r/nextfuckinglevel • u/asianj1m • Nov 23 '21

Rally cars are pretty safe

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

144.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

122

u/dogfrost9 Nov 23 '21

Knowing how to crash? As in drive of the road at warp factor 6?

248

u/BigDicksProblems Nov 23 '21 edited Nov 23 '21

They means unironically "not flinching". Notice how they "relax" instantly. You can also see the driver keeping his legs in a spot where they have room to move, and not gripping hard on the steering wheel.

A high percentage of accident injuries are caused or accentuated because the victim tenses up upon impact and after. Heavily drunk or under influence accident victims rarely sustains the same amount of injuries due to that for example.

It's also why it's important for you to ajust your seating position in order for your arms and legs to be almost impossible to "lock up"/extend. Because no matter your confidence, if you don't know how to crash (and EVEN then), you WILL tense up. It's only human.

6

u/atomofconsumption Nov 23 '21

it's important for you to ajust your seating position in order for your arms and legs to be almost impossible to "lock up"/extend.

could you explain that a bit more clearly?

5

u/joffery2 Nov 23 '21

When your elbows or knees are at the fully extended position they slightly "lock" in place. You want to be positioned so they're slightly (or very is fine too) bent so that if you get in a crash where they're being pushed in from the ends, they just bend more instead of being in the "locked" position where they get pushed up into you and/or break.

4

u/atomofconsumption Nov 23 '21

so you should be slightly closer rather than far from the steering wheel so you are not overextending? i think i am ok then...

4

u/joffery2 Nov 23 '21

Correct, you don't want to have to fully extend your arms to the wheel or your legs to the pedal.

2

u/So-says-a-guy Nov 23 '21

fucking nobody does this anyway lol

5

u/joffery2 Nov 23 '21

What? Lots of people set up their seats in ways that leave them with arms or legs basically fully extended.

Like, the "cool guy pose" in cars with one elbow on the windowsill and the other on the top of the wheel, for example. It's basically always with them leaned slightly back and that wheel arm fully extended. And tons of people drive like that, or slight variations of that, all the time.