RICHARD HAMMOND IN ACCIDENT - BRAIN INJURY *CONFIRMED*

[Spijker]

I hope he will be alright, I could always laugh about this guy and he gives good car reviews in my opninion...

BTW, I'm new here and I love your site, very nice and a lot of info, I hope I can provide you guys with some new stuff when I find some that has not been posted before.

[LotusGT1]

Welcome to JW, enjoy your stay.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by jakaracman And for all those thinking that the producers were forcing JC&co to do crazy stunts (and if Hammond was "frced" to do this one): From JC's The Sun article: The idea to drive a jet car actually came from Hammond. He skedaddled into the office one day and, bubbling with his trademark enthusiasm, said: “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere and drive really fast? I don’t mean supercar fast. I mean REALLY fast.” We all liked the idea. But what we liked even more was the idea of James May being given the assignment. James is known to his fans as Captain Slow. He thinks dawdling is reckless and practises the art of what he calls “Christian Motoring”. Mostly, this involves letting people out of side turnings and generally being Edwardian. Putting him, and that ’70s barnet, in a 370mph jet car was a bit like putting just Jane Austen at the helm of a space shuttle. Immediately, James discovered a prior engagement and said he couldn’t go. I, meanwhile, decided that I spent most of my thirties upside down in jet fighters and helicopter gunships, vomiting, and that these days I was far too fat. That left Hammond, who was bouncing around like the donkey in Shrek shouting, “Pick me. Pick me”. And so we did. Today, people who have absolutely no idea at all of how television works, (Yes, columnist Neil Lyndon — that’s you, you sanctimonious, rent-a-soundbite little t**d) are saying that our producers push us to do more and more dangerous stunts in a bid for ratings. Rubbish. Our producers spend their whole lives filling in health and safety forms and asking “are you sure?” It’s the presenters who come up with the hare-brained ideas and trans-continental races . . . not the backroom boys or the suits. ANd the part about future of TG: Somehow I doubt it though. The campaign to have us taken off the air — sparked curiously, by the BBC’s own news website — will now be ramped up, fuelled by the environmentalists and spearheaded by muddle-headed road safety campaigners. Richard is winning his fight. And now mine begins. To make sure that he has a show to come back to. Maybe we should start a e-mail campaign for TG here at JW? [email protected]

All very well and good, except a jet car at an airfield wa stupid.

Period.

If they really wanted to make a splash, then they should have gone to the actual locaitons used for record runs.

Not a silly grass verged runway... becuase if something should go wrong on a runway - wait, something did go wrong on a runway

[Jabba]

Well, I must say I thought it seemed awfully short, what if the parachutes never opened, where would he have ended up then I wonder ?

[jakaracman]

Actually, this is the same airfield used to set the still valid UK speed record (with this car, if I got it right)... This is because the record has to be set in UK and this airfield has unusually long runway.
I guess that if there were better location in UK, they (and people before them) would have used it.

What if, what of, what of ... That's a risk you have to take ... Otherwise setting a record wpuld be something anybody could do ...

[Jabba]

Just in case I read it wrong, how long was the runway ?

[ae86_16v]

Originally Posted by Jabba Just in case I read it wrong, how long was the runway ?

Yeah, I was wondering that as well. . . I mean you cover A LOT of ground going 300mph.

[Jabba]

Well the distance I read must be BS, so I shall wait for someone to confirm it from an official source.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by jakaracman What if, what of, what of ... That's a risk you have to take ... Otherwise setting a record wpuld be something anybody could do ...

And this was proved by thise event.. right?

There is a reason people spend a lifetime of money and effort and skill-honing to set and break world records... it is not a "joke/stunt" to be carried out between the football matcha nd evening news on TV.

All in all this whole attempt sort of cheapened every other record setter and breaker out there.

After defeating obstacles which included bird strikes through their jet engines, larks smashing the windscreen, and icy temperatures drawing the protective grilles directly into the path of the jet rotors, the team succeeded in achieving 269mph at Elvington airfield, near York, in the summer of 1999. In 2000, they beat 300mph after a tense struggle which saw Mark, in Split Second, hold the record at 272.93mph for a period of less than two hours. Colin’s second – and supposedly final – run had been so close to the 300mph threshold that the pair decide to run Vampire again – to come out with an average 300.3 mph.

and

Driver Mark Newby, 45, is a qualified pilot with air racing and aerobatics experience as well a drag racer of some repute. He began working with team partner Colin Fallows after being short-listed to drive Richard Noble's Thrust SSC. He lives near Oxford with his wife Wendy and their ten-year-old son Lee. Colin Fallows, 53, is one of the UK's most experienced drag racers and pioneer of UK jet car technology . The ex-RAF jet propulsion technician designed and built the UK Record Holding afterburning jet dragsters Split Second and Vampire. Colin lives in Northampton with his wife, Jan. He's a grandfather of four

from here ---> http://www.thule.co.uk/partners/blsr.asp

I am sort of wondering if they were even close to 300mph at all.


