Manhole Covers and Race Cars
Because of their aerodynamic design, modern racing cars create enough vacuum to lift a manhole cover off the ground. During races on city streets, manhole covers must therefore be welded down to prevent injury. In 1990, during the Group C World Sportscar Championship race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, located in a public park in Montréal, Quebec, a Brun Motorsport Porsche 962 struck a manhole cover that was lifted by the ground effect of the car he was following, a Courage C24 Porsche, causing the Porsche to catch fire, and with the safety issues, the race ended shortly afterwards.
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Famous quotes containing the words covers, race and/or cars:
“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men too, when they, at their birth, have grey hair on their temples.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)
“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)