Team-BHP - Dangerous vehicles that gained reputations as "widow-makers"

The 6th gen Ford Mustang can be a posterchild as a "widow-maker" in India (abroad too). It is relatively high powered and the back end can fishtail under acceleration especially on slick surfaces which caused careless owners to lose control and crash.

Dangerous vehicles that gained reputations as "widow-makers"-mustang.jpg

There should be a separate driving license/test for cars above 300BHP as there is for commercial vehicles. Also I expect a lot more cars to join this list considering the new normal in power-to-weight ratios and the performance democratization caused by EV's

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Originally Posted by V.Narayan (Post 5070456)

The most famous of these was the Lockheed Starfighter F-104 which the Americans forced through politics and bribes onto their NATO allies in the 1960s and 70s.

Too true! One of the most high profile bribe cases was the one where Lockheed bribed Dutch Prince Bernard, the then husband of Dutch Queen Juliana. Juliana threatened to abdicate.

It led to almost a constitutional crisis. Princess Beatrix, the eldest daughter of Juliana, told the prime-minister at the time she would not succeed her mum as queen unless the Dutch government managed to somehow limited the damage to her dad. It was a clear case of him having accepted huge amount of money, well over a million USD, from Lockheed. He was never prosecuted. As the Royal Prince, he was also head of the armed forces. He was demoted and he was never allowed to wear a uniform during official function. He was never charged though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals

I will say this for the French, they know what to do with Royalty, chop their heads off!! No mistake!!

Jeroen

Cars/Bikes should tagged a 'widowmaker' if they are a safety hazard due to technical reasons. Not because drivers who just have the money to buy, but no skill or temperament to handle it.

In India, the skill and temperament to handle a commuter scooter in narrow city streets itself is lacking let alone performance machines. The Mangalore fatal crash is just one of the million examples we see everyday.

As Niki coolly answers Marlene in Rush "There's no need to drive fast, it just increases the percentage of risk. We're not in a hurry, I'm not being paid. Right now, with zero incentive or reward, why would I drive fast?" Here's the video for your viewing pleasure :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kl0UBS4ZaM&t=180s

Can smaller displacement motorcycles be called "widow-makers"? Lots of deaths in motorcycle crashes involve young unmarried men, so their deaths don't technically produce widows. :D In fact, I'd like to classify all superbikes as widow-makers, because it's apparently the antidote for the Indian male's midlife crisis - that male, who has a 2-wheeler DL that he got by riding a Vespa or Bajaj, and his graduation to liter-class bikes often leaves him maimed / dead, with a widow mourning at home.

The true widow maker in India must be the 3-wheeler auto rickshaw of whatever make.

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Originally Posted by VKumar (Post 5070436)

Maruti Suzuki Esteem 1.3: UDAN or Udey Desh ka Aam Nagrik scheme was launched by government in 2017, but Maruti Suzuki made it happen in late 90s' itself. They gave you a car built like an aluminum foil with a 0-100 time of under 13 seconds, and a top speed of over 170 kph, back in 1999. All this at an affordable price. And everyone knows how horrific crashes we used to come across which involved the Esteem particularly. The car can virtually overtake everything else on the road those days, and was a favorite of the street racers too. Overtakes going horribly wrong was like a norm for Esteem.

Completely agree with you on the Esteem, my dad had passed away due to an accident on the esteem. And guess how? During an overtake. True word by word and this is the first car which came in my mind when I read the topic. :Frustrati

The car had really explosive performance and was very raw. But a papercup nevertheless.

The other vehicle I would remember is the Omni and Eeco. Really bad outcome if crashed.

I think the Suzuki Shogun had a pretty bad repo of being extremely dangerous. There were rumors running around that 8 out 8 first deliveries died in accidents.

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Originally Posted by jigar1791@gmail (Post 5070472)

..

But, how can we forget the infamous Mumbai local trains?
...

That said, I think we should stick to overwhelming cars/bikes in this thread.. otherwise the point will be lost. Even a knife or a stone is a widow maker. But does it deserve to be discussed here?

Widow maker is such a loose term folks, can be applied to almost all forms of mechanised transport. Barring contraptions with manufacturing/design faults, without the most important ingredient, the person riding/driving/flying or whatever, that contraption cannot become a widow maker!

All vehicles have their limitations, which the person using them should be aware of, exceed the limitations and it should be no surprise that we have a widow maker.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana (Post 5070512)

That's not just because it's too fast or too dangerous. Infact the Duke/rc 390 are extremely noob-friendly motorcycles.

Disagree.

The Duke 390 is dangerous combination of affordable, powerful and light-weight making it an extremely agile motorcycle. And due to this, I think its not really a noob-friendly motorcycle(until you only want to consider the CC and price).
A good experience is definitely needed to utilize this bike in proper and safe manner.

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They get the bad rep because they are affordable. Every ****** fellow can buy one new or used.