Seems it was 1.92 miles 3.089km long when this photo was taken.


http://www.greenaway.flyer.co.uk/york.html

[AlienDB7]

Glad to see Richard walking again, looks like the chance of a full recovery will be very high. Let's hope after the vampire bite (pardon the pun), Top Gear will be eternal and Hamster has a home to come back to.... Afterall, Top Gear technically already died once, it cannot die again!

RC, I disagree with you on the fact that an "average" TV presenter was able to achieve the same speed as the speed record cheapens every other record breaker. The record attempt itself has more to do with people behind the scene than the actual driver. However, it does take someone with the guts to press the button :roll:

The speed your car is capable of is certainly a lot faster than the speed record from a century ago. Does that cheapen the record breakers back then?

[jakaracman]

But in one of the reports I read (or I've seen tha on Sky News) thet Vampire ovner and ex-driver set the record on that airfield cause it has a long runway, as it was used by B52s ...
Turns out the runway is supposed to be 3,1 km long (heathrow has 3,6 and 3,9 km runways)

RC: as I've written before: if I had a chance do do it, I'd do it too ... It's just a question of beliving in yourself.
Or let's put it that way: WRC drivers train years, from lower categories up to go flat out on a narrow track ... I've never had that training, went as fast as I could (had a near off twice) and survived. Same for supertouring cars, GT cars, whatever. Or going 175 on a country road ... If you have a chance, you try it, if you really want it. If you dont (and May dind not want to do that), you step away (as he did).
And it wasnt an official record attempt at all. It was just a story about going as fast as possible in Britain, that's all.
EDIT: why wouldnt he go faster? It's a question of just keeping the throttle open and keeping the car on the runway - for as long as your dare ... He could go 350, but would fly of the end of the runway. The hard part is stopping it properly ...


And Hamster gets better:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...543787,00.html

[RC45]

Originally Posted by jakaracman RC: as I've written before: if I had a chance do do it, I'd do it too ... It's just a question of beliving in yourself.

It's more thna just "believing in yourslef" - as the accident sort of shows..

After defeating obstacles which included bird strikes through their jet engines, larks smashing the windscreen, and icy temperatures drawing the protective grilles directly into the path of the jet rotors, the team succeeded in achieving 269mph at Elvington airfield, near York, in the summer of 1999. In 2000, they beat 300mph after a tense struggle which saw Mark, in Split Second, hold the record at 272.93mph for a period of less than two hours. Colin’s second – and supposedly final – run had been so close to the 300mph threshold that the pair decide to run Vampire again – to come out with an average 300.3 mph.

and

Driver Mark Newby, 45, is a qualified pilot with air racing and aerobatics experience as well a drag racer of some repute. He began working with team partner Colin Fallows after being short-listed to drive Richard Noble's Thrust SSC. He lives near Oxford with his wife Wendy and their ten-year-old son Lee. Colin Fallows, 53, is one of the UK's most experienced drag racers and pioneer of UK jet car technology . The ex-RAF jet propulsion technician designed and built the UK Record Holding afterburning jet dragsters Split Second and Vampire. Colin lives in Northampton with his wife, Jan. He's a grandfather of four

from here ---> http://www.thule.co.uk/partners/blsr.asp

Note the effort and exepense and repetition and effort needed to actually set the record in those cars.

I am sort of wondering why they even bothered with a jet car? Piston engined NHRA dragsters already run from 0 to 330mph+ in 4 seconds and then stop in time to do a u-turn.

No doubt it was a controversial stunt to pull - great if it had worked.. but it didn't which actually proves the point about knowing the limits of a weekend warrior.

Great idea, and I am glad Hamster is recovering - but it wasn't his brightest idea this year

Afterall, 133m/s and only 3000m of runway - assuming you use the first 600m to get up to speed, thats 2400m left... thats 18s to shutit down and come to a complete stop.

Seems you would want some training, practice and exposure to pull that one off.. you might deploy the wrong parachute, or deploy it too soon or too late or the system may fail or a bird might be injested.

I am not trying to cheapen the injury or spoil the moment, but if you actually sit and think abotu it, it is an awefulyl silly show to do. Then again he may have had 50 practice runs we don't know about before this day.

So its all still specualtion.

Get well soon oh short one.

