Are you forgetting that in 2013 a LeMans driver died in lap 2? Horrible year. Cars can only be made so safe.

The reason CGT appears to have poor survivability is simply a type of confirmation bias. There are many many accidents and even deaths of this type, even daily. For example, there are 150,000 vehicles fires per year in the US. One hundred and fifty THOUSAND. There are about 35,000 vehicle deaths per year. We hear of almost none of them, because they don't involve famous people or exotic cars.

The CGT is not particularly unsafe.

 

The angle at which they hit the tree is a huge factor. The car is not designed to take a concentrated blow to the side like that.

 

Rip !

 

Well, to that I say, take the number of vehicle deaths per year and divide that number by the number of non-exotic vehicles on the road, or if you care to drill down further, pull together the numbers on the total number of vehicle deaths per model and then divide this by the total number of those models sold.

I never said the CGT was necessary unsafe, rather, it is a very unforgiving car that doesn't seem to have as good a reputation for occupant safety compared to its modern compatriots which I find somewhat odd considering this car was designed to be a race car long before it was converted for road use.


Still enough, a very pretty piece of engineering.

 

Damn... Rest in peace.

 

Quite true and compounded by the fact that its gas tank is in the center, inside the bulkhead, between the occupant and engine.

An obvious point I'm surprised nobody has mentioned: Sports car safety improves nearly every year (though performance features like advanced ABS, traction, open diffs, PDCC, etc etc as well as pure safety features) and it's been almost 10 years since the CGT was released. Does the CGT have a side curtain airbags? I think not.

Also, without speculating on this particular accident, let's not kid ourselves that the average CGT accident probably occurs at a much higher speed than cars in general, so you should probably account for that if you want to make survivability comparisons.

Suppose for a moment that the CGT hit that tree doing 100mph and somehow through amazing engineering it didn't bend or break (or catch fire) and the occupants were held in place by the seatbelts. Maybe the doctors in the house can chime in but I'm fairly certain the body pressure created by the belts and the whiplash on the driver's neck and organs are still very likely to cause serious injury or death.

 

While i cant comment on that particular fire as I was not there,, I have been around car fires before. And maybe because I've spent 10 years as trauma nurse I would still do all that I could, nor just video and speculate they are dead. I would take getting burned to save a life, celebrity or not. But not all of us are cut from the same cloth.

 

I'll add this bit of commentary. Take it for what its worth. IIRC the CGT in addition to making extensive use of CFRP and CF, also uses liberal amounts of Magnesium.

Resin and plastic ignite fairly easily but once magnesium catches fire, it burns at a temperature and ferocity unlike anything I have ever seen or felt short of an oxy cutting torch. I say this after having been at a motorcycle track day and watching another rider wad up a race prepped Yamaha which had magnesium wheels and lots of expensive CF bits.

I'm not stranger to motorcycle fires, but this bike burned hot and fast - solid rocket booster level hot with occasional sparks and spall shooting off.

 

A CGT really is a handful and is very susceptible to cold tires. Based on the proximity of the accident to the event, I'm guessing it was a combination of cold tires and a heavy foot. I had the opportunity to track one for a day (c/o an Extremly generous friend) and was amazed driving it on the street how long it took for the tires to warm up enough to handle the torque.

 

RIP Paul.
Straight line accidents always raise questions. My initial opinion is that they hit a dip in the road, rear end got a bit light and the driver over corrected, ultimately causing loss of control.

Can only hope they didnt feel anything

 

Yes, cold tires on the CGT with its power and torque are a terrible combination

 

"As Roger began to back into the garage ... Paul came up and said he hadn't driven in the Porsche yet -- so he jumped in the passenger seat and they took a 20 minute drive."



Story I read, said they were on their way back to the shop, after a 20 minute drive.

 

Well, racecars are only safe on racetracks. Just as an example, a full roll cage in a street car is a very bad and unsafe idea.

A street car at high speed is dangerous, racecar origins or not. I shouldn't be surprised.

Thanks for pointing out the rear subframe attachment. All mid engine monocoque cars are designed this way and they all will split in half given the correct type of impact. It probably contributed to the fire, but perhaps not to the deaths. Hard to say yet without more info.

It's unfortunate that it was a side impact, that is historically and certainly in 2005 (even in pure racecars) a weak spot, so to speak, in accident safety.

 

Yes, reacting metals are some of the hottest burning and explosive fires. The actual fuel in the Space Shuttle SRB's, is powdered aluminum mixed with an oxidizer.

 

Very sad video, but it's good to know there was a group of people that tried to get him out, in contrast to that other video

http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_w9es8yr6/

As for others mentioning the tree, the intial impact would be with the curb which probably launched the car airborn some and it knocked through a lightpost first before hitting the tree. If you google street view where the incident occurred (28300 rye canyon loop valencia ca) and go up the road (hercules street) you can see the lightposts are significantly thicker than the trees, and while they are designed to break way, initial impact would be significant.