3:09 “When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.” That’s a quote that fills me with dread. Amazing work as always, Emp.
I thought I'd jump in with a small extra fact. According to Mark Webber himself in his autobiography, when he returned to the garage after his qualifying crash, the crew didn't believe that the car had actually caught air. "The real injury came when I realised the team didn't believe my version of what had happened. Their response? 'No, that couldn't have happened, the car couldn't possibly flip end over end.' How could they dismiss my explanation of events so lightly? We looked at the data and they knew the car had taken off, but there was no evidence in the form of footage or even still photographs. There was just a bent car and what I said". This is also continued after his second crash in the warm-up, as even though there was evidence of what had happened this time, they attempted to blame it on an incorrectly fitted front floor tray and that it wouldn't happen in the race.
Mark was so young and relatively inexperienced at the time that the Germans didn’t really trust him. That the first two accidents happened to the same driver, they thought he must have been doing something different. Mercedes didn’t so much as throw him under the bus, as throw him over the bus! Even after it was proven by the third crash that it was a car problem, they soured on their relationship with Mark Webber. He would never end up driving a Mercedes engined F1 car his entire career.
A few quick facts: Jaguar driver who braked abruptly was using a relatively new disc brake system, allowing them to brake more sharply than most drivers were accustomed to. This led to a skewed understanding of what a safe followinf distance was. Keeping their mechanical advantage a secret at the expense of safety. The extremely tough decision was made to not suspend the race so that emergency vehicles would have access to the scene of the carnage. French authorities knew that it was such a big spectical in an urban area and that suspending the race would mean a massive pedestrian log jam from fans leaving the event. Many people in the city didn't know what had happened until several hours after the crash. This probably saved a few lives of the injured. National and international reception to the crash was largely very callous. People in higher society looked down on motor racing as a sport and their was a cold sentiment among the aristocrats that if someone perished as a result of attending such an event that it was their own fault.
Honestly even today you wouldn't want to instantly declare the race over for a massive event. It would be better to pause the race and leave it hanging whether it would restart so people don't just rush out. You see the same happen in other similar situations. Like active shooters near big events, where they will purposefully be vague about whether events are cancelled or not, so that the crowds don't surge out and get into danger or interfere with police work. Saw it a few years ago in Denmark where a young man started shooting up a mall next to a concert venue. They basically refused to cancel or start the planned concert until the police were finally done securing the crime scene many hours later, then they finally officially cancelled the concert and let the concertgoers leave.
Re. the callous reaction - this was only a decade removed from WW2 where thousands had died from ariel bombardment and many men strapped themselves into fighters and bombers knowing they were unlikely to come back. This had a huge impact on the mentality of motorsport in the 50s and 60s and it wasn't until the post war generation came through in the 1970s and drivers like Jackie Stewart started to speak up that things began to change.
@@NATIK001 how do you explain what was supposed to be the finale for Indycar in 2011, but officially never happened because on lap 12, there was a 15 car pile up that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon? The financial loss to the series, it was felt, was nothing compared to the backlash that would come (and still did) from cramming 34 cars into a high speed 1.5 mile track. The drivers were too upset to continue the race and instead did a 5 lap salute to Dan Wheldon at slow speed, with Amazing Grace played in the background on bagpipes. As for the sign off, I challenge anyone to listen to it and not have their eyes well up with tears, even (at the time of commenting) nearly 13 years on: "...many people ask me, why I always sign off 'til we meet again,' [it's] because 'goodbye' is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon,"
One of the reasons given for continuing the race, despite the horrific tragedy, was concerns that thousands of spectators heading home after a race being stopped would mean that it would clog up the roads for the ambulances taking the injured and dead to hospitals.
There's something about how quickly they packed up after the accident. Normally people would need some time to process it as they are shocked by the bizarre thing they witnessed... But deep down, nobody was shocked, everybody expected very precisely this to happen and unspokenly agreed what they would do when, not if, it happened.
I don't think they planned to act like that if it happens again. I see this more as a feeling of shame about a so obviously wrong desecion, that you don't even want to argue anymore and lessen the shame by quickly accepting it.
@@electricpaisy6045 But that's the point. They all know it was the wrong call, and yet nobody stood up, they all went along with it and it expectedly did go wrong...
@@Langharig_Tuig well first of all not all of them. That one driver said no. And they tried to be careful and avoid certain situations. They took the problem serious. They just said we can take the risk. It's not like they ignored it.
@@Langharig_Tuigwho would want to take the blame in that instance. They just closed up shop so that the media wouldn’t try to vulture them in a time of shock and desperation. Idk wt yall expected, yall would do the same thing too. And I’m sure they also got orders from higher ups to not talk to anyone
It'll be crazy and poetic if Mercedes returns to Le Mans in 2029, 30 years after their last disaster, just like they waited 30 years after their first disaster at Le Mans.
@@justasimplemanworkinghiswa1569 3 separate car designs flying, last of them flying three separate times during one race weekend. Given that flying cars at Le Mans is incredibly rare for anyone else, one is hard pressed not to feel like Mercedes is just cursed there, and I would not dare to be the one to sign off on a return if I was an exec at Mercedes. Obviously there is no way that their old issues would make new ones more likely, new generations of engineers and drivers would be involved, but that was the case the last 3 times as well. Honestly I am surprised Mercedes even went back after the 1955 accident, I think that first flying car killing so many would have been enough to stop most companies from ever wanting their name spoken in regards to that race again, because they know their record kill streak will be mentioned over and over again, and they don't want that PR image of "unsafe" cars.
Hawthorn was dealing with kidney disease by that point which would have killed him within a year or two anyway and caused chronic blackouts. It is assumed, though not proven, that he had a blackout episode that caused the accident that killed him.
@@Dave-ms3ri He was racing his friend , Rob Waker , who was driving his 300SL , not admitted at the time , Walker admitted this years later in an interview . I think hawthorn may just have been unlucky , clipping a lorry after the overtake , which sent him spinning into the tree . A tragic end to a remarkable life .
A Mercedes driver (Pierre Levegh) died because an Austin Healey (Lance Maklin) swerved to avoid a braking Jaguar (Mike Hawthorn) and the Mercedes was launched over the AH. Hawthorne became Britain's first F1 world champion in 1958, instead of Stirling Moss, because the latter argued not to penalise him for travelling the wrong way at the Portuguese GP.
Fun fact: the Mercedes CLK class has the largest model price-range of any vehicle. At the bottom of the range there is a V6 powered convertible (worth $4,000 on a good day), in the middle of the model range you have a 6.2 AMG V8 powered CLK 63 Black Series (worth $200K). Near the top of the model range you have the CLK DTM convertible which is basically a direct predecessor to the CLK Black Series but features a S/C 5.5L V8 instead of a N/A 6.2 (worth $500K) then unbelievably near the very tippy top you have the GT1 Homologation Special, Road Legal, V12 Powered CLK GTR (worth $10-$12 Million today). Finally at the top of the list (which barely qualifies because it’s barely a CL chassis) is Chassis 003, The only CLR in existence, originally believed to be destroyed after M-B’s many publicized motorsports blunders the 4 CLR chassis were believed to be destroyed but chassis 003 the only one left without significant damage & the only surviving CLR example which was also the fastest of the trio was sold to a private collector who occasionally tracks it at the Nurburgring every year or so. (Worth anywhere from $12-$20M).
The moment I saw Mercedes and Le Mans I just _knew_ it was gonna be about Webber. The "airborne" bits just gave it away, this man had some form of curse preventing him from keeping his car on the track, no matter which category he drove in.
@kuromori6200 that's three more than most racing drivers will ever experience. I dunno if there's a tally of most airborne drivers but he's definitely up there. Flipping a car once is already a tremendous oddity, twice is some serious bad luck, but thrice you can probably see a pattern start emerging.
This is so well done. I can say after over a decade of making automotive content you oversimplified over 100 years of car history better than just about anybody. Awesome job!
