Might be something relevant to countries where they have high speed roadways, but honestly, I doubt there's a car out there that could maintain any sort of integrity in the driver area for such a catastrophic stop. Most of the vehicles in the second video just disintegrate.

Heck of a thing to have on the resume though... "I fuck up cars for a living".

For spectators, maybe, but most off road racing has more high speed excitement, it's just much harder to film through the dust.

High-speed urban kayaking has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo on that post.

It's been my experience that it's kind of a myth that in Europe there are no or high speed limits. In fact at the 5 sec mark he blows past a men working sign and a speed limit sign of 30 kph. I kind of think he was doing a bit more than 30k. Also he blows past the construction site the split second before he almost hits the Mercedes. The Ferrari driver is a douche who would have gone to prison if he'd hit anybody and caused a death.

I think what's happening is that the cops see this stupid criminal behavior day in and day out, they risk their lives, and the lives of innocent people are risked, and nothing really happens to the criminal. I mean, he goes to court, or skips court, or gets a fine, or gets sentenced, then goes to jail perhaps, for a week, or a month, and it's not really punishment. It's 3 squares a day, and basketball, so the cops feel like, hey, let's tune this bastard up a bit, maybe next time he'll think twice before doing something stupid.

Now, I'm just speculating, but I bet there's a good chance this is what happens. For instance, a few weeks ago I got into a vehicle pursuit of a woman who was passing bad checks halfway across the country, we chased her for a good 10 miles at pretty high speeds. She finally gave up, she goes to jail, it's a non-violent crime so the judge gives her a court date and lets her go. This fucking broad was homeless. We'll never see her again. And all those innocent people on the interstate, and the cops chasing her, took chances on physical injury trying to bring her to justice. We brought her to justice but the court just opened the door for her.

There's some debate on the exact phenomenons at play and their extents, but the gist of it is correct, it's not like they have "no idea" how it works. An airfoil moving through air (or any other fluid, same principles work in water as well) generates a higher pressure below it and a lower pressure above it, which results in lift. This can be done even with simple flat plank by using angle of attack, or more effectively if you shape it like a good airfoil. Similarly the wings in racing cars do the same thing but flipped upside down, pushing the car down to the ground (though exploiting underbody aerodynamics can be much more effective if regulations allow it).

The only thing that really bothered me in the video was the insistence on the angle of attack being required for lift. Some planes are so light and have wings that produce so much lift (due to size and shape), that at high speeds they actually need to have negative angle of attack to fly level. If the plane didn't point down a bit it'd just keep climbing higher and higher.

Seems to be a common theme lately, decent models etc, but the animation is in slow motion. Tie fighters and planes should be screaming around at high speed but seem to be inching (and don't get me started on the slow ass laser bolts).

But hey, I couldn't even begin to do something like this so the artist is miles ahead of me. Still fun to watch.

Great! But how does it do with large side forces, like cornering at high speed? If they do well, perhaps this is a way to eliminate suspension in electric vehicles, reducing weight but keeping a smooth ride. That would be a big leap forward!
I've seen something similar with maybe 20 curved 'spokes' (looking like a turbine from the side) that was tunable, made harder or softer by adding/removing 'spokes'. The issue with them was the spokes created lots of resistance...like turning a turbine.

Yes, but that (up to and including a completely blown engine) is generally seen as preferable to careening at high speed into a large object like a tree, overpass, or another car. And/or the near misses, scrape damage, and missing wheel seen here.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Hamster-in-a-high-speed-wheel

Hamster in a high speed wheel has been added as a related post - related requested by CrushBug.

A couple of points.
1) several people stated that the truck driver sped up to keep her out. There is no proof of that. There is proof of a decreasing amount of space between the truck and the vehicles ahead of him.

2) The truck in which the video is being shot from appears to be a semi and not a pickup. You can not expect them to speed up or slow down like a passenger car.

3) The vehicles in front of the truck appear to be slowing down due to conditions in front of them, causing the decreased distance between the truck and traffic in front of him.

4) Even though the audio is not that good, there does not appear to be a change in the engine noise to indicate that the truck driver was speeding up to keep her out.

It appears to me that several vehicles in the slow lane saw that there was a semi in front of them that they wanted to avoid. They saw the space in front of the semi in the high speed lane and decided to occupy it. They then passed on the right hand side of the truck.

*warning legal mumbo jumbo*
Straight from the State of Texas Statutes and Legislation web page
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TN/htm/TN.545.htm

Sec. 545.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Pass" or "passing" used in reference to a vehicle means to overtake and proceed past another vehicle moving in the same direction as the passing vehicle or to attempt that maneuver.
------------------------------------

Sec. 545.057. PASSING TO THE RIGHT. (a) An operator may pass to the right of another vehicle only if conditions permit safely passing to the right and:

(1) the vehicle being passed is making or about to make a left turn; and

(2) the operator is:

(A) on a highway having unobstructed pavement not occupied by parked vehicles and sufficient width for two or more lines of moving vehicles in each direction; or

(B) on a one-way street or on a roadway having traffic restricted to one direction of movement and the roadway is free from obstructions and wide enough for two or more lines of moving vehicles.

She was passing on the right by their definition and she did it illegally The truck being passed did not meet the requirements to legally allow passing on the right.

Seeing the video and having read the appropriate law that applies in this situation, It is my opinion that the driver of the passenger vehicle was at fault.

Regardless of the actual rules, they are both crazy.

The truck driver for intentionally taking away the room (see the sudden reduction in space with the car in front between seconds 15 and 19).

And the merging driver for not cancelling her action when she must realize it's not going to work (when she has merged half a lane it must have been clear that whatever was going to happen next, it was going to be problematic).

(she drives a great car though (especially the tires), getting shoved sideways by a truck at high speed but recovering apparently without major difficulty).

High Speed video of Canon DSLR Shutter - Smarter Every Day has been added as a related post - related requested by Zawash.

Ultra High Speed Video of Nikon D3 Shutter Action has been added as a related post - related requested by Zawash.

And that's why you have a slowest "flash sync speed" - if you shoot at faster shutter speeds than the flash sync speed (typically 1/200s-1/250s), the whole sensor wouldn't be exposed at once, and the lower part of the frame would be dark.
*related=http://videosift.com/video/High-Speed-video-of-Canon-DSLR-Shutter-Smarter-Every-Day
*related=http://videosift.com/video/Ultra-High-Speed-Video-of-Nikon-D3-Shutter-Action