This video will have you cringing and wincing all the way through. It is an amazing collection of racing crashes from the earliest days of motorized competition through the 1950s. For many years, really just up until modern times, death and racing were words that fell together like peanut butter and jelly. Huge percentages of regular racers died behind the wheel. Race car drivers crashed and died, that’s just how it was. Hell after the horiffic crash in LeMans in 1955, Switzerland banned racing within the borders of the country for more than 50 years!
The horrors of crashing an old race car are clearly evident in this video. No driver restraints, no design consideration given to helping drivers survive wrecks, no safety gear, horrible tires and handling, and the list goes on. Helmets, at this stage of the game were seen as the tools of sissies. They were really the tools of the overly hopeful, because in the event of a crash, a leather coated fiberglass bucket was only going to act as a salad bowl for your brains as opposed to a life saving piece of gear.
The bravery of these men simply cannot be measured. Perhaps the stupidity as well?
(Thanks to Chassisman for the tip!)
Killed Myself When I Was Young from The Jalopy Journal on Vimeo.
