What happened to Roland Ratzenberger's car?

[Cars123abc]

Does anyone know what happens to a racecar after it's been involved in a fatal incident? I was curious what happened to Senna's after his crash and I discovered that Williams had it dismantled.

So I wonder what happened to Roland Ratzenberger's? Is it known if it was dismantled, or crushed, or recycled? Or was it sold to a private collector - which personally I think is a little creepy...

Is it publicly known?

Cheers!

Edited by Cars123abc on Monday 12th June 16:17

[Sebring440]

Cars123abc said:

- which personally I think is a little creepy.

I agree with you - it's more than a little creepy asking such questions.

[350Matt]

It was rebuilt

[hman]

A car is a piece of metal - it doesnt gain supernatural powers of creepiness by someone dying in it...

Poor old Roland busted his neck rather than explode all over the inside of the cockpit so I'd say extracting the corspe, rebuilding the car and re-using it are perfectly acceptable actions given how much money would have been invested in the car.

[lotus72]

I always thought that a race car involved in a fatal accident was returned to the team and the car would be subsequently scrapped, which is what happened to Senna's Williams.

[moffspeed]

Well at least one such car was afforded a burial - J.G.Parry-Thomas was killed on Pendine Sands in South Wales in 1927 whilst driving his aero-engined "Babs" chasing the WLSR.

J.G.P-T. was buried in Byfleet close to his beloved Brooklands whilst 'Babs" was buried in the sand dunes that border the Pendine strip. In 1969 she was exhumed and restored. Much that I love watching her run my general feeling is that like Donald Campbell's K7 she should have been allowed to rest in peace....

Edited by moffspeed on Wednesday 14th June 20:23

[williamp]

I have heard that Rindt's Lotus chassis survives, but has been stored since...

[kgab78]

A bit of research shows that when the Italian authorities had finished their investigation, Ratzenberger's Car was returned to Cosworth as creditors of the Team over unpaid Engine bills (Simtek went bust in '95). The Chassis was then Buried in a Landfill somewhere in the midlands. Rather sadly I stumbled across an Ebay listing last year from someone selling a Brake Disc retrieved from this Car at the time of it's burial. The only reason I know this is because I built a Model of that Car quite recently, always liked the Simteks.

[tylerama]

kgab78 said:

always liked the Simteks.

I always thought it was a good looking car and a great livery, too !