Affordable is a very relative term Sir. A group of people can afford a Duke while another group can afford a 10L bike, while some can go higher. Doesn't make one who can only afford the 390 a chappri.
I believe whoever rides without a proper gear can be called as a *******, Bike can be the Duke or Hayabusa, doesn't matter.

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And voila, give 45 bhp to someone who doesn't have much experience, results are no surprise.

So, in a way you agree that the Duke 390 is a widow-maker. :thumbs up

Within the Indian scene, the most prominent widowmaker is the Yamaha RD350. The first time I rode one, I accelerated hard (newbie mistake) and almost fell off! Blow-your-mind acceleration & intoxicating exhaust note, but little else. The brakes were terrible and its grip levels just couldn't keep up with the power on tap (lousy tyres?). Back in the day, people used to joke that if you crash on an RD, that's your last & final crash.

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Originally Posted by Aaroah (Post 5070557)

Good one. The Mustang's butt can and will slide. The loose rear end will catch out anyone who isn't used to high horsepower cars. Making matters worse is the shoddy 2-star NCAP report. Pretty sad for an expensive car.

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Originally Posted by Cyborg (Post 5070698)

There are inherently two categories of vehicles in discussion:

1. Uber-powerful machines with a limited run, which were primarily sport/track oriented and were purchased by enthusiasts for the occasional run. These machines demanded complete commitment during driving and were not meant for the average driver/rider/family man. Did anyone ever use a Carrera GT or a 997 for commuting?

2. Mass-produced death machines which were sold as family cars. These were purchased and driven by everyone - right from Pro rallyists and racers to newbie drivers with mediocre skills. This is what made them lot more dangerous than all the other exotics mentioned on this thread. Of late, we've seen how most cars these days are exceeding the 100bhp/ton mark - just how many would be experienced enough to handle the power of a 1.4 Turbo Petrol if things go south?

3. Motorcycles are dangerous, however sedate or wild their engines might be. I won't bring up the motorcycle debate here. I was once a hardcore rider and I have seen and experienced it all.

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Originally Posted by iamahunter (Post 5070707)

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The Duke 390 is dangerous combination of affordable, powerful and light-weight making it an extremely agile motorcycle. And due to this, I think its not really a noob-friendly motorcycle.

Affordable is a very relative term Sir.

So, in a way you agree that the Duke 390 is a widow-maker. :thumbs up

Disagree here.

Let's understand "widow-maker" first. It's a ride that is dangerous to "most" riders and drivers. Now coming to Duke 390, it's a fantastic piece of engineering, with excellent dynamics.

It has large powerful disc brakes, ride by wire tech, Slipper clutch, dual channel ABS, sticky metzeler tyres. It's very hard for an average sane rider to mess up with the Duke.

While, a real widow maker, like the RD 350, which was way powerful in its time(even today its fast), without any real stopping power or aids, was one dangerous motorcycle for most of the average riders. One had to be very experienced to ride a RD350 and not feel intimidated.

Affordability is definitely relative. But mass Affordability is something that can be generalized.

A 8 lakh rupee maruti is affordable to majority of the mass and so is a 1-2 lakh rupees motorcycle. A new 150cc motorcycle costs 1.5 lakh rupees. Many youngsters jump the gun and go ahead to buy an used Duke 390 with the same kind of money. And hence I used the term that its affordable.

The reference of skill level is average & sane when I am choosing which rides are widow makers.

For the inexperienced, stupid riders, a TVS 50 can be a widow maker, just like how a maruti 800 can be a widow maker to an inexperienced stupid driver who overspeeds with it.

The Chevrolet Corvair had developed a reputation for it's scary handling.

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In his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader called the Corvair “the one-car accident.” He wrote that a design flaw in the rear suspension made the car likely to flip over when driven in abrupt maneuvers, like, say, avoiding a ball that suddenly rolled into the street.

Source: https://www.hagerty.com/media/videos...vair-kill-you/

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Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana (Post 5070830)

For the inexperienced, stupid riders, a TVS 50 can be a widow maker, just like how a maruti 800 can be a widow maker to an inexperienced stupid driver who overspeeds with it.

Its similar to saying sleeping on the foothpaths of Mumbai is a widow-maker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana (Post 5070830)

Now coming to Duke 390, it's a fantastic piece of engineering, with excellent dynamics.

It has large powerful disc brakes, ride by wire tech, Slipper clutch, dual channel ABS, sticky metzeler tyres. It's very hard for an average sane rider to mess up with the Duke.

Makes is sound like the BMW GS's or the H2R's with a lot more safety features should not have any accidental deaths.

While I agree that these safety feature are very very important and helpful to prevent accidents, they will not work on their own sir. A correct and "timely" use is very necessary.

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Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana (Post 5070830)

Let's understand "widow-maker" first. It's a ride that is dangerous to "most" riders and drivers.

While widow-maker is a medical term, here we are using it as kind of a slang.

However, It can be loosely related to the medical behavior, where-in a machine suddenly/un-expectedly behaves erratically and looses control.