Do not try this with your BMW

[Texas Transplant]

Reportedly, this BMW was moving at a very high rate of speed (obviously). The tree won.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Another view.

 

[Larry Harp]

They just don't make 'em like they used to.





Harpo

 

[Texas Transplant]

And lastly.

 

[Max Neathamer2]

I guess that guy wanted to know what a Bug felt like when it hit a windshield at a high rate of speed..



Max <><

 

[Michael Lyons]

Tough tree!!!!

 

[Barb Baggott]

So exactly how much plastic are you paying hundreds of thousands of dollars or euros for? Give me an old 69 Chev Impala wagon. That would move that tree over a few feet!



Barb

 

[Texas Transplant]

Not sure where exactly it came from, but I believe you are correct. From across the pond. The 'teaser' that came with it said 180mph, but I would believe 180 kmh.



Tex

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Where's the front 1/2?



Thank heavins for those german engineered crumple zones!!LOL!!



TOXIC

 

[TOMMY RICH]

That took no brains

 

[Larry Harp]

On the last picture you can see a European license plate. Probably on the Autobahn where speeds are routinely above 100 mph and accidents of this type are common. I doubt that a 3 series Bimmer could hit 180 mph without some serious performance upgrades. That teritory is reserved for the Porsche Turbos and Ferrari TR's of the world.



Many years ago, on a trip to California I was in the Arizona desert when I came upon the most devestating accident I've ever seen. A car had left the road at a very high speed. It was completly destroyed with wreckage strewn over an area the size of a football field. Not enough sheet metal to even begin to reccognize what kind of car it was. I was able to spot the Chevy V-8 (396 if I remember correctly) and a bucket seat which told me it had once been a Camaro. Two bodies were covered by sheets were at least 30 or 40 feet apart.



Harpo

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Did you here about the motorcycle that was clocked @ 240 MPH in California? When the cops first spotted him...they couldn't clock him, they used a helicopter Unreal!

 

[JAMES MOORE]

I saw a few of those, only difference was it was piled up in the back of an M60A3 Tank as we were moving down the Autobahn. A slight bump in the night.

 

[Michael Snow]

I ain't saying it's fake, but I sure didn't think one tree and one car could POSSIBLY do that.



Honestly, I can't imagine the sight Harpo saw either. I cannot imagine a single-car accident where the vehicle could be that unrecognizable.



Now, add a semi somewhere in the middle of it and I can see a car being so mangled that it was unrecognizable.



Again, not calling "fish story" on this, just purely amazed. I'd have to see either in person to actually 100% believe it.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Hey Mike......ever seen a piece of straw pushed through a tree trunk after a tornado..??? I have. Sometimes the forces of nature are a strange thing. Looks real to me. There is a website out there of "sports" or high performance car crashes...there are some dooseys!!



TOXIC

 

[Michael Snow]

Nope Tox, never seen it... as such, hard to grasp. Of course, I also can't believe that you can find a 2000+ year old scorpion that's been perfectly preserved in tree sap (amber). But I've seen one (not 2000 years old, but you get the point). There's so much like that that I would want to SEE in order to put full faith in. Yeah, I'm also the guy that keeps dropping pennies off the Empire State Building to see if it really can split a person in half. So far, no go.

 

[Steve Rizza]

Come on Snow--



EVERYBODY knows that the equation for terminal velocity is the square root of (2mg)/(DrA) - where m is mass, g is acceleration due to gravity, D is the drag coefficient of a penny, r is the density of air, and A is the cross sectional area of a penny. The drag coefficient is about .5 for spherical objects and as high as 2 for irregular objects. I will assume that the drag coefficient for a penny is .15 (this takes into account its flat and edge surfaces). If you give the penny a surface area of a sphere with a a slightly smaller radius than the penny has. The penny will be spinning as it falls and thus will not fall exactly as a sphere would, but it will not fall edge-wise the entire way either (or face-wise for that matter). With these values... the penny will have a terminal velocity of 35.1 m/s - or about 79 mi/hr. If you think a penny traveling at about 80 mi/hr will kill you, then you're crazy. It might really really hurt, and break your skin, but you would not split a person in half.



......that's the best I can do without pencil and paper.LOL

 

[Mark Gross]

looks like the front end and engine are missing.With no speed limits on the autobon I can believe it.In the one picture it looks like a group of people looking at the other half.

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

What the heck did Steve say????



Bill

 

[Steve Rizza]

It would leave a big ol' knot on your melon.LOL

 

[Geo. Beason]

I just retired from law enforcement. As an accident reconstructionist, I can assure you that this type of damage is very possible. Everyone should remember one thing before entering an intersection. If your looking an accident in the face. The vehicle with the biggest lug nuts almost always wins!

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Believe it Mikey!!! My uncle wrecked a 57 Chevy into a tree when he was about 18...the vehicle was a site to see(what was left). They estimated 100 when he went off the road and hit a tree square dead on and just mashed it like an accordian. Only thing that saved him was he was actually thrown into the river below. I still think about that....very lucky

 

[Texas Transplant]

Good point. You are only really looking at the back half of the car.



Tex

 

[Steve Flattem]

That motorcycle was in Minnesota...clocked at 205mph on a local highway...clocked by a state trooper in a chopper...I believe the timer said 4.93 seconds over 60 feet (not sure on the numbers)...cop said his clocking was accurate.




http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0922042speed1.html