[ERC] Rally Islas Canarias 2024

[TWRC]

They say it was because they had the tyre off the rim, but even they are not sure exactly what happened... They are more or less feeling OK, but pretty sore (the hit was over 17G).

[tonirali]

They say it was because they had the tyre off the rim, but even they are not sure exactly what happened... They are more or less feeling OK, but pretty sore (the hit was over 17G).

Having seen the onboard floating around on Instagram, it does seem that way. The car simply doesn't turn.

[Mirek]

They say it was because they had the tyre off the rim, but even they are not sure exactly what happened... They are more or less feeling OK, but pretty sore (the hit was over 17G).

Sorry but that must have been a lot more. A crash with 17G is something like a hit into a lamp post during parking. When you play a header in football you achieve a lot more. Unfortunately most of the people don't understand the crash mechanics and buy whatever numbers someone writes on the internet.

Usually the issue is with the duration of the acceleration peak. The crash mechanics is about extremely short periods of time. The true accelerometers used in crash tests can detect peaks shorter than a millisecond but without them you get a distorted picture where maximum numbers are far lower than in realitity (those carried in the rallycars are for sure no laboratory types). Also for the human body the duration of the acceleration is extremely important and so is the direction. For example nobody can survive 100G lasting several seconds but when you fall badly on the floor in the bathroom or when when a pedestrian hits a car windshield such values are normal, only the duration is super short. Generally in vehicle safety a crash peak of 100G is considered a survivable limit for human brain.

It's been a long time but if I remember right some very old measurement of Škoda Felicia crash test done in my university (according to the old spec. where the car was driven 50 km/h into a solid wall) the acceleration peak for the occupants was somewhere around 60G.

PS The duration of the acceleration is also a reason why acrobatic pilots can do short low-speed turns at 12G without anti-G suit but fighter pilots can't do long high speed 9G turns without it.