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After a 50-year hiatus the Italian national anthem – at one time thought to be the racing international anthem at AutoInformed – played as Ferrari was presented with the First-place trophy in the top hypercar class (LMDh). Tha was after the Rolex Clock had made two laps around its 12-hour face at the 100th running of Le Mans, aka the Circuit de la Sarthe. Last year’s winners Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, in the #8 GR010 Hybrid from Toyota’s gazoo racing held off all competitors except the red colored one with the prancing horse. After 24 relentless hours of racing, the #8 crossed the line in second place, 1 min 21.793 secs behind the winning #51 Ferrari.
As always, rain induced carnage worked its way with hapless drivers making the outcome somewhat random with roughly one-third of the race run under yellow flags with its innovative five separate safety cars deployed by class. There was a record 16-car hypercar field with competitors from Cadillac,* Ferrari, Peugeot and Porsche. These race cars are now clearly as complex, exciting and as expensive as Formula One cars. Continue reading
IIHS – NHTSA Misjudges Value of Truck Side-Underride Guards
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) should reconsider its “dramatic underestimate” of the number of lives that could be saved by requiring side-underride guards for large trucks, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said in a recent regulatory comment made public today. Federal regulations require tractor-trailers to have underride guards on their rears, but not on their sides. (AutoInformed: IIHS: Federal Rule On Truck Under-Ride Inadequate)
“Requiring side underride guards could save more than 10 times as many lives as NHTSA projects,”* said IIHS Senior Research Engineer Matthew Brumbelow. In 2021, there were 488 passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in crashes involving the side of a tractor-trailer. Continue reading →