Here's some bonus facts: - The reason the 1955 race wasn't stopped had several reasons. The biggest three were concerns about fans clogging the narrow roads (making emergency response more difficult), concerns about race sponsors sueing over the stoppage, and the apparent fact that the race organizer _technically_ didn't actually have the right to stop the race. - One of the big causes of the Le Mans Disaster was the Jaguars had been given disc brakes - a rather new invention for auto racing at that time that drastically reduced the distance required to stop. - Hawthorn had been signaled to pit the lap before, and after getting in front of Macklin, raised his arm to signal he was pitting, before going hard on the brakes. (Hawthorn later recounted he had been highly focused on the racing. I personally suspect he forgot he needed to pit until he saw the pit lane!) Macklin apparently was caught completely by surprise with how fast Hawthorn slowed. - Despite his hard braking, Hawthorn still overshot his pit stall. He was ordered by his team to do another lap to get away from all the chaos and confusion. By the time he returned, Hawthorn was barely able to get out of his car, _convinced_ he had been directly responsible for the accident. - The semi-offical cause according to both Mercedes and Macklin was Hawthorn cutting in front of Macklin and slamming on the brakes. Jaguar responsed by questioning the fitness and capabilities of both Macklin AND Levegh. - The firefighters could do very little about the burning car. Unfamiliar with magnesium, the first instinct was to pour water on it, which just intensified the fire. Without any other real methods to put the fire out, they simply had to wait for it to burn itself out. - The exact cause of Hawthorn's death is a bit of a mystery. While it was eventually revealed by the driver of the Mercedes (team manager Rob Walker) he had been racing Hawthorn at the time of the accident, other factors are thought to had been at play. The stretch of road had apparently suffered 15 serious accidents in the two years prior (including two fatal ones); the roads had been wet; Hawthorn had apparently clipped a "Keep Left" bollard prior to losing control; the car actually had a glancing blow with an oncoming truck (lorry) prior to skidding back across the road; the car ultimately smashed into a tree with such force that it uprooted the tree, and managed to throw Hawthorn into the rear seat; and Hawthorn had apparently been suffering blackouts for some time prior, as he had lost a kidney to infection in 1955 (no relation to the Le Mans Disaster), and apparently had been diagnosed to live just three more years when he crashed. His death was ultimately ruled an accidental death. - Dumbreck had, all things considered, been extremely lucky. His car had crashed in a spot of recent chopped down trees. Had these trees still been standing at the time of the accident, he almost certainly would have wrapped his car around one of them. - Mercedes actually did not know for certain what was causing the flight problem, and so their attempts to cure it ironically made the problem worse. The modifications consisted of tweaks to the rear suspension, and the addition of winglets to the nose to improve front downforce. Ironically, these winglets would produce _lift_ when cresting a hill, which technically made the car MORE prone to taking off. Despite further tweaks between the warm up and the race, the problem wasn't cured. It wasn't until testing after the event that they discovered the issue in regards to the overhang. - Ironically, the downfall for one German manufacturer proved to be the highlight of another. Despite not being the fastest car in the field, BMW's V12 LMR made up the difference in reliability and fuel efficiency, allowing BMW to get their first (and to date, only) overall win at Le Mans.
Mercedes also consulted with Adrian Newey (back then Mercedes owned shares of McLaren F1 team) and he told them they should withdraw from the race. Mercedes obviously hearing one of the best aerodynamicist ever lived didn't listen to him
In this case, it took quite a few catastrophic failures before they learned anything. How many cars do you need to flip before you learn that your car design is dangerous?
@@flightmaster999 Oh, don't believe they didn't know. Remember one of the pilots even said to not race, but was overruled. That to me is just a story of greed too. Not just for money, but for fame too.
Fun Fact: The CLR was based on CLK-GTR, and the CLK-GTR was based on Mclaren F1 car. Mercedes bought a Mclaren F1 and tear it down to develop the CLK GTR. The CLK-GTR of GT1 class(at the time) was quite successful beating the ever dominant Mclaren F1 LM.
Born too late to experience EmpLemon YTPs Born too early to see aliens meticulously study his videos Born just in time to see social media bots spamming AI-generated text about non-existent Mercedes race cars influence him into making a video
For anyone wondering why they do that: The Instagram algorithm will show posts with those Mercedes Chat-GPT captions more because they assume the post itself is educational
Ever since the Dale Earnhardt video I've always wondered what an expanded sequence on the "Have you ever seen a Nascar fly?" line would be. That CGI was it.
First of all, epic throwback with the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak wheelie in GT3... Second of all, after all that crashing you mean to tell me they let a dude race their care who's last name was DUMBRECK?!
A small correction. Mercedes Benz never made jet engines for German aircraft in World War 2, that was mainly Junkers. They did make several piston engines for aircraft, however.
Small correction on your small correction, it's not mainly Junkers, it was both the 003 and 004 turbo jet engines that were developed by Germany during the war, one design being manufactured by BMW and the other by Junkers.
@@tnmrvc I said it was mainly Junkers because most of Germany's jet aircraft used the Junkers 004. I believe the BMW 003 was only installed In the He 162, an aircraft that barely made it into service before the war ended.
“When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.” That sounds like a beginning monologue to a horror story. Well done!
Loved that you used the actual Mercedes-Benz typography in most of the text. Tremendously well-produced video, loved every minute of it even though I already knew the story. Congratulations on the quality of your creations, keep it up!
The way that the new drivers got out of the accidents mostly unharmed even though todays racecars are way faster than the old ones really reflects the massive improvements in safety engineering
@@alieffauzanrizky7202promoting safety by each of them getting wiped out one by one, the 60’s and 70’s was without a doubt the deadliest time in motor racing for most categories. Thankfully the FIA actually took note of those decades
Maybe we can get an emplemon video on the guy who invented the 3 point seat belt, and the fact that he never got a cent for it, he just did it to save lives.
Thankfully the peeps at another german based pharmaceutical company did similar with the rollout of that mRNA thing to save lives for the greater good of humanity... ...only evil ppl would cash in on such an unfortunate once-in-century event. What a time to be alive amirite?!?!?
Thankfully the peeps at another german based pharmaceutical company did similar with the rollout of that mRNA thing to save lives for the greater good of humanity... ...only the most sweetest and nicest ppl would cash in on such an unfortunate once-in-century event. What a time to be alive amirite?!?!?
“When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.” One of the coldest quotes I’ve ever heard. Beautifully made Emp.
Insane footage. Thank you for the video. Really nice editing and I enjoyed the music quite a bit. Appreciate the music being written out in a document for us.
Emp has returned. This incident got to be one of the most horrifying things to see just imagine being a fan watching the race one minute and being dead right after that. Truly terrifying.
they actually did not stop because they know anouncing the news would cause a stampede and make things even worse, because people around the track did not know what happened (it was 1955). And also, the stampede would have blocked the ambulances who helped the victims, and the situation would be even worse. That is the offical explanation anyway. Cheers for everybody and Emp from Serbia :)
Or they just suck at making super high speed vehicles? There was a documentary where they were designing harnesses to attach small kids forward on the hood to increase down force. But with Germany s declining fertility rates, they had to give up on the idea because testing was too difficult. It's one of the reasons why they moved production to Romania.
it’s crazy how i grew up on this guy’s YTPs but as i grew and found different things (like the SAINT PEPSI vaporwave Mac Tonight tape), he would be on the same page (the Mac Tonight video). and when i got back into racing + sports and being completely obsessed with racing, i end up seeing Dale Earnhardt vids, NASCAR content, sports stuff etc. he must be the FBI agent that spies on me or something, because seeing him do all of this in real time while i’m also getting into it is almost eerie. but yeah, can’t wait until he covers more racing, ESPECIALLY when he does a Never Ever on Tom Kristensen, Senna/Schumacher or Sebastian Loeb/McRae.
Well done . I absolutely love how you wrapped up the ending . Summarizing it in a beautifully worded monologue underscoring the grace of the spectacular disaster that unfolded . You touched on a much deeper facet of motorsports that few consider . We go to watch the races to see who wins and who crashes .
There's a great video by Chain Bear going into the technical details of how the car could flip like this during essentially normal driving. The short reason is that they made the wheel base really short for aerodynamic purposes, but that allowed the car to easily rock forwards and backwards, and so agressively that the nose could actually pitch so far upwards that the entire floor presented itself to the air, building up pressure underneath the car and forcing it into the heavens.
@@asymsolutions as far as I understand, they made the car as long as allowed by the rules, but with a comparatively short wheelbase so that they could maximise the overhangs for larger diffusers.
@@namenamename390 no, it was to reduce turning radius and response for low-speed corners at a sacrifice of stability, you can still have a strong frontal splitter design as long as the tunnels can expand enough after the front wheels. This pattern and it's problems weren't limited to just the CLKGTR, the 911 GT1 had the same issues and flipped at Road Atlanta, McLaren long tail also had porpoising issues. It was a product of the late GT1 ruleset. I don't remember if the GT-one ever had the issues discussed publicly, but the GT-One never raced enough before the LMP ruleset kicked in for it to be noticed by just watching, and cars like the R390 and Panoz didn't run a long nose, the Panoz because of the mid-front engine packaging restricts and the R390 because of reasons that I don't think any of the Nissan Engineers at the time ever really discussed because well, it didn't perform well enough to gain attention.
I would argue that 2012 was better. How can you beat 7 different winners in the first 7 races? A titanic duel between Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari while teams like Mercedes and Lotus were also competitive, challenging the big 3.
@@grantduerst8060I personally don’t ever see EmpLemon making a video about championships. Those stories are things the fans already know everything about. He makes videos about more specific and culturally impactful events/people.
Probably the best video on TH-cam I've seen all year. Somehow emp is able to make me care about things I shouldn't. This video is art and poetic bravo emp.
F1 fans tend to think of Jackie Stewart pushing for safety improvements after his terrifying crash at Spa in Belgium in 1966 as the moment safety began to be taken more seriously. Though in reality, it was Le Mans in 1955 that was the true start of the safety push in motorsport. It was one thing for drivers to risk their lives, but after Le Mans 1955, they felt that involving members of the public, spectators in the grandstands, was where the line needed to be drawn. They didn't want to see the same scenes from that gruesome day. To quote from the BBC Documentary "The Deadliest Crash," "It was Motorsport's loss of innocence," The legacy of that day was a wall separating the track from the pit lane, the main grandstand was moved back, away from the firing line and the end of the Le Mans lap today is a set of chicanes.
