Filed under: Motorsports, Etc.
Flying Aston Martin video lands online
We've finally found video of the 009 Aston Martin ALMS racecar that "flew" 142 feet off the track at Mid-Ohio Raceway last weekend. The racecar traveled in the air 22 feet farther than the Wright brothers' first powered flight on December 17th, 1903. Unfortunately the video is not nearly as exciting as the pictures that first surfaced, but we'll let you be the judge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim P 7:58AM (5/25/2006)
yea, the pics were better.
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James Sonne 8:22AM (5/25/2006)
You know, the Wright brothers were travelling at about 3 mph when they flew 120 feet. It's not surprising that a car can 'fly' 140 feet when it's travelling at +140 feet per second, or 95mph, when it leaves the ground. The Wright brothers stayed in the air for, I believe it was upwards of 45 seconds.
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Jack Mehoff 8:36AM (5/25/2006)
Would be a good promotional video showing potential buyers that A.M's not only drive great but can actually fly too!
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Jon Green 10:14AM (5/25/2006)
So the Aston Martin PR release will read "The Aston Martin ALMS racecar number 009 was the highest running car at Mid-Ohio last weekend..............."
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Matt 10:28AM (5/25/2006)
James,it flew for 12 seconds and 120 feet, so they hit an average ground speed of nearly 7 mph, in a headwind. Given a fast enough wind, the Flyer 1 would have been like a kite hovering in place. Still, neat video and pictures of the car.
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Steve C. 10:35AM (5/25/2006)
Actually looks pretty scary and points out a huge design error. NASCAR figured out a few years ago that cars optimized to create downforce going forward like to get airborne going backwards, which is why the roof flaps and other passive aero devices exist in NASCAR. Why other race groups haven't learned from that is a mystery to me.
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Will 10:53AM (5/25/2006)
Yeah but at least the other racing groups use sexier cars and do more than drive in a circle of left turns.
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ConceptualReality 11:21AM (5/25/2006)
There is a bitter rivalry between post 5 and 6.
Sexy or not this could have been much less impressive (and considerably more safe) with the addition of some low cost devices.
Not much use for sexy if you're dead.
(not that Nascar doesn't have its share of fatalities)
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bytex64 12:20PM (5/25/2006)
Maybe... because most race cars drive fowards most of the time?
Seriously, how often do NASCAR cars wind up flying backwards into the dirt that something as goofy as a pressure equalizing roof flap was deemed necessary as a safety feature?
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Paulo Becker 12:40PM (5/25/2006)
Lol. Santos Dumont owns the Wright Brothers, and now so does Aston Martin =D
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kevin 12:47PM (5/25/2006)
nascars spin out all the time on the track at 150+ mph, and they remain planted. The aston would go airborn, just like what happened in the video.
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POPone 2:03PM (5/25/2006)
wth! holy cow. the whole thing looks like it's in slow motion. kinda surprising it got airtime but hit the tires so slowly.
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SoloTwo 2:10PM (5/25/2006)
It went airborn because the track is banked at the turn for the love of god. It didn't get airborn because it doesn't have stupid roof flaps because it doesn't need to spin out at 160mph going in circles. THE TURN IS BANKED. I've raced there. So stop bickering like you guys ALWAYS manage to do in EVERY comment section.
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itc42wdc 3:13PM (5/25/2006)
re 12 above: Not only is it banked, but the ground drops away quite sharply from the outter lip of the corner. Anybody carrying any sort of speed will catch some air if they did what the AM did. The AM's hang-time is a direct result of (a) the vehicle speed -- it didn't slow down much before hitting the corner, (b) the banking of the corner, and (c) the ground dropping away from the car so steeply.
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nick 4:13PM (5/25/2006)
Seriously, how often do NASCAR cars wind up flying backwards into the dirt that something as goofy as a pressure equalizing roof flap was deemed necessary as a safety feature?
You, my friend, have obviously never seen a NASCAR race at Talledaga or any other super-speedway on the circuit.
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LosBurritos 9:27PM (5/25/2006)
That was a nice car and a helluva experience for the drivers.
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Viper007Bond 4:50AM (5/26/2006)
Pfft, you guys found it my ass.
I found it, uploaded it to YouTube, and then linked to it in the comments of the previous article here. :(
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DPC car videos 5:17AM (8/29/2006)
That Aston Martin was like a flying wing, that driver was super lucky it was a smooth landing.
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car specifications 5:28AM (10/14/2006)
I can't belive what I saw. Absolutely amazing.
I need to watch it again.
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Edxmon 6:46PM (10/08/2008)
with all this bickering no body has mentioned the a huge factor: The AM has nearly 50/50 weight distribution. Any other car would have landed nose/tail first and possibly flipped afterwards.
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