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“Rush” recreation of Niki Lauda ’76 crash

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Another Great Racing Movie in the Making

The 1966 "Grand Prix" movie remains a motorhead's favorite, with real racing scenes and cameos by many of the era's competitors. Got a Blu-Ray copy last year for a "boy's night in."

Ron Howard is producing "Rush" which chronicles the 1976 Formula 1 season-long battle between Austria's Niki Lauda and Britain's James Hunt.  Lauda suffers a near fatal crash on the first lap at the Nürburgring.

During the first lap of the 1976 German Grand Prix, Niki Lauda's Ferrari 312B2 spun and hit an embankment off the side of the track. His helmet became dislodged form the impact, and the car fuel tank ruptured.

The car was then hit by another, and it caught fire. Niki Lauda escaped with his life thanks to the combined actions of fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl rather than by the ill-equipped track marshals.

At the time, safety vehicles took about 10 minutes to reach the driver, since the accident occurred several miles along the circuit.

RECREATING THE INCIDENT

Dale, (or nurburgdale) writing in the Nürburgring-focused blog Bridge to Gantry, documents recreation of the pivital scene as posted by PistonHeads:

For the full story check my blog post here: http://goo.gl/upJ9v.

Out walking the dog and I happen across one of the most amazing scenes in Ron Howard's new movie; "Rush". Of course, I had my trusty pocket cam… don't know about you but I can't wait to see this movie. Anticipation!

More info at http://www.bridgetogantry.com

It was the last time a Formula 1 race was held at the 'Ring.  The PistonHeads link includes pictures of the production.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Update:  If interested, the BBC Four documentary mentioned by Joseph Schmoe in the comments is excellent!

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Posted by on April 12, 2012 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Firefighting Operations, News, Patient Management, Rescues, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
  • http://profiles.google.com/captschmoe Joseph Schmoe

    Mike –

    That looks to be a pretty good reenactment, hopefully the entire film will be as good.

    Oddly enough, that incident occurred just after the deadliest period in GP racing, known as the killer years.

    No fire/ems planning, inadequate crash response and incompetent fire/ems crews were the norm, not the exception to incidents at grand prix events. Sacrificing safety for speed was the culture of the day.  It was almost blood sport.

    The BBC produced a great one hour long documentary called Grand Prix – The Killer Years. It was recently aired on Velocity. It was hard to watch, as it did not censor the horrific details of drivers and spectators being killed at these events.

    It also showcases drivers like Jackie Stewart, who attempted to change the “Death is part of the game” mentality of race spectators and organizers.

    The documentary is no longer available on You Tube, but I did find it at the link below. It is well worth the watch.

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmlzni_grand-prix-the-killer-years_auto

    Thanks for the post.

  • http://www.firegeezer.com/ Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

     Wow, thanks Joseph!