Pierre Levegh's partner for the 1955 24hr du Mans was an american named John Fitch, who wasn't just a capable driver but also a prolific engineer. He too began to devote much of his time to improving safety in Motorsports and on public roads, developing countless safety systems for race cars and tracks, but his most well known invention are probably the Fitch Barriers found on almost every highway in the USA.
@@mrspandel5737 I notice they also use them at some race tracks in America, at pit lane entrances for example, like Indianapolis Motor Speedway (which has saved lives of racing drivers as well)
@@bobbys4327 of course, in 1987, NASCAR very nearly had a similar incident at Talladega where Bobby Allison had a tyre failure that sent his Buick Lesabre into a spin, the airflow pitched the airborne towards the crowd. By sheer luck, the car's front wheel hit the barrier before the car hit the catch fence, redirecting the worst of the momentum away from the crowd. To their credit, NASCAR took the near miss very seriously, deciding to not allow the cars to travel as fast as they did that weekend (Bill Elliott's average speed for his Pole for that race was 212.809MPH, a record that won't be topped, unless NASCAR decides to remove the restrictions on the cars at superspeedways)
While somewhat true, Jackie essentially changed everything about motorsports, 55 meant fences and pit walls, Jackie meant fire retardants, proper harnesses, tracks that didn't exist to kill someone (nord and old Spa), cars that weren't just a bath tub on wheels and a lot, lot more 55 probably made it safer overall, but Jackie made it so it could actually be classed as "safe" I mean, you have 16 before 66, and 16 after, that's 16 years vs 58, most of which being in the 70's, while he was still campaigning for some of the bigger changes Also, Jackie was a driving force behind changes to the pit lane as well
5:48 they did not stop the race because they did not want everyone to leave the parking lots all at once and making a awful traffic jam stopping the fire trucks and ambulances from being able to get to the track.
Fun Fact: the original CLK GTR prototype was a rebody'd McLaren F1. After they wrecked it, Mercedes put it back together in its orginal state, painted it and sold it quietly at auction.. and no one was the wiser
That is a stretched truth. While they did used a rebodied F1 as a testing car, the CLK GTR was already a thing. The development of the CLK GTR began in December 1996 and was finished by Mid March 1997, and wouldn't you know, the test with the F1 was in March 1997. So no, that rebodied F1 wasn't the original prototype of the CLK GTR, the purpose of that test was to build a bodykit inspired by the '97 F1 GTR and see if its aero solutions were better than the CLK GTR's, it wasn't and Mercedes didn't used any of the aero modifications of that test, but they surely knew a lot more about Mclaren's car.
I'm so terminally online that I saw the first sentence of your comment and thought it was the AI generated "Sure thing! Here's the information about the Mercedes SLR:"
I saw another documentary about the 1955 incident in which it was confirmed that at least 50 of the fatalities were due to decapitation. The airborne car landed directly on top of the crowd's unprotected heads.
I love that even when I've watched multiple other videos on the topic, some being almost double the run time. I still know I wanna watch Emp Lemons videos because the story telling is so good and he manages to captivate me every time
Hathorn dying in a crash while trying to pass a mercedes, is almost poetic. celebrating a le mans victory only because your competitor left the race after seeing so many people dying on the side of the track, is just horrible.
These drivers were men who had served in WW2 and had seen terrible events only 10 years prior and seen many many people die. They were not callous, they had been taught to get on with life. If the authorities had stopped the race, there would have been no complaints from the drivers.
@FlickWith the media has portrayed Hawthorn very unfairly since the accident. In the immediate aftermath of the crash it is quoted by the jaguar team boss that Mike was in tears and saying how he'd never race again and that he'd killed all those people. Obviously then the show must go on so when he won, he looked visibly shaken but the moment he did break a slight smile the cameras got it and crucified him for it. He was a good man given trial by the media unfortunately
LMP1 were also amazing but most people will realize that in 10 years, writing comment like this. Spaceships. Hypercars are great for competition though, times when brand could spend 250M annualy for one racing team are gone
The best part of GT1 was how BS and nonexistent the rules were. Toyota essentially showed up to GT1 with a prototype race car with license plates glued to the front and nice upholstery, which, ironically enough, was called the GT-One, but whose real name, TS020, immediately gave away its lineage to the ill-fated TS010, a car so fast it broke its driver's ribs just by cornering. The rules stipulated that to qualify as a GT1, a car needed to have a trunk compartment that could fit a suitcase in it. However, nowhere in the rule book did it say that said compartment had to only serve as the trunk. Toyota put a suitcase in the TS020's fuel tank. By the rules, it was legal. And it was allowed to race. The racing gods did not take so kindly to Toyota's mockery of the regulations as the FIA did. The TS020, despite being faster, would fall victim to unreliability and freak accidents and never won the 24h in its two tries. Some would even say Toyota's punishment for their chicanery has never gone away, and their incapacity of winning the 24 against more than one factory effort is proof of that.
I think it's worth mentioning that the fire of the car in 1955 was insane in and of itself. A fuel leak caused the fire to balloon in size, and the fire department didn't just have trouble putting out the flames: they were either misinformed or did not know that the Mercedes' chassis was largely magnesium (and had also hit melting point due to the heat). Therefore, they doused the car in water, and caused magnesium fire sparks to explode out over the remaining crowd and firefighters. Aside from the guillotine-ing of the crowd, this is probably the most horrific part of the disaster to me.
You should do a video on how Kenny Brack survived his 214g force crash at Texas. Highest g force survived by a human being and probably the worst racing wreck ever survived
I just happened to find your channel through the recommendation of a mutual online and holy shit!!! I'm going to be binging your whole channel today, I fear. Love your stuff, thank you for the work you put into it :]
The first time an emp video has come out where I am pretty educated on pretty much every event that took place, yet the way he still finds a way to connect them in a new and interesting way always amazes me.
You are one of my favorite creators. Beautifully written, spaced, and themed. Keeps me interested from start to finish. I hope you are proud of the art you make.
You picked a great song in Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head by Gorillaz to use. Mercedes kept on digging and digging ignoring all the warning signs with the CLR, until the Monkey had finally awoke Another 10/10, Emp. Love the stuff, dude!
I didn't expect your next video to be about Mercedes-Benz and their tendency to make their race cars fly at Le Mans, but I'm glad you made this video essay. As per usual, the writing and editing is excellent. I hope you'll do more videos regarding racing in the future, they're my favorites.
love your straight forwardness with mercedes-benz and their history, it feels like a lot of automotive history just skips over ww2, you're legendary dude
So if I made a video about the goofy Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, should I also dedicate several minutes to VW and their relation to Dr. Porsche and Hitler? Or if I want to talk about the terrible Chevy Chevette, should I also mention General Motors' involvement with the Nazis? Not everything has to be boiled down to WWII and the Third Reich. This video could have started with Le Mans 1955 and the story would have played out the same. I'm sometimes concerned that people _need_ to see Hitler in everything.
@@md_vandenberg I think the WW2 stuff was used so he can use the "when Mercedes start flying" foreshadowing line as an overarching theme. I guess an artistic decision - for a lack of a better term (and if that doesn't sound too crude/callous)
Dude I quite literally think you have the best videos on TH-cam. You’re ability to captivate my full attention towards literally ANYTHING is unreal. Keep up the great work!
Try to find a replay of this year's Indianapolis 500. That was a fun race this year. Or, if you want something more chaotic and unpredictable, NASCAR's Atlanta race this year was spectacular
Literally same. I'm not even remotely a fan of any racing or sports and I just watched a fantastic video about Mercedes' 100 year curse and how failure truly is our greatest teacher. Emp just knows how to tell 'em. He really can make anything interesting. :)
@@Bishounen My German is all but non-existent, but I'm guessing "shlag" means "strike": Shlag Eins = Strike One Shlag Zwei = Strike Two Shlag Drei = Strike Three
that's why it's the most prestigious baby! oh they change the drivers no worries. I believe depending on the teams but usually they have 3 persons on a 3-4 hours rotation.
Speaking of which, Pierre Levegh's most legendary accomplishment as a driver was his feat in the 1952 Edition of the 24h of Le Mans, where he singlehandedly drove his Talbot Lago for 23hrs straight before he retired with an engine failure just an hour away from victory. By that point he held a FOUR LAP LEAD over 2nd place. The team that inherited his lead was Mercedes, handing them a 1-2 Victory and their first at Le Mans
How did the green Simpsons guy get so good at this shiet? Amazing minidocs you've been putting out lately. You really are one of the most unexpected developments on TH-cam I've seen.
I'd agree that people who only watch for the crashes miss the point but I would argue that people who don't appreciate a good crash also miss the point
Witnessing drivers at the top of their game operate the finest machines manufactured by some of the most brilliant engineers working today. Said machines must walk a tightrope, balancing reliability with power. @@MezzoForte4
Its one thing to "appreciate" a crash, but to say that you miss the point by not appreciating them is dumb. Crashes are a part of racing, but they are not "the point" of racing. They are something you always want to avoid because there are real people in those cars and they can get hurt. Yes the cars are safe enough nowadays that you dont usually have to worry about that, but i still hate to see bad crashes. I've seen enough of my favorite drivers' careers (and lives) get ended early, i don't want to experience that again.
"When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong" As a WW2 history and racing history buff, I already know where this is going and that is a cold-ass line.
