Interesting article relating to supercars and accicents in the WSJ weekend edition

The Govt really needs special licenses for high power cars like the FAA does for aircraft. Its silly to have 1000 hp Bugs in the hands of someone who has never even seen a race track

 

I made it about halfway through the article and my eyes hurt, found the article online:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118186544305536109.html

This article makes me wish the U.S. had a graduated licensing system (and a special license for the "ultra luxury" sports cars as the article calls them) and more law enforcement officers capable of cracking down on spirited driving.s

 

There are some seriously powerful cars out there these days, and inexpensive ones too (Evo, STi). I think people buying cars like these should take some driving courses. A guy I used to work with who bought a brand new M5 got a free trip to a BMW driving school. He really learned a lot and had an enjoyable time, I think other car companies should offer something similar (and some do, some don't). Just because these cars are fast and engineered well, you can't defy the laws of physics.

 

This quote from the article hits the nail on the head IMHO:

"Driving experts say most accidents in these cars happen when drivers take turns too fast for the road conditions or start turning prematurely and then snap off the accelerator to compensate."

One of the basic driving skills taught at a track day event is to go into the corners slowly and come out of the corners under acceleration. It is so much safer to make acceleration adjustments as you exit a corner rather than overcooking a corner due to carrying too much speed into it. This one driving skill would probably reduce these types of accidents significantly.

 

++ on that. I think this may be also a result of the tremendous advances in acceleration and speed made by these cars which is not in fact matched by equal % increases in braking power or cornering ability. It can easily catch even an experienced high end sports car driver unawares.

Looking at a recent road test digest, I see that the top supercars (McClaren, CGT, Enzo, etc.) can easily hit 100 in much less than 10 seconds. This may be at least twice as fast as many "sporty car" drivers have ever experienced.

However, their 80 to 0 stopping distance is not far apart from the "ordinary world" of sporty cars. Same proportions apply to cornering powers. Take the McClaren, 80 to 0 in 215 ft. This is exactly the same braking performance as an Acura NSX! But the 0-100 time is 7.7 versus 12.0 seconds. Skidpad? McLaren = 0.86 G, NSX = 0.91 G. - probably because the McLaren was designed to "push" quite a bit for safety.

It would seem that stomping down on the GO thrills of one of these can quickly get a driver into a turning or stopping situation that is far beyond their or the car's capability. There is a strong analogy to high-performance private aircraft vs. simple trainer types.

All this because these Supercars are built assuming that the driver can stay ahead of the car, not behind it.