Fernando Alonso kills two birds during Indy 500 practice

I have hit/killed at least 5 birds with a car... One of them during an autocross run.

I have been crapped on by two birds. Once on my face while riding a bike and once through a open side window of a moving car.

I AM WINNING

messiest one was when I got one with the antenna of a ford explorer...

A friend of mine is a mechanic on Alonso's car. He said the remnants were more bloody smears than feathers and carcasss.

Yesterday was just Rookie orientation day, so Alonso had to run up to but not beyond certain speeds, in steps to get up to an acceptable level before even being allowed to officially enter the qualifying field for the race.

Indy is a little tricky in that the car is setup to be low drag and that wall at turns 1 and 3 gets big really quick. The aero is basically left alone and small chassis tweaks are made to give some sense of 'comfort'.

The really messy racecar animal interactions are the coyotes at the proving grounds in Arizona. We did manage to turn a rattle snake inside out (front to back) with an Indy car a few years back.

That hit sure seemed to vaporize the birds. I guess 230 mph worth of momentum will do that.

At least there won't leave one mate wondering what happened to the other.

stroker wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

stroker wrote: The good: It's Orange. The bad: It's still the homeliest open wheel racing car of all time.

I thought it was just me.

Nope. You and all the empty seats at the 500 since 1995...

Haven't been to or watched the Indy 500 recently have you? Last year they had one of the largest crowds in history to celebrate the 100th running. The crowds have been growing every year, and are finally back to where they were before the "split".

And although I think the new cars are ugly. I still think these were the ugliest open wheel cars of all time.

Did someone say ugly open wheel cars?

Seriously just went poof

spitfirebill wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: It's hard to find "people" who are willing to argue in favor of pigeons.

Not really. The police departments in several SC towns used to have pigeon shoots in the downtown area once a year to thin them out. People raised hell so they stopped. As a person that often goes into abandoned buildings, I was not very happy. You haven't lived until you have gone into a building full of pigeon E36 M3 and bird carcasses.

When I was a young boy my grandpa had a building at his business that was infested with pigeons. He bought me a .20 cal Sheridan pellet rifle. This kept me entertained from the time I was 10 years old until 1973 when my dad bought me a '66 Mustang to fix up when I was 15.

Im bad at internetting. Someone please post the gif of Randy Johnson making that bird explode.

OMG a double bird kill! All the way! Wow! Oh wow! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?!?! T_T

STM317 wrote: Did someone say ugly open wheel cars?

I still laugh at and admire the honesty of this design. If you have to put a dick on the front of an F1 car and you give zero berkeleys about how it looks, this is technically, aerodynamically, the best way to do it.

spitfirebill wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: It's hard to find "people" who are willing to argue in favor of pigeons.

Not really. The police departments in several SC towns used to have pigeon shoots in the downtown area once a year to thin them out. People raised hell so they stopped. As a person that often goes into abandoned buildings, I was not very happy. You haven't lived until you have gone into a building full of pigeon E36 M3 and bird carcasses.

A couple of Ospreys and no problem.

i did that with the WRX. two birds with one car. still have feathers stuck to my intercooler and radiator.

I bounced a buzzard off the hood of my E150. I think that should count as more than one bird.

I have also vaporized a pigeon with a 87 Town Car. Looking in the rear view mirror, you would have thought I ran over a feather pillow.

Randy Johnson--- Hall of Famer--- Bird Killer. I saw him once at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. Damn--- he's a tall, lanky dude--- looked about 6'9" or something crazy--- was easy to spot, as he stood way above the crowd.

Randy Johnson kills bird

^How would the rules of baseball handle that? Maybe they'd call it a fowl ball?

well played sir!