Why Lambo doors might get you dead (NWS, NSFW)

[pfrocker]

according to that, atleast they died immediatley and weren't burnt alive

[skaternick]

Charge = electrics

Electrics don't fare too well underwater. Cars should come with a window punch though, I'll say that much. It's not like it would be an expensive addition to toss in the glovebox.

[wooflepoof]

or ike those emergency rubber seals on trains where you pull of the rubber lining and punch through the window

[SL65]

The accident happened in the Czech Republic, supposedly a gust of wind disturbed the balance of the car and sent it skidding towards a patch of trees @ 250km/hour
http://www.super.cz/exkluzivne/9235-...-zahynula.html

I was able to find a translation of some of the article:
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It says "A tragic accident involving a luxury lamborghini last Saturday night was all the news spoke of"

Then "The Lamborghini going around 250 km flew from the highway, ran down a couple of trees and caught on fire. Ridic and his passenger died immediately. The passenger was one of Czech Republic's best models, Renata Vaculcikova" Then the story continues with, "Renata was going with her friend for a ride in his fast car when someone wanted to race them. They raced for about 10 minutes. No one could have guessed, that from that one race, tragedy would strike"

Then it goes on to say that the model was in lots of commercials and that she will be sorely missed.
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A gust of wind unbalanced the car at 250km/h Thats scary stuff that wind can cause something this horrific.

It would have been terrible after having such a bad crash trying to get out of the car but not have the doors open

[Blind_Io]

This is exactly why Mercedes stopped making the Gullwing. The Gullwing started life as a racer, but when it ended up on the roof the driver was trapped.

[skaternick]

This is exactly why Mercedes stopped making the Gullwing. The Gullwing started life as a racer, but when it ended up on the roof the driver was trapped.

I wonder how well those would fare in a roll-over...

[Hatmouse]

Not as bad as the lambo, those go outward and up. You'd be able to get more of it open, I think.

[skaternick]

Better chance yea, but still pretty near fucked haha.

[Salar]

Now lets see if an SLR crashes like that...

[SV]

Look at Enzo, 2 serious crashes in 4 months (lately), and no body died nor the car got fired.

The enzo's ripped themselves apart on impact so the engine was the only thing that could have caught fire and by some of the pics that ive seen it looks like it did ignite.
Also the enzos had the racing seatbelts, im betting that the lambos only had a regular seatbelt in this latest crash.


The only thing i can think of that lambo can do to fix the roll over problem is to have a safety latch thing that lets the door open normally or even come off.

[skaternick]

The Enzos are designed to rip apart like that, maybe Lamborghini should learn how to do that.

[KaJuN]

Speaking of dangerous doors, how about those GM ones from the late 80's-early 90's that let you keep the seatbelt fastened when you got out. Of course, it didn't work and only got in your way. My Beretta was one of these cars and I hated having the system. The belt was attached to the door so if it opened in a crash there was nothing holding you inside. I called them the 'doors of death'.

RIP to the victims of this crash.

[AutoMX]

an enzo or SLR can open their doors when upside down, butterfly doors open at a slant angle meaning you can open them at just about any angle.

the big difference between the murci and the enzo is that the enzo has a carbon fiber chassis, the lambo has a chrome moly (sp?) steel tube frame, and the SLR is a combination of both. the lambo will always crush inward like a can. the enzo will shatter, though where and how many pieces will differ depending on the accident.

this accident is still very rare but none the less tragic. also, a big hot engine + italian eletrics = deep sheet

generally speaking, mid/rear setup cars like the murci, ferraris, fiero, mr2 and lotuses will be more likely to have a fire that turns serious mainly because in a crash, the engine is behind the driver and is surrounded by all the electricals of the car, so it will try to keep going and inevitable, something will break or bend or twist, maybe it's hot oil on the headers or maybe electrical short, either way, it will fry everything.

[skaternick]

Lamborghinis seem to ignite faaar more often in a crash than any other exotics that I've seen...

[marsianer]

Dont' know if we had this link in this forum before

http://www.lambounfall.de/indexe.html

[Alok]

The SLR's entire body is made out of Reinforced Carbon Fibre, at least as per JC in his review, and Carbon fibre almost always is designed to disintegrate upon an accident, so doors are out of question

[fbc]

I'd never thought of the roll-over consequences of Lambo / gullwing doors before - but yeah clearly there's a problem there. I don't want to imagine how terrifying it would be stuck in a rolled car.

[haz]

agreed ... this is a news videoreport on the accident, from the above link: http://www.nova.cz/tvarchiv/video/?video=40289

I couldn't look at the pics in the first post ... too scaaring for me ...

haz

[osabros]

perhaps you could make a setup like in a jet fighter. in those if you eject there's an explosive charge that blows out all of the screws holding the canopy and the canopy flies off. maybe you could do something like that in a lambo that will make the doors disconnect from the car and you could just push them out.
and i think i don't want a murcielago as much as i did until now...

[YF19pilot]

Hmm, they could keep a tank of compressed air in the front of the car (away from the impending fire), and when the driver operates a lever or switch, the tank operates the hydrulics on the door, forcing them open. Of course this would require that the door be reinforced enough to support the weight of the car, and the driver and passenger would probably have to be quick on their feet to get out.


All in all, this is a pretty tragic affair. From the looks of things I would say there was a good chance that they died on impact (didn't someone say that?) so there's hoping they didn't suffer. Style is one thing, but Lambo should really consider this issue. Maybe make the sissor doors optional?