The online racing simulator
Quote from nutty boy :I don't know how you'd do that but i'd love to.

if anyone wants to use these as Avatars, then go ahead, i designed them around 114*114 for here though, and im working on a gif version which i will add soon to a new post below...
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Really sad to hear the news about Richard, heard last night but it's still not quite sunk in, how can such a thing happen?

I agree with those saying that they shouldn't put an amateur in a 300mph car but he wouldn't have done it if he didn't want to.

Anyway, it's done now and we have to hope that he makes a good recovery and I wish him the best of luck in doing so.

Get well soon Hamster.
added the gifs to this post - use them if you want, lets just hope it brings them some luck
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Who said he was an amateur?
Nice avatars Jakg.
the news said he was......

but we dont believe the news, they are stupid rich people.
They're better than the papers. And he is an amateur involving jet powered cars. Find me 10 more occasions where he's raced in a jet powered car. There aren't 10 more occasions. There aren't 5 other occasions. Therefore he's an amateur at that.

Sky News Update: Talking about thrill seekers now. There was a psychotherapist on and an extreme sportsman on. I only caught what the psychotherapist said. Sometimes people want to try new things and get a thrill but sometimes they push just a bit too hard.

Next update at the top of the hour.
He raced against a jet powered kayak
Richard Hammond (Top Gear) Critical in Hospital, Leeds
Hi Everyone,
I imagine that a lot of you already know about the horrible accident Richard Hammond, the Top Gear presenter has had whilst filming an episode of Tope Gear. If not then here is a link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/eng ... rth_yorkshire/5367616.stm
Over at Pistonheads.com we have set up donations to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity that relies solely on donations to operate. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance was at the scene, worked on Richard and took him to the hospital. As a way to support this charity and to wish fellow petrolhead, Richard a speedy recovery a webiste has been setup for people to donate. The target was to try and raise enough money to keep the helicopter in the sky for one day which woul dbe a cost of £3600 but as you can see we have raised so far £16,545 and it is climbing every second.
If you wish to make a donation and to wish Richard a speedy recovery then please go to this link below,
http://www.justgiving.com/PHRichardHammond
If you wish to view the thread at the Pistoheads forum then go to the link below,
http://www.pistonheads.com/gas ... =141&t=309131&h=0
Many thanks
He did race that though. And since that only went about 50mph he still wouldn't be skilled racing a 300mph jet car, even if he had driven the kayak.

Oh by the way my mum is watching that program about smacking kids so there won't be any more updates posted on here from me tonight. I'll kindly give the computer to my sister in the morning though and jot down any updates then post them here quickly in the morning.
Quote from nutty boy :I don't know how you'd do that but i'd love to.

News update from Sky News: I only caught a tiny bit of the update there but the BBC and HSE are wondering if it was a good idea to put an amateur in a 300mph capable car with pretty much no experience of them speeds.

Rightly so I say. They shouldn't have done it.

I'll keep checking the news channels nightly for news updates to keep you up to date with the condition of Hamster.

It was his choice to sit in that car. If he had said there was no way he was going to do it, they'd have not put him in the car. Many people would give an arm and a leg to do it and I'm sure he was the same. I bet anyone could get a shot of that jet powered car if they have the money.

The fact they are saying they think he'll make a `good` recovery seems like careful word choice to me, I just hope it's not hinting that they feel he maybe suffer permanent damage

Keiran
Yeah, I can't help but think he'll come out of hospital a different man - 'Good' and 'Full' can mean very different things in medical terms...

Quote from kidzer :Yeah, I can't help but think he'll come out of hospital a different man - 'Good' and 'Full' can mean very different things in medical terms...


To me Good = Can Walk and Talk. Full = Drive a Zonda F in style
Quote from Stew2000 :To me Good = Can Walk and Talk. Full = Drive a Zonda F in style

And don't forget that they proved you can drive a lap even if you cannot see ('the blind man')
He sure was lucky to get out of there alive, I'm working in a crash-test facility atm, and if I see what happens to a everyday car at 60mph

Hopefully he gets well soon, and hopefully he is still able to be the funny bloke he used to be.
Quote from nutty boy :I only caught a tiny bit of the update there but the BBC and HSE are wondering if it was a good idea to put an amateur in a 300mph capable car with pretty much no experience of them speeds.

Rightly so I say. They shouldn't have done it.

Even the "professionals" were amateurs at one point. You dont think they were born professional jet car drivers, do you?
Quote from nutty boy :They're better than the papers. And he is an amateur involving jet powered cars. Find me 10 more occasions where he's raced in a jet powered car. There aren't 10 more occasions. There aren't 5 other occasions. Therefore he's an amateur at that.

By the sounds of it something happened to pull the car to the right under braking, sounds like some kind of mechanical failure to me. Honestly I don't see why he shouldn't have been allowed to drive it, seeing as clearly there wasn't too much pressure as James May pulled out.

As for driving a jet car it should be relatively risk free, even at 300 mph, because short of mechanical failure little should be able to go wrong (assuming safe weather conditions). I really really hope this doesn't turn into a court case, accidents happen whether they're caused by driver error or by component failure.
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(thisnameistaken) DELETED by thisnameistaken
According to a guy on BBC, The G's were greater then an Fighter Jet.
Quote from thisnameistaken :I think those guys are usually ex fighter pilots aren't they? Probably a bit more familiar with doing 300mph than a motoring journalist would be.

Yeah. But they wasnt born professional fighter pilots either, were they?

From what i've seen so far, i doubt top gear will be on the air for much longer due to the hissy fit everyones (meaning the "nanny state" types) having over this ACCIDENT!

Hope that isnt the case though, as its one of the decent shows on the BBC.
And I bet they didn't just straight into a fighter jet and fly around, so your point means nothing as they have to have loads of training before they fly one.
What amount of training could save him from what looked to be a mechanical failure?

He had already managed a few runs, was it 6? before this happened. The parachute was deployed and the fuel line cut so he did everything necessary.

Keiran
Looking at that image - the car is surprisingly intact for a near 300mph crash. It looks as though the roll cage did its job too. Also, the witnesses say it rolled, which is good in respect of dissipating energy.

He has obviouly been rattled around inside the car very hard I hope the brain damage isn't too serious in the long term.
Quote from Bawbag :And I bet they didn't just straight into a fighter jet and fly around, so your point means nothing as they have to have loads of training before they fly one.

And yet they still have accidents from time to time. I've seen the video's.

They train in smaller, slower planes, then move onto the faster ones. How is this any different to hammond?

He drives some of the worlds fastest cars for a living ffs, its not like he jumped into a jet powered dragcar as soon as he passed his test.
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(thisnameistaken) DELETED by thisnameistaken
If you look before the rubber, there is a long scraping down the runway. It looks as though something broke on the car that started to dig into the road.

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG