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Chaos
07-05-04, 04:14 PM
Do you remember several years back when an FIA GT (I think) car flipped up in the air and did a 360? What series was it? Who was the driver? I'm looking for a clip of it.
Lizzerd
07-05-04, 04:17 PM
It was a Mercedes at Le Mans, 1998 or 1999. Don't remember the driver. I was watching at the time and it did more than a 360, more like three or four flips before it landed on its wheels in a grove of trees.
mapguy
07-05-04, 04:17 PM
That was at the Petit Lemans at Road Atlanta a few years back. The car was a factory Porsche 911 GT1 and, I think it was either Bob Wolleck or Yannick Dalmas.
mapguy
07-05-04, 04:20 PM
It was a Mercedes at Le Mans, 1998 or 1999. Don't remember the driver. I was watching at the time and it did more than a 360, more like three or four flips before it landed on its wheels in a grove of trees.

The Mercs had two of them flip that year. One had Mark Webber behind the wheel and the other one (which went into the woods) was driven by Peter Drumbeck. Funny story on the latter. Because Lemans is on public roads if there is an accident the French police are within their rights to administer a breathalizer test. :saywhat: So when Drumbeck climbed out of the Merc they insisted that he have one. To which Brumback replied "Bloody hell, you think that I nipped into the pub for a few pints before I got in the car?" :thumbup:
Chaos
07-05-04, 04:24 PM
thanx all....i found the clip:

http://www.zx-12r.org/IncredibleStuff/Incredible%20Movies%20Page.htm

click on the 24 hours Lemans link. Direct linking is a no-no.

edit: there are a couple on here. The one i was thinking about was at lemans, but the petit lemans flip is in there too.
Chaos
07-05-04, 06:56 PM
Jos Verstappen's flash fire is in there too...the clip never gets less scary.
Rogue Leader
07-05-04, 07:17 PM
Yeah that was a Benz CLK-LM the successor to the ultra fast CLK-GTR. They only built 3 and after that flip and the previous one wrecked they pulled the 3rd one from the race and cut their FIA GT program. Pretty sad way to end.....
Steve99
07-05-04, 08:02 PM
The Road Atlanta flip is listed as "F1 car flip". :rolleyes: I remember watching that race on TV, but it was before I had been to the track. Where did that occur?

Is that Wankerpaldi's F1 flip?
Rogue Leader
07-05-04, 08:47 PM
The Road Atlanta flip is listed as "F1 car flip". :rolleyes: I remember watching that race on TV, but it was before I had been to the track. Where did that occur?

Is that Wankerpaldi's F1 flip?

yeah I believe that was Christian Fittpaldi in a Minardi... 93 or 94 season....
Rob
07-05-04, 08:55 PM
yeah I believe that was Christian Fittpaldi in a Minardi... 93 or 94 season....
Monza 1993.

And I believe the Road Atlanta flip was Dalmas, but I don't know where on the track it was.
Sean O'Gorman
07-05-04, 09:41 PM
Monza 1993.

And I believe the Road Atlanta flip was Dalmas, but I don't know where on the track it was.

The backstraight. Same place where Auberlen flipped in 2000. I was there for that race, but I wasn't near that part of the circuit when it happened.
stroker
07-06-04, 11:50 AM
Road Atlanta seems to have a history of that event. I remember Charlie Kemp flipping a Porsche turbo Can Am car back around 1971, too. I remember his column in Autoweek shortly afterward describing the need to design cars with negative lift. A few years later Colin Chapman came up with the first ground effect cars, and I always wondered if there was some sort of cause/effect there...
Joe in LA
07-06-04, 02:05 PM
yeah I believe that was Christian Fittpaldi in a Minardi... 93 or 94 season....

Patrese did one in a Williams @ 1991 or 1992 as well.
pchall
07-06-04, 03:54 PM
Big sports car flips started in the mid 60s. The name Hugh Dibley comes to mind -- we used to say someone was trying to "do a Dibley" whenever too much air got under the nose of a sportscar. Dibley was an Englishman and former commercial pilot when he raced in the early Group 7 era and got major air in a Lola T70 at one of the Canadian tracks (St. Joivite '66 comes to mind, in practice). Everyone who was going fast did a Dibley at one time or another. Even Mark Donohue.
mapguy
07-07-04, 06:04 AM
Patrese did one in a Williams @ 1991 or 1992 as well.

Estoril in 92. Although it wasn't a flip. More of a wheelie. He was chasing Berger and coming onto the front straight Berger decided to pit at the last minute. Patrese was already in his slipstream and when Berger slowed he pulled out to pass only to have Berger come across his bows. Patrese's front made contact with the rear wheel of the McLaren and the nose when up. It traveled like that for what seemed an eternity but it eventually came down. Patrese had a in car camera that day. Scary.