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World Record Jump Attempt in a Mini(!) Goes Wrong


Mook
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French rally driver Guerlain Chicherit is a very lucky man. He had hoped to beat Tanner Foust's 332-feet car jump record (which nearly went awry itself) with a 360-foot leap in a specially built Mini to score a new Guinness World Record at the French ski resort of Tignes. However, things didn't go to plan, and Chicherit suffered a massive crash during the attempt.

 

He wasn't badly injured.

 

 

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Well, it wasn't just a question of losing balance when he landed. The whole angle & height of the landing ramp was wrong, the car had tipped forward too much by the time it landed so touched down nose first rather than wheels first. Instant cartwheel.

He needs a better balanced car, I think... Less nose-heavy.

Top Gear would have just built a bridge over that gap.

But it would have taken them a week :coffee:

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I don't know the physics behind it, i'm sure someone will be able to explain it better than me, but it's to do with rotational forces I believe.

I have a friend that is heavily in to Motocross, and he explained the principle is the same on a bike in the air as it is for a car, if you accelerate and make the wheels spin faster, it'll bring the nose up, if you lift off or even brake, the nose will dip.

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Don't ask me to explain in ANY level of detail but I did hear a feasible explanation once that it is all to do with torque reaction.

 

As in similar to a helicopter if you removed the tail rotor (but obviously less so) IIRC.

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The car is applying torque to the wheels.  Therefore, there will be an opposite reaction torque on the car, which will tend to bring the nose up - as it does in a wheelie.  Isaac Newton, equal and opposite forces, and all that.

 

I would have thought the effect would be quite small, as you are balancing the whole weigh of the car against the weight of the driven wheels.  But I suppose a powerful but light car could show it?

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