Goodnight sweet F10 M5
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BMW safety has improved then... I remember that it was concluded that if Princess Diana was NOT in a BMW, but some other car (I forgot which cars were suggested -I believe Merc and Saab) she would not have died.
Although saying that safety has improved, "seriously injured" is pretty close to "died", so its hardly a testament to good safety.
Look at this GTR crash - 150mph ploughs through several parked cars, driver ends up with bumps and bruises
I'm pretty sure she was in an Mercedes S class.
Yeah, I was overenthusiastic -it said inthe news that he was doing 200+km/h, so thats 125mph+
You're right!
What did my memory do to me?! All these years I had a mental image that she was in some 7 series bmw!
Talk about cognitive dissonance - I always liked mercs and disliked bmw's, so much it turns out that it affected my own memory traces 
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Diana died because she wasn't wearing a seat belt.
Regarding the speed, in reality the accident could have occured at a much lower speed; the 186 MPH is just what went in to the energy equation on impact. I don't think travelling at 186 MPH is particularly unsafe and this is an unfortunate accident. When you drive at high speed you quickly learn to adapt your checks and attitude to cope. A car with decent brakes can slow down very quickly at very high speeds, as not only do you have the braking force you have drag lowering your speed as well.
Regarding the speed, in reality the accident could have occured at a much lower speed; the 186 MPH is just what went in to the energy equation on impact. I don't think travelling at 186 MPH is particularly unsafe and this is an unfortunate accident. When you drive at high speed you quickly learn to adapt your checks and attitude to cope. A car with decent brakes can slow down very quickly at very high speeds, as not only do you have the braking force you have drag lowering your speed as well.
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Caporegime
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If i recall correctly, and this part never gets mention but i did read it when it happened.
The driver and the bodyguard sitting in the front wore seatbelt.
Diana and Dodi at the back, no seatbelt.
Surprised who died and who survived?
Caporegime
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I thought he survived?
Just going by my experience of them from E36's/E39's, all of which felt terribly poor in terms of braking to me. I would imagine that doing 180 odd in an E31 and trying to slow down fairly rapidly would be a horrible experience!
Diana died in a W140 S class from what I remember.
He died, for sure!
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Soldato
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No-one wore seatbelts and the body guard in the front passenger seat survived.
Soldato
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Factor in the un-belted passengers in the back turning into human missiles striking the front targets pretty hard; the front belts only really work if the people in the back wear them too.
Just going by my experience of them from E36's/E39's, all of which felt terribly poor in terms of braking to me. I would imagine that doing 180 odd in an E31 and trying to slow down fairly rapidly would be a horrible experience!
Diana died in a W140 S class from what I remember.
I don't get this... I've driven an E36 track car using budget basement pads and discs that I could NOT get fade from, and braked incredibly well regardless.... I didn't realise BMW's were known for bad brakes?
I've had bad experiences driving fast on the road and suffered unbelievable brake fade. Most especially on my 328i sport. It was so bad it destroyed my brakes! I also thought the brakes on my E46 330 were poor, faded too quickly.
Just my experience of course
Just my experience of course
An era I know like the back of my hand having bought most of the books of note from the era and about the era, but for speed here is something I knicked from Wiki.
wiki said:
Really, any petrol head worth his/her salt should be reading about this era, it will be time well spent and you will have a new found respect for pre-war motor racing. Nothing had more power than these cars in GP racing until the turbo era of the early 80's.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
You don't remember that at all becuase it isn't true. Princess Diana was in a W140 Mercedes S Class when she was killed, not a BMW.
BMW build generally very safe cars, the E39 for example despite being released as far back as 1996 was an NCAP 4 star car at a time when such standards were exceptionally rare.
As for the brakes I've never been anything other than deeply impressed with the brakes in mine. They stop the car very well indeed and inspire great confidence. The original roadtest of my car by Autocar noted quite how impressive the 60-0 time was. What BMW brakes are traditionally not particularly good at is holding up on a track, which is why a lot of the M power guys do uprate brakes. But for road use they are great.
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The Apec pads I had in a old nail of a 323i on standard discs round the Nurburgring were PERFECT all weekend and believe me I used em.
I don't know how you can say BMW brakes are ****. :-/
Can't really compare them using my own track 325i though as that's half as light as standard and on Tarox discs and Padgid Black pads.
I don't know how you can say BMW brakes are ****. :-/
Can't really compare them using my own track 325i though as that's half as light as standard and on Tarox discs and Padgid Black pads.
Yeah, it's like "yeah that looks fast" at about 130 then it's just "sheet that's fast"!!
Scary to thing he had family in the car and 2 sons plodding along behind him.
Amazing that they lived, could have went completely differently if it twisted and flipped a few times.