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

Quote:

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj (Post 5070405)

However, what makes the Carrera GT earn the 'widow-maker' tag is the lack of safety equipment. While the car itself is brutish to drive and highly temperamental, the further lack of basic safety features such as traction control and ABS make it that much harder to drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSO (Post 5074100)

Sorry, have to disagree on this one. The Ferrari F40 & F50 also don't have traction control or ABS. That's not what makes it hard to drive.

The "no traction control or ABS" myth is so well rooted with the Carrera GT.

The Carrera GT does have both traction control and ABS.

See the attached pictures.

It's also not unusually hard to drive for the period it's from. The "clutch thing" that's parroted around is overblown. In real life, it takes just a minute to understand how the clutch works and then you get used to it.

There are cars with much, much harder controls: as an extreme (and contrived) example, the Alfa Romeo 8C from the 1930s. In fact, the F40 is much "harder" to drive well than the Carrera GT. And like SSO said, it's not because it doesn't have traction control or ABS (which it truly doesn't, unlike the Carrera GT), but because of the unusually significant physical effort and coordination its pedals, shifter, and steering require. In contrast, the F50 is a peach to drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcussantiago (Post 5073826)

I'm late to this party but let me quickly point out that there is no such statistic on fatal motorcycle accidents in India. This means you are entering libel territory by throwing this fake figure around.

Spot on. Stole my words. I was wondering where did that claim from and how did it appear on t-bhp?

Certainly we have scoops here but an independent guy doing nation wide research on deaths caused by riding certain brand of bike and then publishing the summary of that research as a passing remark on a thread? No sir, no way.

It appears it is a direct copy-paste from here: https://www.drivespark.com/two-wheel...on-014621.html

This is the only article I found which blatantly makes these claims.
I have seen this site for the first time and no idea how credible or certifiable it is. The author probably watched Instagram reels and came to the conclusion.

Bajaj has indeed sued FB pages/people for false claims:

https://www.rushlane.com/bajaj-files...-12158999.html

http://gaadiwaadi.com/bajaj-files-ca...s-dead-321812/

In any case, as rightly pointed out Dukes (or RE twins for that matter) hardly qualify for the label widow-makers. Both of these bikes have been lauded for their capabilities at the price they are offered.
The Duke 390 which is getting bad name here is a popular beginner bike and recommended for first timers across the west. If people are crashing and dying in India, the blame is on riders and their riding style and not inherent faults of the bike.