TT RS driver pulls handbrake when brakes fail

There won't necessarily be any indication, brakes get hot and aren't effective. Bit drastic especially as he couldn't know he wouldn't spin into the path of the other cars and at that speed theres no such thing as finese with the hand brake :S


What I don't get... there seemed to be some indication the brakes were starting to feel the strain in the couple of corners before it would have been sensible to ease off and stop.
 
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-You're not expecting it to happen
-The lap before it(going a bit slower too) took 4-5 seconds from braking to turning the corner.

So imagine how quick it happens, you brake, you realise brakes have failed, you weigh your options (straight on gravel? make the turn? cut the corner? engine brake? hand-brake? do all of these even become an option in time) all of this so far in a second, you have 3 seconds left and you're still going faster than before.

Only thing is that he should have known what to expect when you yank on it too hard.
 
EdGey said:
I didnt see anything that indicated the brakes failing?
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If you look at the top right corner of the right hand dial you can see a warning light appear (about 10:14). Unfortunately it's just as he hits the brake pedal, so it's a bit late to do anything about.
 
I don't think his brakes did fail, if you read the description on Youtube he says:
'Breakes were at the limit - so I had to pull the handbrake'

To me that sounds like he was applying full brakes but wasn't slowing down quick enough so pulled the handbrake.

If your brakes fail, pulling the handbrake is a legitimate way to slow yourself down, we get taught this when driving fire appliances but pulling the handbrake to try and slow down even quicker when your brakes are working is total fail.
 
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Be he's glad he wasn't stood and close to the edge haha.

Bit of an odd one but I suspect the braking materials were stock and just ran out of puff from prolongued high temps. I've had this happen before but you can feel it coming when they just go off. Knowing the track I would have gone for cutting the corner to the right, he did panic a bit but he was probably going to crash regardless.
 
Surely he should have eased it on rather than yanked it and hoped for the best? Fair enough you don't have much time to react but then this is why you should drive within your limits, not the cars.

Pretty sure you can actually hear him push the pedal twice.

Dup said:
Knowing the track I would have gone for cutting the corner to the right, he did panic a bit but he was probably going to crash regardless.
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Was thinking that too. could he not just have gone in that direction:

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Suppose, given the speed he was going it would been pretty tough to do that.
 
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Spunkey said:
If you look at the top right corner of the right hand dial you can see a warning light appear (about 10:14). Unfortunately it's just as he hits the brake pedal, so it's a bit late to do anything about.
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I think you'll find this is his handbrake light coming on at the moment he yanks on his handbrake.
 
sigma said:
Surely he should have eased it on rather than yanked it and hoped for the best?
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a handbrake doesn't really have much of a progressive bite though does it? and he doesn't have much time, if it's not slowed him down sufficiently before he hits the gravel he's done for. The more i look at it, assuming it was brake failure, the better it looks. given the time he had if he down shifted he might have got through 1 gear before hitting the gravel. It's not exactly ideal, but given the circumstances it did the job i'd say

B@
 
I have to agree it does seem to have done the job, so to speak! But then I'm no track expert so it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of somebody who has more experience.
 
im sure he could have pulling it gently would not have locked the rear wheels which is what would have caused the spin.

You have to think of others on the track also what if he had taken out one of those other cars in the process.
 
few of us are seasoned track drivers

its easy with handsight to say that he braking room left to the apex, and potentially could just have tried to cut the hairpin and gone onto the grass rather than jamming the handbrake on.

But people panick, its a natural human reaction. Few are good enough to not do this and do the right thing.
 
Seems to me that the driver did what we call in the trucking community a "Dead man stop"

The term means your about to have a very big accident, applying the handbrake may save you but you can guarantee - with an articulated truck - that it will jack-knife and you could well end up dead.

Hence the phrase.


I think he did the right thing, I'm no track expert though.
 
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Being a track n00b, I'm not sure what I would have done in that situation.
I'd have probably smashed into the wall at pretty much the same speed as I was going before brake fail. Pants would be brown and everyone would be dead.

Could have been much worse, I initially thought he might get collected crossing the track at the hairpin.
 
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