I remember seeing that Mercedes footage for the first time, and thinking it must be special effects or a stunt for a movie. It still looks insane 25 years later
The streets can't forget Mike Hawthorne - never raced without wearing a bow-tie, F1 world champion with Ferrari as a result of a his main competitor saying a penalty Mike was given was BS and he should be awarded the race win. He dominated every caregory he raced in and was renowned as a total gentleman
Without fail, I always tear up at some point during your videos. You have a certain skill for conveying emotion that is unmatched. Thank you for the content
17:33 that commentary makes me think. There is a reason ABC Wide World of Sports had the line "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" with the video of that epic wipeout of the skier.
@@weskerrebirth5849 True, but 18:49 says 'writing, voiced, and editing' not 'illustrator' or 'animator'. And usually 'editing' is for the medium (i.e. the video). So, it's probably editing with public domain somewhere else Not 100%, but likely
3:09 “When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.” That’s a quote that fills me with dread. Amazing work as always, Emp.
A reference to WW2 and the June 1955 disaster 😮💨
Infamy follows everytime a has taken Mercedes flight.
@@LessGo7921 Yes, we did indeed watch the video.
@@hazeust Imma be honest I didn’t watch the vid when I wrote that, I only guessed it
It's smart when you think the first one flying killed 83 People
"In the future we will have flying cars!"
The cars:
Uff
This is golden.
The cars: "Funny you should say that..." Wow. Just wow.
_"In the year 2000"_
mercedes are 100 years ahead of us
I thought I'd jump in with a small extra fact.
According to Mark Webber himself in his autobiography, when he returned to the garage after his qualifying crash, the crew didn't believe that the car had actually caught air.
"The real injury came when I realised the team didn't believe my version of what had happened. Their response? 'No, that couldn't have happened, the car couldn't possibly flip end over end.' How could they dismiss my explanation of events so lightly? We looked at the data and they knew the car had taken off, but there was no evidence in the form of footage or even still photographs. There was just a bent car and what I said".
This is also continued after his second crash in the warm-up, as even though there was evidence of what had happened this time, they attempted to blame it on an incorrectly fitted front floor tray and that it wouldn't happen in the race.
Great example of the risks inherent of group think.
Mark was so young and relatively inexperienced at the time that the Germans didn’t really trust him. That the first two accidents happened to the same driver, they thought he must have been doing something different. Mercedes didn’t so much as throw him under the bus, as throw him over the bus! Even after it was proven by the third crash that it was a car problem, they soured on their relationship with Mark Webber. He would never end up driving a Mercedes engined F1 car his entire career.
@@hamiiham2985 Underrated comment.
Listening to Mark Webbers book (I listened to the audiobook) , it's shocking the way Mercedes treated him when this happened.
Absolutely abyssmal.
crazy…
Them immediately packing up and leaving must've been an extreme case of "we fucking told them"
A few quick facts:
Jaguar driver who braked abruptly was using a relatively new disc brake system, allowing them to brake more sharply than most drivers were accustomed to. This led to a skewed understanding of what a safe followinf distance was. Keeping their mechanical advantage a secret at the expense of safety.
The extremely tough decision was made to not suspend the race so that emergency vehicles would have access to the scene of the carnage. French authorities knew that it was such a big spectical in an urban area and that suspending the race would mean a massive pedestrian log jam from fans leaving the event. Many people in the city didn't know what had happened until several hours after the crash. This probably saved a few lives of the injured.
National and international reception to the crash was largely very callous. People in higher society looked down on motor racing as a sport and their was a cold sentiment among the aristocrats that if someone perished as a result of attending such an event that it was their own fault.
Honestly even today you wouldn't want to instantly declare the race over for a massive event. It would be better to pause the race and leave it hanging whether it would restart so people don't just rush out.
You see the same happen in other similar situations. Like active shooters near big events, where they will purposefully be vague about whether events are cancelled or not, so that the crowds don't surge out and get into danger or interfere with police work.
Saw it a few years ago in Denmark where a young man started shooting up a mall next to a concert venue. They basically refused to cancel or start the planned concert until the police were finally done securing the crime scene many hours later, then they finally officially cancelled the concert and let the concertgoers leave.
Still pretty fucked up. Imagine some of the spectators be like, damn imma paid my ticket idc for that burning dude over there.... ☠
Re. the callous reaction - this was only a decade removed from WW2 where thousands had died from ariel bombardment and many men strapped themselves into fighters and bombers knowing they were unlikely to come back.
This had a huge impact on the mentality of motorsport in the 50s and 60s and it wasn't until the post war generation came through in the 1970s and drivers like Jackie Stewart started to speak up that things began to change.
@@NATIK001 how do you explain what was supposed to be the finale for Indycar in 2011, but officially never happened because on lap 12, there was a 15 car pile up that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon? The financial loss to the series, it was felt, was nothing compared to the backlash that would come (and still did) from cramming 34 cars into a high speed 1.5 mile track. The drivers were too upset to continue the race and instead did a 5 lap salute to Dan Wheldon at slow speed, with Amazing Grace played in the background on bagpipes. As for the sign off, I challenge anyone to listen to it and not have their eyes well up with tears, even (at the time of commenting) nearly 13 years on:
"...many people ask me, why I always sign off 'til we meet again,' [it's] because 'goodbye' is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon,"
One of the reasons given for continuing the race, despite the horrific tragedy, was concerns that thousands of spectators heading home after a race being stopped would mean that it would clog up the roads for the ambulances taking the injured and dead to hospitals.
There's something about how quickly they packed up after the accident. Normally people would need some time to process it as they are shocked by the bizarre thing they witnessed... But deep down, nobody was shocked, everybody expected very precisely this to happen and unspokenly agreed what they would do when, not if, it happened.
I don't think they planned to act like that if it happens again. I see this more as a feeling of shame about a so obviously wrong desecion, that you don't even want to argue anymore and lessen the shame by quickly accepting it.
@@electricpaisy6045 But that's the point. They all know it was the wrong call, and yet nobody stood up, they all went along with it and it expectedly did go wrong...
@@Langharig_Tuig well first of all not all of them. That one driver said no. And they tried to be careful and avoid certain situations. They took the problem serious. They just said we can take the risk. It's not like they ignored it.
@@Langharig_Tuigwho would want to take the blame in that instance. They just closed up shop so that the media wouldn’t try to vulture them in a time of shock and desperation. Idk wt yall expected, yall would do the same thing too. And I’m sure they also got orders from higher ups to not talk to anyone
Engineers and Scientists are very alike, so it's no surprise that they would prepare for all outcomes... positive or negative.
It'll be crazy and poetic if Mercedes returns to Le Mans in 2029, 30 years after their last disaster, just like they waited 30 years after their first disaster at Le Mans.
they need to stay away from that place if it happened more than once
To be fair, they just need a Hypercar, and the rulesets there could encourage them to show up.
@@justasimplemanworkinghiswa1569 3 separate car designs flying, last of them flying three separate times during one race weekend.
Given that flying cars at Le Mans is incredibly rare for anyone else, one is hard pressed not to feel like Mercedes is just cursed there, and I would not dare to be the one to sign off on a return if I was an exec at Mercedes.
Obviously there is no way that their old issues would make new ones more likely, new generations of engineers and drivers would be involved, but that was the case the last 3 times as well.
Honestly I am surprised Mercedes even went back after the 1955 accident, I think that first flying car killing so many would have been enough to stop most companies from ever wanting their name spoken in regards to that race again, because they know their record kill streak will be mentioned over and over again, and they don't want that PR image of "unsafe" cars.
@@NATIK001 also the 3 separate times where around 2 to 3 decades apart
@@NATIK001 do you even realize that jaguar caused the accident with 80 people beeing killed?? Boooohoo bad Germans... Fuck that
this video is a cinematic masterpiece.. the way it builds up to the crash..and then showing the footage only once...it kinda hit the spot.
Yup. Really shows how quickly it all unraveled and all the history behind that infamous 5 second clip.
i've heard the demon days album so many times at this point i could hear the lyrics of the closing track in my head
Clearly the most bizarre racing accident was the time I went from first to twelfth on the last turn of Mario Kart Wii
That infamous DK Mountain video...
@@DepravedCoTApologist th-cam.com/video/_43cq3DalZw/w-d-xo.html this one I imagine?
Oh I was at the track that day. Crazy to see in person.
@@DepravedCoTApologist that and door stuck are tied for my favorite video game clip of all time.
That wasn’t an accident that was sabotage my little brother took the controller from me you guys have to believe me
the universe has a strange sense of humor. The jaguar driver dying because he tried to pass a Mercedes.
There's also Le Mans never letting Mercedes go for what the Germans did in France
And Mr. Dumbreck being involved in a _silly crash_
Hawthorn was dealing with kidney disease by that point which would have killed him within a year or two anyway and caused chronic blackouts. It is assumed, though not proven, that he had a blackout episode that caused the accident that killed him.
I never even put that together, Dumbreck in a dumb wreck
@@Dave-ms3ri He was racing his friend , Rob Waker , who was driving his 300SL , not admitted at the time , Walker admitted this years later in an interview . I think hawthorn may just have been unlucky , clipping a lorry after the overtake , which sent him spinning into the tree . A tragic end to a remarkable life .
