This is the big problem with those things; people have an idea developed over the years of how fast something “should” be going when it is too far away to judge reliably. Supercars violate the dynamic model of the world we have built up in our heads, and that is why they are so dangerous to everybody else.
The problem isn’t the super cars, it is the drivers. I can drive as fast and dangerous on the roads as a supercar in a Buick. (well, maybe not top speed, but I can do 50 in a residential, for an example.)
So if my Buick was going as fast as that super car in the mini-van vid, the results would have been the same.
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As the old trope says, the problem is with the nut holding the steering wheel. But the dynamic model is about more than just speed. If you see a car approaching an intersection at 30, you assume that it will maintain roughly that speed. The average car can’t change that by very much. If accelerated it might reach about 40mph. But, say, a McLaren could be going 70mph by the time it reached the intersection and the great majority of drivers would be completely unprepared for that.
That, and the supercar going 85 mpg in a 25 mph zone.
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I did not need a video to prove that one to me.
Sort of like this recent one in the news here: http://tucson.com/news/local/s-tucson-mayor-s-son-dies-from-crash-injuries/article_a8d8e5fc-91fa-11e5-8dd7-cba20cf8740d.html
At least it turned out as well as possible (idiot driver is dead and off road, other folks only suffered minor injuries).
You have to feel bad for the guy at 1:54. He was braking as hard as he could (locked up, could have benefited from ABS or proper braking technique) but there’s no way those drums are going to decelerate like some 15" carbon ceramics and 6-piston calipers.
When the two racers wiped each other out without impacting anyone else? You bet. The guy causing a pile-up while disappearing off into the horizon made me grind my teeth though. Unfortunately that’s probably one of the more common outcomes of high-performance car owners driving like assholes. No doubt they think they’re great drivers because “they’ve never had an accident,” too.
Ah jeez, that story. When they say, “died as a result of a six-vehicle collision,” they mean caused a six-vehicle collision. He wasn’t even wearing a seat-belt, given that he was ejected. And oh, that last line, “An investigation is ongoing to determine if factors other than the high rate of speed and failing to stop for the red light contributed to the collision”. I think that would pretty well cover it.
It is the cars. And the drivers. And the combination of car and driver. The cars being able to accelerate so quickly to such high speeds is inherently a problem that’s causing or exacerbating accidents, the drivers are stupid assholes (though we get into a bit of a tautology here with these kinds of cars and the assholes who drive them), the cars are also clearly making drivers over-confident in the handling abilities of the vehicle (that they might not otherwise have with another type of car).
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It’s about ethics in super-car operations.
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Well, they may have lost their multi-thousand dollar investment and be totally uninsurable, but at least all these drivers still have enormous di–oh, wait.
Well yes, their power makes it easier to abuse it, and for inexperienced people to screw up.
But again, if someone wants to drive like a normal person with a supercar, they will. And if someone wants to drive like a jackass in a sedan, they can.
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If the brakes are capable of locking the wheels, a different brake would not have a different outcome.
The point about cermet brakes is that they don’t fade (i.e. lose friction) as they get hot, so they can be used to brake repeatedly and frequently from high speed. A set of drum brakes will slow you down from 70 to 0 as fast as will cermet discs, other things being equal (tires, unsprung mass, wheel damping and your ability to control the pedal so as to be just on the edge of wheel lock). Once. After that you will need to wait for them to cool before you can do it again.
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Shadenfreude, dude. Why would we want to watch a mini-van doing anything…other than one loaded with five thousand plastic dildos being set on fire and shot off the deck of a nukular carrier into Donald Trump’s hair. Because if you can do that, let me get my video camera and maybe a few friends and maybe a few lawyers.
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Dude - you should audition for America’s Got Talent with that.
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It’s a monster called EGO.
Indeed, lucky one I am, if a lotus is a supercar 
Capable and allowed to drive one ones in a while. You can have your fun when you’re not bothering other people. And otherwise you can also drive normal, like taking care of yourself and other people on the road.
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Yep, it’s not the guns, I mean cars that are dangerous, it’s the gunowners, shit! I mean, the drivers.
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