Unsuitable safety cars.

[ajprice]

In Motorsport, the safety car has to do a lot, especially the fast stuff like F1 and endurance racing. Sometimes, however good a car is, using it as a safety car is not a good idea. Here's a BMW M5 Touring at Road America for an IMSA race. A 2.5 tonne estate car, fully on the brakes into turn 10, with sparks coming off the glowing discs.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeADhfuyoAO/?stkn=M...





Yes it's a performance car, and yes brakes do glow red when you really step on them, but sparks?!? That can't be good.

So what other road cars have there been that was seriously not up to the job?

[John D.]

Are the sparks not a characteristic of certain high performance pads?

Don't think it's that alarming.

An old Cavalier pacing F1 cars is more of a worry.

[Mr E]

Did the M5 suffer any braking issues other than the pyrotechnics in very low light?

F1 for a few years had no safety car standard - was whatever the circuit wanted to use.

[Mr E]

John D. said:

.

An old Cavalier pacing F1 cars is more of a worry.

Ha. Beaten to it.
Technically a vectra. I also recall a fiat saloon.

[mac96]

Surely the point of a safety car is that is not particularly fast, so provided it operates within its own safe limits there is no problem?

[John D.]

mac96 said:

Surely the point of a safety car is that is not particularly fast, so provided it operates within its own safe limits there is no problem?

It needs to be fast enough to allow the following cars/bikes to keep some heat in the tyres and brakes. Too slow and it's asking for another incident as soon as the race starts again.

[mac96]

John D. said:

mac96 said:

Surely the point of a safety car is that is not particularly fast, so provided it operates within its own safe limits there is no problem?

It needs to be fast enough to allow the following cars/bikes to keep some heat in the tyres and brakes. Too slow and it's asking for another incident as soon as the race starts again.

Of course that should have been obvious even to me! Thank you.

[carinaman]

Mr E said:

Did the M5 suffer any braking issues other than the pyrotechnics in very low light?

F1 for a few years had no safety car standard - was whatever the circuit wanted to use.

Looks like Imola 1994. Time behind slow safety car meant F1 tyres lost pressure and reduced ride height hence Senna's car bottoming out over bumps on the circuit?

[Sandpit Steve]

Mr E said:

Did the M5 suffer any braking issues other than the pyrotechnics in very low light?

F1 for a few years had no safety car standard - was whatever the circuit wanted to use.

And sadly we all know what happened a few minutes after that photo was taken.

The safety car should be the quickest standard road sports car the organisers can get their hands on. Not a Vectra, and not a large wagon.

It needs to be quick enough in higher-performance series, to allow the both the competitors and itself to maintain a safe condition of tyres, brakes, and engine cooling, able to lap continually at 90% with no performance or reliability issues. The F1 Mercedes (AMG GT Black Series) does a good job, and for a prototype series like IMSA they really need something of similar performance. A 911 Turbo would also work.

[Josemartinez]

How about this one from super formula that was quicker than the super formula cars?

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/EM00_u2hX54

Or the SUV that went on track ahead of the f1 cars at the 2013 Korean grand prix

[bergclimber34]

To be fair in 94 less was known about a lot of things, it was the very earliest days of this safety car idea. Yes it was poor, but lessons were learned, and it was not the reason why the accident happened, it may has contributed in a very small way.

[Davie]

bergclimber34 said:

To be fair in 94 less was known about a lot of things, it was the very earliest days of this safety car idea. Yes it was poor, but lessons were learned, and it was not the reason why the accident happened, it may has contributed in a very small way.

Granted it's almost on the door handles in that image, but it was also good for 150mph and low 6's to 60 so it wasn't exactly slow. Though compared to an F1 car it was slow...

[Castellet]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DdooRbciB3h/?stkn=cXp2...