A Mercedes driver (Pierre Levegh) died because an Austin Healey (Lance Maklin) swerved to avoid a braking Jaguar (Mike Hawthorn) and the Mercedes was launched over the AH. Hawthorne became Britain's first F1 world champion in 1958, instead of Stirling Moss, because the latter argued not to penalise him for travelling the wrong way at the Portuguese GP.
Mercedes flying in F1: 😊
Mercedes flying in Le Mans: 💀
I hate that understood that reference in record time 😢
its actually kinda funny how much Mercedes dominates F1 but they cant make a single good Le Mans car
@@papaspoon1550 CLK LM'98, Mercedes c9/c11?
@@papaspoon1550 Goes to show how each race discipline is different from each other.
@@papaspoon1550 Lol I guess winning Le Mans twice is never building a single good Le Mans car
Fun fact: the Mercedes CLK class has the largest model price-range of any vehicle. At the bottom of the range there is a V6 powered convertible (worth $4,000 on a good day), in the middle of the model range you have a 6.2 AMG V8 powered CLK 63 Black Series (worth $200K). Near the top of the model range you have the CLK DTM convertible which is basically a direct predecessor to the CLK Black Series but features a S/C 5.5L V8 instead of a N/A 6.2 (worth $500K) then unbelievably near the very tippy top you have the GT1 Homologation Special, Road Legal, V12 Powered CLK GTR (worth $10-$12 Million today). Finally at the top of the list (which barely qualifies because it’s barely a CL chassis) is Chassis 003, The only CLR in existence, originally believed to be destroyed after M-B’s many publicized motorsports blunders the 4 CLR chassis were believed to be destroyed but chassis 003 the only one left without significant damage & the only surviving CLR example which was also the fastest of the trio was sold to a private collector who occasionally tracks it at the Nurburgring every year or so. (Worth anywhere from $12-$20M).
The chassis 003 is actually worth $2.4 billion.
The bottom actually starts with a 4 cylinder coupe (at least in Europe)
The moment I saw Mercedes and Le Mans I just _knew_ it was gonna be about Webber. The "airborne" bits just gave it away, this man had some form of curse preventing him from keeping his car on the track, no matter which category he drove in.
@kuromori6200 that's three more than most racing drivers will ever experience. I dunno if there's a tally of most airborne drivers but he's definitely up there. Flipping a car once is already a tremendous oddity, twice is some serious bad luck, but thrice you can probably see a pattern start emerging.
MERCEDES and Lemans has another "fun" story to their names
@kuromori6200two flips in the Merc at lemans, one in a Redbull at Valencia
@@ToonLinkHox In Nascar Ryan Newman has flipped 3 times
also he has had another car land on top of him 5 times which is nuts
Funny they weren't the only ones to have this issue *looks at porsche at road atlanta* in that ruleset
This is so well done. I can say after over a decade of making automotive content you oversimplified over 100 years of car history better than just about anybody. Awesome job!
So good to see you here!
Sup bro
Hi, David.
You know it ain't an automotive youtube hit until David spit
Hahahaha, happy to see you enjoyed it too dude. 🤌🤌
You know the saying 'in the future we will have flying cars!'. Lets just say Mercedes made that dream a reality.
I mean, their three points on their logo are supposed to represent the attempt of superiority in land, air, and sea travel.
bruh what in the r/TwoSentenceHorror... 💀
@@scaryreptile whats horrific about it lol
@@derkommissar4986 im just poking fact at how the comment is structed, just feels corny. similar to TwoSentenceHorror posts,
Real talk ‘flying cars’ are prop plane.
Here's some bonus facts:
- The reason the 1955 race wasn't stopped had several reasons. The biggest three were concerns about fans clogging the narrow roads (making emergency response more difficult), concerns about race sponsors sueing over the stoppage, and the apparent fact that the race organizer _technically_ didn't actually have the right to stop the race.
- One of the big causes of the Le Mans Disaster was the Jaguars had been given disc brakes - a rather new invention for auto racing at that time that drastically reduced the distance required to stop.
- Hawthorn had been signaled to pit the lap before, and after getting in front of Macklin, raised his arm to signal he was pitting, before going hard on the brakes. (Hawthorn later recounted he had been highly focused on the racing. I personally suspect he forgot he needed to pit until he saw the pit lane!) Macklin apparently was caught completely by surprise with how fast Hawthorn slowed.
- Despite his hard braking, Hawthorn still overshot his pit stall. He was ordered by his team to do another lap to get away from all the chaos and confusion. By the time he returned, Hawthorn was barely able to get out of his car, _convinced_ he had been directly responsible for the accident.
- The semi-offical cause according to both Mercedes and Macklin was Hawthorn cutting in front of Macklin and slamming on the brakes. Jaguar responsed by questioning the fitness and capabilities of both Macklin AND Levegh.
- The firefighters could do very little about the burning car. Unfamiliar with magnesium, the first instinct was to pour water on it, which just intensified the fire. Without any other real methods to put the fire out, they simply had to wait for it to burn itself out.
- The exact cause of Hawthorn's death is a bit of a mystery. While it was eventually revealed by the driver of the Mercedes (team manager Rob Walker) he had been racing Hawthorn at the time of the accident, other factors are thought to had been at play. The stretch of road had apparently suffered 15 serious accidents in the two years prior (including two fatal ones); the roads had been wet; Hawthorn had apparently clipped a "Keep Left" bollard prior to losing control; the car actually had a glancing blow with an oncoming truck (lorry) prior to skidding back across the road; the car ultimately smashed into a tree with such force that it uprooted the tree, and managed to throw Hawthorn into the rear seat; and Hawthorn had apparently been suffering blackouts for some time prior, as he had lost a kidney to infection in 1955 (no relation to the Le Mans Disaster), and apparently had been diagnosed to live just three more years when he crashed. His death was ultimately ruled an accidental death.
- Dumbreck had, all things considered, been extremely lucky. His car had crashed in a spot of recent chopped down trees. Had these trees still been standing at the time of the accident, he almost certainly would have wrapped his car around one of them.
- Mercedes actually did not know for certain what was causing the flight problem, and so their attempts to cure it ironically made the problem worse. The modifications consisted of tweaks to the rear suspension, and the addition of winglets to the nose to improve front downforce. Ironically, these winglets would produce _lift_ when cresting a hill, which technically made the car MORE prone to taking off. Despite further tweaks between the warm up and the race, the problem wasn't cured. It wasn't until testing after the event that they discovered the issue in regards to the overhang.
- Ironically, the downfall for one German manufacturer proved to be the highlight of another. Despite not being the fastest car in the field, BMW's V12 LMR made up the difference in reliability and fuel efficiency, allowing BMW to get their first (and to date, only) overall win at Le Mans.
Mercedes also consulted with Adrian Newey (back then Mercedes owned shares of McLaren F1 team) and he told them they should withdraw from the race. Mercedes obviously hearing one of the best aerodynamicist ever lived didn't listen to him
"...the wisest lessons are often taught by catastrophic failure."
What a quote.
Well, rules ARE written in blood often enough, so it checks out.
In this case, it took quite a few catastrophic failures before they learned anything. How many cars do you need to flip before you learn that your car design is dangerous?
@@flightmaster999 Oh, don't believe they didn't know. Remember one of the pilots even said to not race, but was overruled. That to me is just a story of greed too. Not just for money, but for fame too.
What a mid quote
@@umbaupause exactly. There needs to be a statement about that: not everyone who falls into a trap is an idiot. Some just fall for the bait.
The true cosmic irony is that Mercedes wanted everyone to remember the CLR but it ended up being for the wrong reasons.
Fun Fact: The CLR was based on CLK-GTR, and the CLK-GTR was based on Mclaren F1 car. Mercedes bought a Mclaren F1 and tear it down to develop the CLK GTR. The CLK-GTR of GT1 class(at the time) was quite successful beating the ever dominant Mclaren F1 LM.
''When Mercedes Start flying, it's usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong''
This is just pure genius
Legitimately too good
Im sorry but that last part of the mercedes flying off into the trees with that song and how he talks just makes it beautiful
“When Mercedes start flying, something has gone terribly wrong.”
*chef’s kiss*
as fan of history and racing man THAT got me laughing. so frikin true.
So, you're telling me the pilot named Dumbreck was involved in a... Silly crash?
There’s no way this entire series of events wasn’t some form of divine intervention
@@yourlocalasleeponioperativ4095 God said "racing trolling funny moment"
Gold!
@@yourlocalasleeponioperativ4095 Payback for all the slave labor and death.
Nice
'' Just 4 years later, he was fatally injured in a road accident, losing control of his Jaguar while attempting to pass a Mercedes ''
Holy fuck
karma
Irony at its most tragic.
In another Emp video about NASCAR he said the longer you watch racing, the more you see things come full circle
I had to double-take while I was listening to that. Irony in motorsports is just absolutely fantastic.
@@bfaproductions7121 a circuit is really just a fancy circle of life
The use of Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head instrumental is really great here, love it EmpLemon
Born too late to experience EmpLemon YTPs
Born too early to see aliens meticulously study his videos
Born just in time to see social media bots spamming AI-generated text about non-existent Mercedes race cars influence him into making a video
For a straight week I thought I was schizo from those memepost captions
Is this video connected to the meme page captions?
