Too bad there aren't subtitles. The older guy with the suit and tie is Jan de Rooy, team captain. He was driving the other DAF truck. He explains that the trucks had had a very fast 200 Kph(!) run across flat desert for about 5 Km's. Then they hit an area of small 'waves' like a washboard, little hills of only 25 cm high. The truck began to jump and they somehow lost control. Both he and another DAF team decide to retire immediately, and the DAF factory announces they wil no longer participate in Paris-Dakar. The journalist is heard to explain this is one of the most accident riddled years of Dakar, and the very existence and continuation of it are seriously questioned. Up to this point the DAF trucks were leading, and were closing in even on first place over all, meaning they were faster even than the Peugeot 405 Rally Raid, which was basically a lengthened Group B car, as can be seen in another video. Commenters be aware this was a very different age. No GPS for navigation, super powerful cars straight out of group B (these cars had been developed, but Group B was canceled), and safety was on point FOR THOSE DAYS. Open helmets, no HANS restraints and old school materials for chassis, roll cages and bodywork. Info I copied and translated from Wikipedia: "TurboTwin is a rally truck with two engines that rallycrosser Jan de Rooy used in the Dakar rally. There are three types of trucks equipped with the TurboTwin, between the years 1986 and 1988. In 1986 the first DAF TurboTwin was released. This truck had two engines with two turbos each. The TurboTwin II truck had 990 hp. The 1988 X1 had 1220 hp, a top speed of 220 km / h in the soft sand and had three turbos per engine. The third turbo already compressed the air before it went to the turbos that were on both engines. The truck went from 0 to 100 km / h in 7.8 seconds and weighed just over 10 tonnes. The first TurboTwin had a steel chassis. The TurboTwin II from 1987 and the X1 and X2 from 1988 were equipped with aluminum rims and an aluminum spaceframe, with this large weight savings and thus higher speed could be achieved. The X1 had a fuel tank of 940 liters. That was also necessary because the consumption was around 1 to 1 in worst conditions."
Never seen a race car with airbags. Also: Crumple zones are designed to increase the time over which the total force from the change in momentum is applied to an occupant, as the average force applied to the occupants is inversely related to the time over which it is applied. In other words, coming to a instant stop from 200 kph, will kill you.
This truck somersaulted several times at 200kph an hour, the fact it didn't cave in is the reason only one person died. To be thrown from a Dakar spec race seat takes a lot of force. The others were seriously injured from having their bodies smashed around the cab full of equipment. Chris Ross got out by himself, Cees died from being ejected. If it would've had crumple zones, they would be unwrapping a ball of metal filled with human goop.
Sure, if your everyday car had a full cage, 5 point harness, stripped interior, racing seats and you wouldn't mind a firesuit and tethered racing helmet to hit the grocery. Completely ridiculous statement comparing a full prep 10 000kg 1200bhp race lorry or any full-on racing car to an everyday ride on the basis that oh look this racing monster doesn't have airbags so my honda shouldn't have them either.