[jakaracman]

Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by jakaracman RC: as I've written before: if I had a chance do do it, I'd do it too ... It's just a question of beliving in yourself. It's more thna just "believing in yourslef" - as the accident sort of shows..

It is - you just have to accept a chence that it's going to be the last thing you do.
Plus: let's not pretend that Hamster is just an average driver ... He's driven enough supercars (and I'm prepred to bet that he's taken them to the max when he had a chance) that he knows a thing or two about high speeds ...
I agree taht a racing driver would have a higher chance of getting away without accident but Hamster obviously judged that it's worth the risk (it was his life, after all). Let's respect his decision ...

EDIT: he was doing practice runs whole day and was taught driving procedures by caro owner/driver. And he completed some hihg speed runs safely ...

If I'd have to guess reason of accident I see 2 options:
- of 2 chutes only 1 opened, that yawed the car sideways and that is it (even with a suoper driver behind wheel, ther has ben a lot of accidents like that) - I think this one is more likely
- Hamster braked with brake too soon and to hard, blew a tire and ... I guess this is less likely, as witnesess say that car wet of road righ after chute(s) was delpoyed ...

[nthfinity]

Originally Posted by jakaracman Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by jakaracman RC: as I've written before: if I had a chance do do it, I'd do it too ... It's just a question of beliving in yourself. It's more thna just "believing in yourslef" - as the accident sort of shows.. It is - you just have to accept a chence that it's going to be the last thing you do. Plus: let's not pretend that Hamster is just an average driver ... He's driven enough supercars (and I'm prepred to bet that he's taken them to the max when he had a chance) that he knows a thing or two about high speeds ... I agree taht a racing driver would have a higher chance of getting away without accident but Hamster obviously judged that it's worth the risk (it was his life, after all). Let's respect his decision ... EDIT: he was doing practice runs whole day and was taught driving procedures by caro owner/driver. And he completed some hihg speed runs safely ... If I'd have to guess reason of accident I see 2 options: - of 2 chutes only 1 opened, that yawed the car sideways and that is it (even with a suoper driver behind wheel, ther has ben a lot of accidents like that) - I think this one is more likely - Hamster braked with brake too soon and to hard, blew a tire and ... I guess this is less likely, as witnesess say that car wet of road righ after chute(s) was delpoyed ...

jackerman

We've driven some very fast cars between us...
How in the world is a 6 seconds to 300 mph jet car AT ALL similar to driving a 600 hp street car? there simply are no tangable similarities.

[Jabba]

Originally Posted by RC45 All in all this whole attempt sort of cheapened every other record setter and breaker out there.

Yeh, I have been trying to think of the right words to use to say just that, it is indeed a major piss take to think anyone could hire that dragster for the day and get themselves the britsh land speed record with the only qualification needing to be stupidity.

Then I read this which sums it up a bit better :


"Daredevil Hammond was apparently trying to break the UK’s land speed record in a jet-powered Vampire dragster when he left the airfield at a suspected 280mph and ploughed into the grass. Time was when the presenter’s job was to present, but with a stunt like this Hammond took on an altogether more dangerous role – one for which he may not have been properly trained. Most drivers of jet-powered cars are current or former fighter pilots, like Andy Green, who have lightening reactions and are used to travelling at colossal speeds. Green is the fastest man on the planet, holding the world land speed record of 763mph, set in 1997.
There’s no doubt that the dragster run – like every stunt Top Gear pulls off - is conducted under the strictest and tightest safety guidelines. But accidents do happen, despite the precautions. As viewers wanting our next fix of armchair-adrenalin, are we asking too much of presenters like Hammond or are we merely tagging along as they live out their dreams?

The company behind the high-speed challenge – Primetime Land Speed Engineering – has denied that Hammond was attempting any speed-smashing record. Perhaps this is the truth, but the facts speak for themselves. He still crashed at 280mph so does it really matter whether he was trying to break any records or not? Could it be something to do with Hammond not actually being a racing driver? Generally speaking he, like most of us, shouldn’t be within 100 miles of a car capable of these speeds.

It’s like Ferrari asking you to step in for Michael Schumacher because he’s in bed with the flu and you’ve always wanted to drive a grand prix car. There are some things we just don’t have the talent for. When it comes to setting the Top Gear power laps, why do you think Clarkson, May and Hammond take a back seat and let the Stig, a qualified racing driver, set the fastest laps? Perhaps it’s because he’s a qualified racing driver – and the rest aren’t. So when May, a novice pilot not trained to fly at night, races Clarkson in a Bugatti Veyron through Europe for a feature, or the guys play ‘caravan conkers’, the question has to be asked, is this safe? Has the quest for entertainment gone too far?
"