For anyone wondering why they do that:
The Instagram algorithm will show posts with those Mercedes Chat-GPT captions more because they assume the post itself is educational
Nah, those AI bots were speaking about the CLK GTR, which was the first iteration of what will become the CLR.
(CLK GTR -> CLK LM -> CLR)
Real
Thank you EmpLemon
Yo batman guy
Madlad jumpscare
thank you, every superhero ever
Actual night enhancer
Aye, funny man 😅
Mark Webber is no stranger to having his racecar go airborne
11 years later, he would flip again
yeah his cars flipped a shocking amount of time
Australia's greatest pilot. Hope Oscar Piastri can follow in his shoes
@@sarminder4357 somewhat ironic because "pilot" is an old term for a racecar driver, particulary those drive open-wheelers like IndyCars and Formulas
Not bad for a number 2 driver
And that's why he is brand ambassador for Porsche now, because their cars are "slightly more" planted than other brands? Right?
Ever since the Dale Earnhardt video I've always wondered what an expanded sequence on the "Have you ever seen a Nascar fly?" line would be.
That CGI was it.
Holy shit I’m emping my lemon so hard rn
U wat
she emping on my lemon till I spiral
she emp on my lemon till i video essay
@@pogobod2128 bro keep it down a bit I’m at work rn
@@pogobod2128emping their lemon ofc
The cheesy 90s era CG graphics crow casually watching the car flip into the sky is my spirit animal.
The Gorillaz instrumental really elevated it to cinema 👌.
3:04 "when Mercedes stars go flying, something has gone seriously wrong".
Still 80% of the video to go but that's already a favourite quote.
First of all, epic throwback with the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak wheelie in GT3... Second of all, after all that crashing you mean to tell me they let a dude race their care who's last name was DUMBRECK?!
Sports Emp returns
Peak emp, along with the funny wind video. Love your vids btw.
Hey!! You are that guy from youtoob!!
A small correction. Mercedes Benz never made jet engines for German aircraft in World War 2, that was mainly Junkers. They did make several piston engines for aircraft, however.
I thought it didn’t quite sound right at the time.
Small correction on your small correction, it's not mainly Junkers, it was both the 003 and 004 turbo jet engines that were developed by Germany during the war, one design being manufactured by BMW and the other by Junkers.
Imagine a foreign dude getting german history right for once. That would make history itself.
i think he was referring to just piston engines and goofed up by saying fighter "jets" when he meant prop fighters
@@tnmrvc I said it was mainly Junkers because most of Germany's jet aircraft used the Junkers 004. I believe the BMW 003 was only installed In the He 162, an aircraft that barely made it into service before the war ended.
“When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.”
That sounds like a beginning monologue to a horror story. Well done!
Loved that you used the actual Mercedes-Benz typography in most of the text. Tremendously well-produced video, loved every minute of it even though I already knew the story. Congratulations on the quality of your creations, keep it up!
The way that the new drivers got out of the accidents mostly unharmed even though todays racecars are way faster than the old ones really reflects the massive improvements in safety engineering
Yes, in 1955, most drivers wouldn't wear seat belts, because they thought they had a better chance, if they were thrown out of the car.
Gotta thanks Sir Jackie Stewart and a lot of his friends for promoting racing safety back in 70s and 80s before it became a priority.
@@alieffauzanrizky7202promoting safety by each of them getting wiped out one by one, the 60’s and 70’s was without a doubt the deadliest time in motor racing for most categories. Thankfully the FIA actually took note of those decades
Maybe we can get an emplemon video on the guy who invented the 3 point seat belt, and the fact that he never got a cent for it, he just did it to save lives.
Nils Bohlin! Who designed the 3 point belt at volvo after working on developing ejection seats at saab!
sucker
The story of man who invented modern day soft body armor is also interesting
Thankfully the peeps at another german based pharmaceutical company did similar with the rollout of that mRNA thing to save lives for the greater good of humanity...
...only evil ppl would cash in on such an unfortunate once-in-century event.
What a time to be alive amirite?!?!?
Thankfully the peeps at another german based pharmaceutical company did similar with the rollout of that mRNA thing to save lives for the greater good of humanity...
...only the most sweetest and nicest ppl would cash in on such an unfortunate once-in-century event.
What a time to be alive amirite?!?!?
“When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong.” One of the coldest quotes I’ve ever heard. Beautifully made Emp.
Insane footage. Thank you for the video. Really nice editing and I enjoyed the music quite a bit. Appreciate the music being written out in a document for us.
Emp has returned. This incident got to be one of the most horrifying things to see just imagine being a fan watching the race one minute and being dead right after that. Truly terrifying.
Sort of how I imagine a major roller coaster accident must be like.
The thing that baffeled me the most is that almost 100 people died but they just continued racing
@@zeppie_ what were they thinking.
They were like "yeah that's pretty bad but let's see who wins this thing!"
@@MORONIC_officialthere was a very reasonable meaning, stopping the race creates traffic of people leaving the track, slowing ambulances
they actually did not stop because they know anouncing the news would cause a stampede and make things even worse, because people around the track did not know what happened (it was 1955). And also, the stampede would have blocked the ambulances who helped the victims, and the situation would be even worse. That is the offical explanation anyway. Cheers for everybody and Emp from Serbia :)
The Le-Man curse on mercedes is diabolical
😝😝😝
Or they just suck at making super high speed vehicles? There was a documentary where they were designing harnesses to attach small kids forward on the hood to increase down force. But with Germany s declining fertility rates, they had to give up on the idea because testing was too difficult. It's one of the reasons why they moved production to Romania.
It's funny that Le Mans will never let the Germans off for what they did in France
@@shianeruu4359 the 2 manufacturers with the most wins are German
@@pierrex3226idk, they seem fine in f1.
Man is slowly becoming a motorsport channel, and i fucking love it
I am so fucking here for it. He makes me care about Nascar and i couldnt care less about it lmao
it’s crazy how i grew up on this guy’s YTPs but as i grew and found different things (like the SAINT PEPSI vaporwave Mac Tonight tape), he would be on the same page (the Mac Tonight video). and when i got back into racing + sports and being completely obsessed with racing, i end up seeing Dale Earnhardt vids, NASCAR content, sports stuff etc. he must be the FBI agent that spies on me or something, because seeing him do all of this in real time while i’m also getting into it is almost eerie. but yeah, can’t wait until he covers more racing, ESPECIALLY when he does a Never Ever on Tom Kristensen, Senna/Schumacher or Sebastian Loeb/McRae.
slowly?
why are you all so passionate 😂
@@RatGangisMYusername why aren’t you? find a hobby and maybe you’ll understand
Well done . I absolutely love how you wrapped up the ending . Summarizing it in a beautifully worded monologue underscoring the grace of the spectacular disaster that unfolded . You touched on a much deeper facet of motorsports that few consider . We go to watch the races to see who wins and who crashes .
There's a great video by Chain Bear going into the technical details of how the car could flip like this during essentially normal driving.
The short reason is that they made the wheel base really short for aerodynamic purposes, but that allowed the car to easily rock forwards and backwards, and so agressively that the nose could actually pitch so far upwards that the entire floor presented itself to the air, building up pressure underneath the car and forcing it into the heavens.
You have it backwards. They made the car longer for aerodynamic reasons. The wheelbase was limited and shorter for handling.
@@asymsolutions as far as I understand, they made the car as long as allowed by the rules, but with a comparatively short wheelbase so that they could maximise the overhangs for larger diffusers.
@@namenamename390 no, it was to reduce turning radius and response for low-speed corners at a sacrifice of stability, you can still have a strong frontal splitter design as long as the tunnels can expand enough after the front wheels. This pattern and it's problems weren't limited to just the CLKGTR, the 911 GT1 had the same issues and flipped at Road Atlanta, McLaren long tail also had porpoising issues. It was a product of the late GT1 ruleset. I don't remember if the GT-one ever had the issues discussed publicly, but the GT-One never raced enough before the LMP ruleset kicked in for it to be noticed by just watching, and cars like the R390 and Panoz didn't run a long nose, the Panoz because of the mid-front engine packaging restricts and the R390 because of reasons that I don't think any of the Nissan Engineers at the time ever really discussed because well, it didn't perform well enough to gain attention.
BABE WAKE UP NEW EMP LEMON
Babe? Babe!!?.... oh yeah, I'm here alone.
I just let mine sleep...
She watched Shoeonhead without me so now we're even.
we love lemp emon
this comment is the modern day version of “first!”
NEW MOVIEEE
We are so close from Emp uploading “There will never be another F1 season like 2021”
I would argue that 2012 was better. How can you beat 7 different winners in the first 7 races? A titanic duel between Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari while teams like Mercedes and Lotus were also competitive, challenging the big 3.
It's been a hot minute since the last Never Ever. Wow, it's already been 3 years?
@@McLMP4-22for the sport sure but for a story that EmpLemon normally tells 21 really fits his format.
@@grantduerst8060I personally don’t ever see EmpLemon making a video about championships. Those stories are things the fans already know everything about. He makes videos about more specific and culturally impactful events/people.
that would be so hype omg, but that hole abu dhabi fiasco wouldnt really fit his style i think.
