996TT rally car plunges 918 feet!
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996TT rally car plunges 918 feet!
I saw this on rennlist and thought it was worthy enough to repost it here. Amazing story and photos. Scary stuff!!!
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...d.php?t=237410
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Duo cheat 270m/918' death plunge
01.11.2005
By RAE WILSON
LIKE an impending rollercoaster ride with the descent just beyond view, Scott Juniper and Dan Bowden's hearts were in their throats as their rally car slid toward a 270-metre ravine on New Zealand farmland.
But this was no thrill ride.
When the ground disappeared beneath the 2003 Twin Turbo Porsche and only sky stretched ahead - neither knew which track gravity would take them.
Scott went silent, Dan started screaming expletives. The silver Porsche flipped about 30 times before landing in an inaccessible ravine, 8km from the finish line of a Targa New Zealand racing stage.
Excerpt from Sunshine News
"We came up to the corner and it was listed as an extremely dangerous caution. Scott had slowed down but the brakes didn't work and we went right off the edge," Dan said.
"We were airborne for about 50 metres but we couldn't see all the way to the bottom then.
"We could only see 170m down but there was another ledge and another 100m.
"The g-forces involved and the rolling was unbelievable - the safety system in the car was the only reason we lived.
"At the start I didn't think we were going to die but the roll cage started beating down on our heads - then every roll we landed on the roof was absolutely terrifying.
"We couldn't even see where we were when we got out of the car and we could not believe we'd survived." The prominent Sunshine Coast businessmen returned late yesterday with Dan sporting "one of the best black eyes I've ever seen" and Scott with chipped teeth, harness and helmet marks, and an "enormous" headache after being knocked unconscious.
Maintaining their sense of humour but not willing to test their luck further, they are vowing not to bet on the Melbourne Cup while celebrating their return at Corbould Park today.
Scott, the 33-year-old director of his own development company and son of well-known developer Graeme Juniper, spent thousands of dollars fitting the car with top safety measures. The car had the strongest roll cage available, seats that enveloped their heads, and strong harnesses and helmets. While Dan plans to return to racing for the Noosa Hillclimb next weekend, Scott said he would wait another month before deciding whether to get behind the wheel of a rally car again.
"I was able to see down when we slid over the edge and I thought we were dead, I didn't think we would walk away," Scott said.
"I had a co-driver with me; you just start to realise the gravity of how responsible you actually are for someone's life.
"I remember quite a few of the tumbles but then there was a long space of rolling in the air and I just remember a really hard impact - then I don't remember anything until the bottom."
Scott and Dan had finished fifth in the Australian Targa earlier in the year; brother Shaun Juniper went on to finish 14th outright and first in his class in the NZ Targa. Dan said the pair would have finished in the top three if they had not crashed.
Dan, the 32-year-old managing director of a car care product company called Bowden's Own, said the biggest challenge was trying to walk back up the 270m hill to let people know they were there.
""It was that steep we couldn't work out how to get up," he said.
"But it could have been a whole other story if we had both broken bones because no-one would have known we were there.
"Someone's watching over us, we're destined for greater things."
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...d.php?t=237410
--------------------------------------------
Duo cheat 270m/918' death plunge
01.11.2005
By RAE WILSON
LIKE an impending rollercoaster ride with the descent just beyond view, Scott Juniper and Dan Bowden's hearts were in their throats as their rally car slid toward a 270-metre ravine on New Zealand farmland.
But this was no thrill ride.
When the ground disappeared beneath the 2003 Twin Turbo Porsche and only sky stretched ahead - neither knew which track gravity would take them.
Scott went silent, Dan started screaming expletives. The silver Porsche flipped about 30 times before landing in an inaccessible ravine, 8km from the finish line of a Targa New Zealand racing stage.
Excerpt from Sunshine News
"We came up to the corner and it was listed as an extremely dangerous caution. Scott had slowed down but the brakes didn't work and we went right off the edge," Dan said.
"We were airborne for about 50 metres but we couldn't see all the way to the bottom then.
"We could only see 170m down but there was another ledge and another 100m.
"The g-forces involved and the rolling was unbelievable - the safety system in the car was the only reason we lived.
"At the start I didn't think we were going to die but the roll cage started beating down on our heads - then every roll we landed on the roof was absolutely terrifying.
"We couldn't even see where we were when we got out of the car and we could not believe we'd survived." The prominent Sunshine Coast businessmen returned late yesterday with Dan sporting "one of the best black eyes I've ever seen" and Scott with chipped teeth, harness and helmet marks, and an "enormous" headache after being knocked unconscious.
Maintaining their sense of humour but not willing to test their luck further, they are vowing not to bet on the Melbourne Cup while celebrating their return at Corbould Park today.
Scott, the 33-year-old director of his own development company and son of well-known developer Graeme Juniper, spent thousands of dollars fitting the car with top safety measures. The car had the strongest roll cage available, seats that enveloped their heads, and strong harnesses and helmets. While Dan plans to return to racing for the Noosa Hillclimb next weekend, Scott said he would wait another month before deciding whether to get behind the wheel of a rally car again.
"I was able to see down when we slid over the edge and I thought we were dead, I didn't think we would walk away," Scott said.
"I had a co-driver with me; you just start to realise the gravity of how responsible you actually are for someone's life.
"I remember quite a few of the tumbles but then there was a long space of rolling in the air and I just remember a really hard impact - then I don't remember anything until the bottom."
Scott and Dan had finished fifth in the Australian Targa earlier in the year; brother Shaun Juniper went on to finish 14th outright and first in his class in the NZ Targa. Dan said the pair would have finished in the top three if they had not crashed.
Dan, the 32-year-old managing director of a car care product company called Bowden's Own, said the biggest challenge was trying to walk back up the 270m hill to let people know they were there.
""It was that steep we couldn't work out how to get up," he said.
"But it could have been a whole other story if we had both broken bones because no-one would have known we were there.
"Someone's watching over us, we're destined for greater things."
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I think this is a shot of the hill they plunged down, about the center of the picture. And to think they hicked back up after the fall.
Last edited by roadsterdoc; Nov 25, 2005 at 05:57 AM.
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saw that in the paper. very very fortunate.
on a lighter note. i had to laugh when a police car plunged off the road and into a small gully after completly over estimating their entry speed.
on a lighter note. i had to laugh when a police car plunged off the road and into a small gully after completly over estimating their entry speed.
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Originally posted by RufMD
thats nothing a couple of coats of wax wont fix.....
thats nothing a couple of coats of wax wont fix.....
Seriously, holy crap! Very glad they are both ok. Just imagine the feeling just after they went airborne... scary stuff.