCAR as far away from rallying as possible, I like it to much to see it polluted that way.

9)Were these all stolen cars? You could easily retitle that video "drive it like you stole it!" I know if I built and maintained my rally car I would at least lift off the throttle before going backwards into the trees.

10)If I had the means I would definitly try to rally too!

BoxheadTim wrote: That's what I was thinking as well - early-ish Trabant, not the later more boxy one. Seems that Ladas also crash pretty well, they certainly seemed to crash enough of them.

Many of the later Ladas were built on the fiat 124 platform.. which from it's rally history, was not a bad car for playing in the dirt. It shoulda been a contenda.. if only for the Stratos.

My "off" consisted of me doing a slow slide off the crown of the road into a ditch. No real damage to the car aside from a broken corner light, snapped mirror, and some dents. I was actually able to drive the car out of the ditch and back onto the road.. by going the other way.

That was enough for me. I may not want to live to a ripe old age, but I prefer to live as long as possible without any odd aches and pains. I may try rallyX though, that seems a LOT safer than running at breakneck speeds through the woods.

mad_machine wrote:

BoxheadTim wrote: That's what I was thinking as well - early-ish Trabant, not the later more boxy one. Seems that Ladas also crash pretty well, they certainly seemed to crash enough of them.

Many of the later Ladas were built on the fiat 124 platform.. which from it's rally history, was not a bad car for playing in the dirt. It shoulda been a contenda.. if only for the Stratos.

Well, the Ladas have a horrible reputation for non-existing quality in Europe but OTOH you'd expect that anything you can drive through Siberia is probably pretty robust.

Not to mention that they tend to be cheap (at least in Western Europe), so cheap, reasonably plentiful + RWD is a good starting point, I'd guess.

Someone should sponsor the underside of those rally cars. You would get more bang for your advertising buck that way.

I saw a fiat 131 abarth too.

gotta an hour and a half and bored???

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6894297344002627039#