Probably the best video on TH-cam I've seen all year. Somehow emp is able to make me care about things I shouldn't. This video is art and poetic bravo emp.
F1 fans tend to think of Jackie Stewart pushing for safety improvements after his terrifying crash at Spa in Belgium in 1966 as the moment safety began to be taken more seriously. Though in reality, it was Le Mans in 1955 that was the true start of the safety push in motorsport. It was one thing for drivers to risk their lives, but after Le Mans 1955, they felt that involving members of the public, spectators in the grandstands, was where the line needed to be drawn. They didn't want to see the same scenes from that gruesome day. To quote from the BBC Documentary "The Deadliest Crash,"
"It was Motorsport's loss of innocence,"
The legacy of that day was a wall separating the track from the pit lane, the main grandstand was moved back, away from the firing line and the end of the Le Mans lap today is a set of chicanes.
Pierre Levegh's partner for the 1955 24hr du Mans was an american named John Fitch, who wasn't just a capable driver but also a prolific engineer. He too began to devote much of his time to improving safety in Motorsports and on public roads, developing countless safety systems for race cars and tracks, but his most well known invention are probably the Fitch Barriers found on almost every highway in the USA.
@@mrspandel5737 I notice they also use them at some race tracks in America, at pit lane entrances for example, like Indianapolis Motor Speedway (which has saved lives of racing drivers as well)
People seemingly cannot grasp the fact that auto racing is ummm.........DANGEROUS!
@@bobbys4327 of course, in 1987, NASCAR very nearly had a similar incident at Talladega where Bobby Allison had a tyre failure that sent his Buick Lesabre into a spin, the airflow pitched the airborne towards the crowd. By sheer luck, the car's front wheel hit the barrier before the car hit the catch fence, redirecting the worst of the momentum away from the crowd. To their credit, NASCAR took the near miss very seriously, deciding to not allow the cars to travel as fast as they did that weekend (Bill Elliott's average speed for his Pole for that race was 212.809MPH, a record that won't be topped, unless NASCAR decides to remove the restrictions on the cars at superspeedways)
While somewhat true, Jackie essentially changed everything about motorsports, 55 meant fences and pit walls, Jackie meant fire retardants, proper harnesses, tracks that didn't exist to kill someone (nord and old Spa), cars that weren't just a bath tub on wheels and a lot, lot more
55 probably made it safer overall, but Jackie made it so it could actually be classed as "safe" I mean, you have 16 before 66, and 16 after, that's 16 years vs 58, most of which being in the 70's, while he was still campaigning for some of the bigger changes
Also, Jackie was a driving force behind changes to the pit lane as well
5:48 they did not stop the race because they did not want everyone to leave the parking lots all at once and making a awful traffic jam stopping the fire trucks and ambulances from being able to get to the track.
I mean they should have the means to lock down the area for exactly this occasion?
@@SianaGearz Back then? They were remarkably unconcerned about safety at the time.
@@SianaGearz And risk people going "hows about nahhhh" and just walking through any barriers they try
5:21 notice the burnt corners in the frame.
that was from the film burning after the car struck it.
the camera literally filmed its own death.
nah the film is just old. The car didn't crash into that camera.
It was a magnesium fire I Doubt there would be film left if that was true
The car probably went directly over the camera person's head....or maybe through it.
But the camera musta missed the fire.
These analog films where extremely flammable. If it burns it burns entirely
So, that means, the camera man apparently CAN die
Man, this brought me back on rewatching/reviewing motorsport history. Also big ups for using Gran Turismo music too
Fun Fact: the original CLK GTR prototype was a rebody'd McLaren F1. After they wrecked it, Mercedes put it back together in its orginal state, painted it and sold it quietly at auction.. and no one was the wiser
That is a stretched truth. While they did used a rebodied F1 as a testing car, the CLK GTR was already a thing. The development of the CLK GTR began in December 1996 and was finished by Mid March 1997, and wouldn't you know, the test with the F1 was in March 1997. So no, that rebodied F1 wasn't the original prototype of the CLK GTR, the purpose of that test was to build a bodykit inspired by the '97 F1 GTR and see if its aero solutions were better than the CLK GTR's, it wasn't and Mercedes didn't used any of the aero modifications of that test, but they surely knew a lot more about Mclaren's car.
Fun fact: this video is on the CLR, a V8 LM car, not the CLK GTR, a V12 GT1 car.
I'm so terminally online that I saw the first sentence of your comment and thought it was the AI generated "Sure thing! Here's the information about the Mercedes SLR:"
@@stickman3214 the "CLR GTR" 😭
@@Starfire_Storm it's also a test mule so other teams can't copy their aero work.
It's insane how TH-cam documentaries like this can advertise motorsport better than the FIA themselves.
Yeah I have zero interest in sports typically but a video like this will have me hyper interested in the history of racing for at least a week.
@@CherryHotSauce Le Mans this weekend. Prepare your sweet bum hole for the 24 hours of goodness, if you decide to watch anyway.
what a way to get prepared for the ‘24 Hours Of Le Mans race!
Yes, PSA Le Mans this weekend!
PSA PMA Le Mans after the incident that was Spa youch
I love the “fire coming out of a monkey’s head” inclusion in this one. Stellar work. As always!
spending tons of time learning the bizarre lore over the course of months, this video was spectacular to watch
Wild Jameskii spotted 👀
oh shit hey man!
im just a car guy who loves german cars😂
it's the Russian larper
Love the demon days instrumentals. Add a perfect sense of epicness to it.
so true, especially how they're in order and fit the album's themes of hubris and disaster
I saw another documentary about the 1955 incident in which it was confirmed that at least 50 of the fatalities were due to decapitation. The airborne car landed directly on top of the crowd's unprotected heads.
Sort of, the car desintegrated upon impact leaving pieces of bodywork and its 8-Cylinder engine block to plow through the crowd
ZAPPA!!!!!!!!
I love that even when I've watched multiple other videos on the topic, some being almost double the run time. I still know I wanna watch Emp Lemons videos because the story telling is so good and he manages to captivate me every time
Hathorn dying in a crash while trying to pass a mercedes, is almost poetic. celebrating a le mans victory only because your competitor left the race after seeing so many people dying on the side of the track, is just horrible.
did Hathron not even give a tribute to those who died
These drivers were men who had served in WW2 and had seen terrible events only 10 years prior and seen many many people die.
They were not callous, they had been taught to get on with life.
If the authorities had stopped the race, there would have been no complaints from the drivers.
@FlickWith the media has portrayed Hawthorn very unfairly since the accident. In the immediate aftermath of the crash it is quoted by the jaguar team boss that Mike was in tears and saying how he'd never race again and that he'd killed all those people. Obviously then the show must go on so when he won, he looked visibly shaken but the moment he did break a slight smile the cameras got it and crucified him for it. He was a good man given trial by the media unfortunately
Poetic justice.
@@nathancorfield2609 thank you for this, its one of the things that hurts my heart most, how unfairly Hawthorn was/is treated for this accident
"It would be the last time the Phoenix ever raced. However, out of the ashes of the tragedy..."
Oh EmpLemon, you brilliant wordsmith you.
GT1 racing was so peak.
You never realize the good times until they've gone.
Squid a car youtuber has done three really good documentaries on the F1, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the CLR.
@@DevinEMILE the Squidd? Checking out his McLaren F1 vid rn
@@DevinEMILE Squidd? Enjoying his McLaren F1 vid rn
LMP1 were also amazing but most people will realize that in 10 years, writing comment like this. Spaceships.
Hypercars are great for competition though, times when brand could spend 250M annualy for one racing team are gone
The best part of GT1 was how BS and nonexistent the rules were.
Toyota essentially showed up to GT1 with a prototype race car with license plates glued to the front and nice upholstery, which, ironically enough, was called the GT-One, but whose real name, TS020, immediately gave away its lineage to the ill-fated TS010, a car so fast it broke its driver's ribs just by cornering.
The rules stipulated that to qualify as a GT1, a car needed to have a trunk compartment that could fit a suitcase in it. However, nowhere in the rule book did it say that said compartment had to only serve as the trunk. Toyota put a suitcase in the TS020's fuel tank. By the rules, it was legal. And it was allowed to race.
The racing gods did not take so kindly to Toyota's mockery of the regulations as the FIA did. The TS020, despite being faster, would fall victim to unreliability and freak accidents and never won the 24h in its two tries. Some would even say Toyota's punishment for their chicanery has never gone away, and their incapacity of winning the 24 against more than one factory effort is proof of that.
I think it's worth mentioning that the fire of the car in 1955 was insane in and of itself.
A fuel leak caused the fire to balloon in size, and the fire department didn't just have trouble putting out the flames: they were either misinformed or did not know that the Mercedes' chassis was largely magnesium (and had also hit melting point due to the heat). Therefore, they doused the car in water, and caused magnesium fire sparks to explode out over the remaining crowd and firefighters. Aside from the guillotine-ing of the crowd, this is probably the most horrific part of the disaster to me.
*Mercedes CLR gameplay:* "No problem! Here's the information about the Mercedes CLR GTR:"
*Mercedes CLR lore:* 17:13
What's the name of animtion
@@Ibrahim-e7m2j EmpLemon directed and worked with CGI artists to produce it just for this video I believe
2:37 my eyebrow involuntarily raised upon hearing you call them "jets"
Exactly
That version of Don't Get Lost in Heaven at the end was instantly recognizable and a great addition. Love it!
