Fernando Alonso kills two birds during Indy 500 practice

I would hate to be the engineers that have to clean that car when it comes in.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/R_4W9P77AtQ

Great. Those "people" will be shutting down the race.

It's hard to find "people" who are willing to argue in favor of pigeons.

dean1484 wrote: I would hate to be the engineers that have to clean that car when it comes in. https://www.youtube.com/embed/R_4W9P77AtQ

I had to help clean a bird out of the wing leading edge on a C130 once. Not a good memory.

so if they observe the splatter pattern of the pigeons' guts, will it provide useful aero info?

It's sad but not completely unexpected. Pigeons seem to love playing "chicken. I have 2 mourning doves (a close relative) who love to block my on my driveway (which is 1/4 mile long). They always wait until the last possible second. Almost like geese. Those birds became too accustomed to 35 mph to be able to win at 220.

He got it up to 222 on his 1st day. Not bad.

I guess he needs to name his car Stone then.

After running 180 through the tunnel in Monaco, Indy at 220 mph must seem like a walk in the park.

so that is the proverbial "birds eye view" of an indy car?

Omen?

Paging Captain Sullenberg: We got your revenge!

dean1484 wrote: I would hate to be the engineers that have to clean that car when it comes in.

Probably not too bad unless they got into the heat exchangers. Most of the "fluids" were probably atomized and dried instantly.

In any case it has to be better than the cat my friend had to remove from the fan shroud of a diesel Super Duty... ...after 3 days.

car39 wrote: Paging Captain Sullenberg: We got your revenge!

having personally met Captain Sully, I am sure he would get a chuckle over that

The good: It's Orange.

The bad: It's still the homeliest open wheel racing car of all time.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's hard to find "people" who are willing to argue in favor of pigeons.

To quote Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack: "No, no, it's GOOD luck...in Haiti."

I remember my father cleaning a bird from the front end of his Datsun F10 back in 1978. Flew into the grill of the car as we were driving to school. Since it was an F10, the car was not going fast enough to "atomize" the bird - just splatter it all over the front of the car... and windshield. It was lovely.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's hard to find "people" who are willing to argue in favor of pigeons.

Not really. The police departments in several SC towns used to have pigeon shoots in the downtown area once a year to thin them out. People raised hell so they stopped. As a person that often goes into abandoned buildings, I was not very happy. You haven't lived until you have gone into a building full of pigeon E36 M3 and bird carcasses.

stroker wrote: The good: It's Orange. The bad: It's still the homeliest open wheel racing car of all time.

I thought it was just me.

ncjay wrote: After running 180 through the tunnel in Monaco, Indy at 220 mph must seem like a walk in the park.

Not according to the interview he gave at the end of the day.

spitfirebill wrote:

stroker wrote: The good: It's Orange. The bad: It's still the homeliest open wheel racing car of all time.

I thought it was just me.

Nope. You and all the empty seats at the 500 since 1995...

stroker wrote: Nope. You and all the empty seats at the 500 since 1995...

If we're going to assume that the looks of the cars are responsible for putting butts in the seats, then the current generation must be an improvement over the last cars, because attendance has been steadily increasing at the 500 for a few years now since the current car debuted. I don't think looks really matter to that many people if the racing is good, and Indycar has had some of the best racing going over the last few years. Much safer too.

1996 Indycar:

2006 Indycar:

2016 Indycar:

stroker wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

stroker wrote: The good: It's Orange. The bad: It's still the homeliest open wheel racing car of all time.

I thought it was just me.

Nope. You and all the empty seats at the 500 since 1995...

What STM317 said, and also, there was the small matter of The Split.

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't mind the looks of the DW12. They do look better in person, IMO. But it's been funny in the last day to see all the F1 fans tune in for the first time and recoil in horror at it.