Tag: Video

Videos are back!

Ok, it’s supposed to be video of the week… yet since Christmas I’ve not been updating this section. My Bad!

Now, I’m not about to go back to updating weekly. I’ve been busy, I’ve got trips planned, and it’s hard to update this section every single week unless some of you start sending me quality material!

But I enjoy trawling the netterweb and have come across some gems to share with you until normal service is resumed.

The Paris-Dakar rally isn’t the safest one in the world, even for photographers

Safety standards on track days have improved somewhat since the seventies. I especially loved the four-up driving in the Beetle Cabrio…

Streetluge shows that even if our beloved internal combustion engines are banned by green requirements we’ll still have ways to race. This video nicely explains what it’s all about although there’s a bit of overuse of words like dude, buddies, and the like but they’re American so you have to make allowances. I’m trying to find videos of the rather less slick Brazilian stuff I saw years ago – that was amazing. But for now:

Bike messengers are some of the most hardcore cyclists in the world. They ride day in, day out, in the busiest cities. They dodge between the traffic, pick up speed by grabbing onto trucks and cars… and they deliver stuff. Quickly. They may have a disrespect for the rules of the road, and even for pedestrians and other more sedates cyclists but you can only respect the skill of some of them. Sometimes they even arrange races:

Thanks for everyone’s patience while the site went quiet. There’ll be more soon.

Wheels are Dangerous

This poor guy didn’t realise what hit him.

It shows, to me at least, the importance of always having a little bit of a safety mentality when working on cars and trucks. It’s easy to get complacent, but with the large amounts of energy involved in moving our vehicles around, the danger is always present. A seemingly tiny mistake or failure could easily kill someone – this guy was hurt, but at least he wasn’t killed.

When Your Mic Breaks, Improvise!

Sometimes you record a great hillclimb run (this one up Loton Park) only to find a technical glitch has spoilt the recording. So if that’s the case, you must improvise….

The chap who did the sound to this has the respectable job of doctorin’. You might think he’s self-medicating, but actually he’s like this naturally!

It’s a good video of a run up Loton Park’s Hillclimb too. And accurately captures the feeling everyone gets the first time they reach the final bend, Museum.

Caterham at Oulton

Rather liked this video. Not so much for the driving, which is perfectly fine if not especially edgy, but the telemetry on-screen. I want a system like this! Does anyone know who makes it?
PS. I wasn’t paying attention and titled this as Donington. Now corrected to show Oulton but I’ve left the path the same to avoid link-confusion.

When Track Safety Goes Wrong

I’m no fan of gruesome videos, but sometimes they’re necessary because otherwise we forget just what can go wrong and fail to plan for the worst. In the UK at least marshalls are some of the best – this is what happens when the marshalls aren’t well trained.

When I first saw this accident I felt sick. However, I didn’t see the subsequent marshalling and safety disaster. Once I saw the full video, and learned that the driver, Tetsuya Ota had survived and recovered then I decided it would make a good instructive video.

It took another driver to actually attend to Ota, which is one shock. The other was that people were standing around and completely failing to deal with the injured Ferrari driver.

Marshalls are hugely appreciated by the competitors – especially in Britain where we know that marshalls are well trained, professional, and devoted to their sport. They really are the stars that make our sport possible.

If you have a nervous disposition I recommend you don’t view the video:

Motorsport Video of the Week #1

Approximately every week I’m going to try and find a neat, interesting or just plain scary motorsport video and post it into this site. Some will be from Google and Youtube, and others will be sourced elsewhere. I’ll always give credit where due and if you ever find a video that shouldn’t be here please let me know.

And now the first – a fine example of how it can all go wrong in racing if your attention wanders. Watch closely :


Or you can view it directly on Google Videos. It’s a viral video to advertise a new Renault model, but I feel it’s done well enough to warrant inclusion.