Wonderful as always. That mercedes horsless buggy in gran turismo 4 on the test track was a good childhood memory, thanks for including it
New EmpLemon video: good
New EmpLemon racing video: godlike
Spot on
"This was in fact, not bizarre." - Ron Howard
Mercedes-Benz: I've made a huge mistake
You should do a video on how Kenny Brack survived his 214g force crash at Texas. Highest g force survived by a human being and probably the worst racing wreck ever survived
Pretty simple, it was a fraction of a fraction of a second, and an athlete whose job is to take G's better than average
That and dumb luck
12:35 thank you dearly for reminding me of fire coming out of a monkey's head, such a lovely song
I didn't quite know which accident he meant at first until the name "Le Mans" came up. That got an audible "ohhhhh...." from me.
I just happened to find your channel through the recommendation of a mutual online and holy shit!!! I'm going to be binging your whole channel today, I fear. Love your stuff, thank you for the work you put into it :]
The first time an emp video has come out where I am pretty educated on pretty much every event that took place, yet the way he still finds a way to connect them in a new and interesting way always amazes me.
You are one of my favorite creators. Beautifully written, spaced, and themed. Keeps me interested from start to finish. I hope you are proud of the art you make.
You picked a great song in Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head by Gorillaz to use.
Mercedes kept on digging and digging ignoring all the warning signs with the CLR, until the Monkey had finally awoke
Another 10/10, Emp. Love the stuff, dude!
I’m guessing you’re a huge Demon Days fan. Same here
great song!
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities of all the songs haha
Brother 😂
Never in my life would I have expected to see Emperor Lemon covering a 24 Hours of Le Mans event. I was expecting some kinda TH-cam poop lol
Bro had a whole NASCAR arc though.
Bro hasn’t made a youtubepoop in years, at this point this is his style of video
Mf is frozen in time
Someone has a lot of good content to get caught up on
Mf were you frozen in carbonite for a decade?
Never stop making videos Emp. I’ve been watching your channel for over 10 years now and you’ve ascended to being the best video essay channel on YT.
I didn't expect your next video to be about Mercedes-Benz and their tendency to make their race cars fly at Le Mans, but I'm glad you made this video essay. As per usual, the writing and editing is excellent. I hope you'll do more videos regarding racing in the future, they're my favorites.
Bro
That moment of writing when the Mercedes went flying at 17:28, is just fucking beautiful. Spectacular writing.
Subscribed.
love your straight forwardness with mercedes-benz and their history, it feels like a lot of automotive history just skips over ww2, you're legendary dude
Not a lot of automotive history happened in ww2, they were kinda busy
Only trough conflict do cars evolve.
So if I made a video about the goofy Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, should I also dedicate several minutes to VW and their relation to Dr. Porsche and Hitler? Or if I want to talk about the terrible Chevy Chevette, should I also mention General Motors' involvement with the Nazis?
Not everything has to be boiled down to WWII and the Third Reich. This video could have started with Le Mans 1955 and the story would have played out the same. I'm sometimes concerned that people _need_ to see Hitler in everything.
I mean, the WW2 part isn't right. They built piston engines for propeller planes, the german jet engines were built by BMW and Junkers
@@md_vandenberg I think the WW2 stuff was used so he can use the "when Mercedes start flying" foreshadowing line as an overarching theme. I guess an artistic decision - for a lack of a better term (and if that doesn't sound too crude/callous)
Dude I quite literally think you have the best videos on TH-cam. You’re ability to captivate my full attention towards literally ANYTHING is unreal. Keep up the great work!
whats crazy is i’ve never watched a race, ever. Yet I keep watching these videos.
Edit: watched the Nascar race in New Hampshire. It was pretty good
You should change that. I recommend indycar best racing right now. If you like bikes motoGP
Try to find a replay of this year's Indianapolis 500. That was a fun race this year. Or, if you want something more chaotic and unpredictable, NASCAR's Atlanta race this year was spectacular
i wish LATAM had a racing scenes or most other countries in general
Literally same. I'm not even remotely a fan of any racing or sports and I just watched a fantastic video about Mercedes' 100 year curse and how failure truly is our greatest teacher.
Emp just knows how to tell 'em. He really can make anything interesting. :)
Fully agree with what the 2 comments above say. Indycar right now has a tight championship battle between the top 3 at the moment too 🔥
"When Mercedes start flying, it's usually a sign something has gone seriously wrong"
_Welcome to Los Santos starts playing_
Poetic.
Lmao, you mean "Benefactor"
@@stingysmailbox8209 he even references Shlag in the video, Shlagen GT
@@Bishounen My German is all but non-existent, but I'm guessing "shlag" means "strike":
Shlag Eins = Strike One
Shlag Zwei = Strike Two
Shlag Drei = Strike Three
Le Mans is a pretty wild concept. A car and its driver have to be perfect for a full 24 hours, something neither are designed to be capable of.
that's why it's the most prestigious baby!
oh they change the drivers no worries. I believe depending on the teams but usually they have 3 persons on a 3-4 hours rotation.
@@btfo420 I love endurance racing
Speaking of which, Pierre Levegh's most legendary accomplishment as a driver was his feat in the 1952 Edition of the 24h of Le Mans, where he singlehandedly drove his Talbot Lago for 23hrs straight before he retired with an engine failure just an hour away from victory. By that point he held a FOUR LAP LEAD over 2nd place. The team that inherited his lead was Mercedes, handing them a 1-2 Victory and their first at Le Mans
@wendyandgeoffpattison2610 They didn't in 2016 where one of them broke down on the last lap
How did the green Simpsons guy get so good at this shiet? Amazing minidocs you've been putting out lately. You really are one of the most unexpected developments on TH-cam I've seen.
TH-cam Poopers have excellent editing skills.
I'd agree that people who only watch for the crashes miss the point but I would argue that people who don't appreciate a good crash also miss the point
What is the point then?
@@MezzoForte4to understand why the crash happened in an effort to implement solutions to prevent it happening again.
Witnessing drivers at the top of their game operate the finest machines manufactured by some of the most brilliant engineers working today. Said machines must walk a tightrope, balancing reliability with power. @@MezzoForte4
@@vaulthecreatoralso the sheer spectacle of physics pushed to their limits on a heavy hunk of speedy metal.
Its one thing to "appreciate" a crash, but to say that you miss the point by not appreciating them is dumb. Crashes are a part of racing, but they are not "the point" of racing. They are something you always want to avoid because there are real people in those cars and they can get hurt. Yes the cars are safe enough nowadays that you dont usually have to worry about that, but i still hate to see bad crashes. I've seen enough of my favorite drivers' careers (and lives) get ended early, i don't want to experience that again.
"When Mercedes start flying, it’s usually a sign that something has gone seriously wrong"
As a WW2 history and racing history buff, I already know where this is going and that is a cold-ass line.
I remember seeing that Mercedes footage for the first time, and thinking it must be special effects or a stunt for a movie. It still looks insane 25 years later
The streets can't forget Mike Hawthorne - never raced without wearing a bow-tie, F1 world champion with Ferrari as a result of a his main competitor saying a penalty Mike was given was BS and he should be awarded the race win. He dominated every caregory he raced in and was renowned as a total gentleman
Emp making a video on this as the car becomes a meme has to be some kind of divine intervention
The downward spiral is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural
@@NyronGTor supernatural almost…
It's a meme rn?
@@toshido_yamada I guess it's the copypasta?
@@toshido_yamada Yeah, somehow posting an AI generated description of the car, albeit using the wrong name (because tik tok) became a meme
This is secretly a Demon Days music video and no one can tell me otherwise
Right?! 😂 The whole video I was like "hold on I know this..."
Can’t wait until you cover F1 history. I’m loving all the racing videos and there’s so many juicy stories and conspiracies that stem from it.
Without fail, I always tear up at some point during your videos. You have a certain skill for conveying emotion that is unmatched. Thank you for the content
18:29 IN THESE DEMON DAYS IT'S SO COLD INSIDE
Was not expecting that genuinely, really cool that it was added in
IT'S SO HARD FOR A PURE SOUL TO SURVIVE
@@_TSTFM_ YOU CAN'T EVEN TRUST THE AIR YOU BREATHE
17:33 that commentary makes me think. There is a reason ABC Wide World of Sports had the line "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" with the video of that epic wipeout of the skier.
Indy 500 this year: Josef Newgarden's reaction, vs Pato O'Ward's reaction.
>wakes up
>new emplemon
>immediately stops everything to learn once again about c a r s
edit: you can draw?!?! and animate?!?!? mein gott
Kachow!!!
Read the end credits in the video
@@rcube33 Ahhh I c now, still doesn't explain that drawing sequence since brian's labeled specifically as working on the cg scenes
cars are fascinating
@@weskerrebirth5849 True, but 18:49 says 'writing, voiced, and editing' not 'illustrator' or 'animator'. And usually 'editing' is for the medium (i.e. the video). So, it's probably editing with public domain somewhere else
Not 100%, but likely
This is so beautifly done, Emp. One of my favorites of yours by far