Paul Walker dies

[Dare]

rip Paul

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=841434

[Wizzo]

Wow so young. RIP Paul 

[Scott]

That's a real shame...he'll love on in the movies and games.  RIP Mr. Walker.

[cosworth151]

I didn't know that he had gotten into racing in real life. He raced in the Redline Time Attack Series in a BMW M3, until the series folded in 2011. Three years ago, he championed a Mazda Miata with Motorsports Enterprises Racing at the brutal 25 Hours of Thunderhill, his first wheel-to-wheel race.

Such a sad loss. RIP, Paul.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20131130/carnews/131139996#ixzz2mEuvZ1pm

[F1fanaticBD]

James Dean left us so young, while in driving a Porsche Spyder. No I didn't have the chance to see him before that. But I have seen Paul Walker, I have enjoyed his Fast & Furious immensely, I always liked his enthusiasm for cars, and suddenly when the news reached me I just felt histories cruel ways of repetition. And he also died in a Porsche..

You will be always in my heart with those films..

[Ian]

What an horrendous crash, they must have been travelling at some rate of knots.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516303/Fast--Furious-star-Paul-Walker-dead-fiery-car-wreck-Actor-killed-Porsche-GT-driven-friend-crashed-pole.html#ixzz2mEe99O4h

[cosworth151]

Graham Rahal was a previous owner of the car. He found it difficult to drive.

"It says it has traction control, but that traction control on that car is not going to do a thing to save you," Rahal said.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20131201/carnews/131209996#ixzz2mK2SJ6j0

[F1fanaticBD]

The pictures are horrendous and feels like as if some body just ripped away the backside of the car. I wonder how many collisions it had before coming to a stand still.

Paul was an experienced driver and so was his friend who was driving. The only console in this sorry saga is unlike many of his contemporary, Paul died doing something he loved, not by overdosing sleeping pills or pain killers.

[Jericoke]

Without knowing the details of the crash, I have to wonder... how could a modern car have failed so spectacularly?

A fireball?

Ford gave up making police cars because theirs would catch fire under a very specific scenario. 

How can Porshe sell a car that explodes when it crashes?

[F1fanaticBD]

I have to agree with you in this count Jeri, as I was looking the James Deans crash's picture, it makes me wonder how come after 60 years of engineering excellence we have a worse looking car crash instead of expected better outcome?

[Ian]

I would imagine it was such an impact that it suffered a catastrophic fuel tank failure.

[cosworth151]

That's what I found odd about the pictures. The only part of the bodywork left intact was the front end. I thought that was where the gas tank was on the Carerra GT's fuel tank was.

[John S]

Fires in modern cars are not generally caused by the fuel/gas tank but by the hydraulic brake or clutch fluids coming into contact with hot surfaces. Modern hydraulic fluids can ignite spontaneously without spark simply by being above a certain temperature.

I watched a TV program a few years back about the dangers of buying cars with clutch or brake reservoirs forward of the safety cell bulkheads built into modern cars. On impact the crumpling of the front areas can easily rupture a reservoir, if forward of bulkhead, the resultant spillage hits the high temperature engine parts and immediately catches fire - no spark needed.   
Hell of a way to go.   

 


   

[Jericoke]

Fires in modern cars are not generally caused by the fuel/gas tank but by the hydraulic brake or clutch fluids coming into contact with hot surfaces. Modern hydraulic fluids can ignite spontaneously without spark simply by being above a certain temperature.

I watched a TV program a few years back about the dangers of buying cars with clutch or brake reservoirs forward of the safety cell bulkheads built into modern cars. On impact the crumpling of the front areas can easily rupture a reservoir, if forward of bulkhead, the resultant spillage hits the high temperature engine parts and immediately catches fire - no spark needed.   
Hell of a way to go.   
 

Aren't there racing series that use more or less stock Porches?

This kind of crash wouldn't even be unlikely.  Are all those drivers in fireballs waiting to happen?

(OF course, this assumes that this Porche was stock.  I suppose if someone had been tinkering it might necessarily meet factory safety specs)

I remember watching Mythbusters a few years ago, and they found it very difficult to get a car to catch on fire under any circumstance that didn't involve a controlled explosive.

[lkjohnson1950]

Just going by rather vague memory here, but isn't that particular Porsche a carbon fiber tub? It is not a 911 as used in all racing series. They apparently slid sideways into a pole and then a tree, relatively sharp objects unlike a safety barrier on a race track. Where metal would have stretched and deformed, the C/F ripped and shattered. The engine bay separated from the cockpit, probably breaking all fluid lines causing an instant fire. Porsche may need to rethink some of the design elements here.