Rowan Atkinson, comedian and car collector extraordinaire was released from hospital today with no serious injuries after losing control of his maroon McLaren F1 and crashing into a telephone pole, setting the car alight in the process.

Atkinson apparently walked away from the wreck and sat on the side of the road with another motorist, waiting for emergency services. He has hurt his shoulder but no long term injuries are expected.

The McLaren F1 is the pride of his enormous and secretive car collection, costing over 650 000 Great British Pounds more than a decade ago. He apparently bought it to celebrate the success of the international Mr Bean film.

The car is a bit of a TV star as well, having appeared on the BBC’s Top Gear numerous times over the years. Atkinson himself was recently a guest on Top Gear and defended the car to host Jeremy Clarkson, who has never liked the McLaren. Atkinson said you have to live with the car, he has done over 37 000 miles in the car, more than any other owner presumably.

Atkinson is no stranger to car accidents, he has crashed this car before (although it was minor) and has also crashed a rare 1954 Mercedes Gullwing, a car worth close to a million pounds depending on condition.

Atkinson is also a keen racing driver, and races his 1964 Ford Falcon. He is known to own a new Audi R8, and even a Honda Civic Hybrid for more mundane duties.

There have been some stunning incidents this week, ranging from the hilarious video of a Formula 1 marshall rolling under Luizzi’s car in Malaysia, to this horrifying footage of a race car completely clearing the concrete barrier at Brands Hatch, UK. We’ve got a second video of that horror smash, in which both drivers walked away, as well as a few you might have missed, including Jason Plato’s high speed bender in the British Touring Car Championships.

Let’s start with that second angle from Brands Hatch. The accident occurred at an amateur one-make Toyota MR2 race at the infamous Brands Hatch circuit in the UK. The event was not televised so this spectator captured the only footage of the incident. Cars 1 and 55 come together, and the black MR2 gets squeezed over the barrier and into the parking lot, while the red MR2 does a spectacular series of end-to-end rotations against the catch fence. There’s an awesome stop-frame in this footage as well.

The next video features Jason Plato, a presenter on Discovery Channel’s Fifth Gear and BTCC Champion. The track is ex-F1 circuit Donington Park, also in the UK. Plato gets a nudge from behind just after the race starts and goes off during a flat-out corner. The commentator says that cars never go off their, so its a long slippery ride to the barriers. Incredibly the team rebuild the car in just a few hours, and had it on the grid for the next race, which brought Plato to tears. He said “Forget F1, this is the best team in the world.” The big girl. Plato eventually placed 6th and earned some valuable points.

In Nascar this week we saw Restrictor Plate racing at Talladega, one of the highlights of the calendar. If you’ve ever watched Nascar you might know that it involves going left and crashing. And weird sponsorship. That aside, Talladega is a rare 2.5 mile super-speedway, which means the drivers can literally drive flat-out for all 188 laps. To slow them down, a plate is welded below the accelerator (can you imagine that in F1) which holds them at about 180mph. To gain a speed advantage, rival drivers “bumpdraft” – they literally touch bumpers to cancel air resistance for the trailing car. This is incredible motor racing, but also incredibly dangerous, can you imagine somebody nudges you a little too hard at 300kmh? Well it happens, and this is the result:

And finally, during Friday free practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix, an in-car camera caught a hilarious moment when track marshals were pushing Antonio Luizzi’s broken-down car off of the track. Luizzi was out of the car when the incident happened. We’re only laughing because the marshal involved got up straight away. Sorry about the lame dubbed music, I searched Youtube long and hard for original audio but no luck.

Once such technology is preventive brake intervention and the German premium automobile manufacturer has successfully crash tested this system on the new 5 series (530d) model in collaboration with DEKRA. The intervention of this technology helps a 64km/h impact reduce to 40km/h as the automobile senses danger and applies automatic brakes not waiting for the driver to respond in such cases. The car’s advanced sensors first sense a probable collision and issue a warning to the driver and then the automatic brakes kick in. This may impress NCAP but what is ironical is that NCAP crash tests cars without applying the brakes.

I’ve never driven a Nissan GTR, but I’ve heard that it is so good and that the driver is probably the worst link in the car. Some say it’s so good that you have to try really hard to lose control.

We can only assume that the driver of this unfortunate GTR tried really, really hard to lose control because as you can see it looks like he succeeded. Apparently he drove into the back of another car.

Glad this didn’t happen to me.

UPDATE:

The helicopter’s crash near his home in Lanark, Scotland caused the death of four people: 39-year-old champion along with his five-year-old son Johnny and six-year-old friend of McRae’s son and family friend Graeme Duncan aged 37.

Speaking on behalf of the whole family, Colin’s father, Jim McRae, said today:

“It is with much sadness and regret that we have to make this statement. It is unbelievable that Colin and Johnny’s lives have been taken so prematurely and in such a tragic manner.

Colin was a great son, a loving husband to Alison and a fantastic father to Johnny and his big sister Hollie. Johnny was a great wee guy, spending every spare minute with his dad, and even at this early stage it looked like he had the potential to carry on the family dynasty.

Our thoughts are also very much with the families of Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan. Ben was a great buddy of Johnny’s and they had always spent a lot of time together both in and out of school. Graeme, who now resides in France, had been a close friend of Colin’s since their schooldays and was back in Lanark on holiday.

We are thankful for the overwhelming number of messages of support we have received from all around the world. Colin was very much an inspiration and role model to motorsport fans the world over. As you can imagine this is a very difficult time for the family and we would ask that our privacy be respected and we be allowed to grieve in private.” (Colin McRae web page)

“He was a great character outside the car and a tremendous driver inside the car,” his former co-driver Nicky Grist told. “He had so much commitment and oozed talent. f it had an engine and wheels he would get in it and drive it to the maximum. When it came to cars Colin had that little something extra special.”

David Richards, said McRae was a “legend” of the sport. “He was competitive and extreme in everything he did but also so much fun,” he told reporters at the weekend. It’s ironic that he walked away from so many accidents only for this to happen.”

Formula One driver David Coulthard said McRae was “blindingly quick” in a car while another Scottish motor racing great, Jackie Stewart, said: “It’s a sad loss for Scotland, a real hero and an immensely popular friend.”

“He was always my favourite driver, I followed him a lot and went to see him in Monte Carlo and San Remo… everyone is very sad, he was the most spectacular and drove at 100 percent,” Valentino Rossi.

Mcrae became the first British world rally champion in 1995 while driving for the Subaru team. McRae was also runner-up in a Subaru in 1996 and 1997 and narrowly missed the title for Ford in 2001. He won 25 times in the World Rally Championship from 146 starts and picked up 477 individual stage victories.

RIP Colin McRae!

source: reuters


Original report:

The Times is reporting that former World Rally Champion Colin McRae has died after the helicopter he was piloting crashed into the ground near his home in Strathclyde. Also on board was his five year-old son, an unnamed adult male and child. According to reports, there were no survivors.

People close to McRae assert that he was as adept at piloting a helicopter as he was behind the wheel.

More is available from the Times Online here. We’ll update this post as more information is available.

[Source]

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