Cracked: Terrifying Historical Car Races: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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April 30, 2011 9:28 p.m. JoeyM SuperDork

http://www.cracked.com/article_19175_the-6-most-terrifying-historical-car-races.html

Like any sport that relies on a combustible engine and hundreds of pounds of sharply angled metal, car racers generally accept a certain amount of mortal liability when they compete. Today, there are tight safety precautions to ensure that the threat of death and mayhem is minimized as much as possible, but none of that would have been possible if not for the lawless absurdity and charred corpses early motorsports kept spitting out.

With that, here are the races throughout history that catered purely to those who were just plain sick of living.
April 30, 2011 9:29 p.m. JoeyM SuperDork

The year 1903 was a magical time when cars had advanced enough that they could go more than 60 or 70 MPH, but not enough so that any safety measures had been invented.
April 30, 2011 10:42 p.m. Cole_Trickle New Reader

Funny and eye-opening read.
April 30, 2011 10:57 p.m. asterisk New Reader

Pairs well with this: Killed Myself When I Was Young from The Jalopy Journal on Vimeo.
May 1, 2011 7:28 a.m. Marjorie Suddard General Manager

Thanks for the link. I'm a huge fan of cracked.com. Whole lot of goodness there.

Margie
May 1, 2011 8:19 a.m. JoeyM SuperDork

I love their science coverage....they are usually accurate while being fun to read.

Example:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19161_the-6-creepiest-things-hiding-in-your-dna.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19149_5-bizarre-accidents-that-helped-invent-modern...
May 1, 2011 2:27 p.m. Xceler8x SuperDork

Cracked can't get enough clicks imo. Great articles that are as fun to read as oil wrestling with all the Kardashians.
May 1, 2011 4:26 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

I told one of the younger folks that Cracked used to be a print magazine (and competitor to MAD), and he boggled. And yeah, they're still better. I sent the link to their article on the "8 most badassed demonstrators" to my liberal buddies for MayDay.
May 1, 2011 5:11 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid Reader

hahahaha this is the best:
See that ridiculous banked curve there, with nothing to keep you from flying off the edge? They called that "The Wall of Death." In case it's not clear on the picture, there is no crash rail around the top of that curve. Get it wrong coming into that corner and you're going to be launched into the goddamn sun. And don't think that didn't actually happen at some point because it totally did.
May 1, 2011 5:15 p.m. keethrax HalfDork

JoeyM wrote:

I love their science coverage....they are usually accurate while being fun to read.

Example:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19161_the-6-creepiest-things-hiding-in-your-dna.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19149_5-bizarre-accidents-that-helped-invent-modern...

Well, they pretty much allow anyone to submit lists. So the science (or any other) coverage is only as good as the submitter. Plenty of neat stuff in their lists, but plenty of blatantly wrong stuff too.

That said, about once a month I get sucked into reading a E36 M3load of cracked lists, because they're awesome.
May 1, 2011 7:14 p.m. novaderrik HalfDork

friedgreencorrado wrote:

I told one of the younger folks that Cracked used to be a print magazine (and competitor to MAD), and he boggled. And yeah, they're still better. I sent the link to their article on the "8 most badassed demonstrators" to my liberal buddies for MayDay.

did that "younger folk" even know that MAD is a magazine that you can buy, and if he did, did he ask if it was based on the tv show?