Racing always involves taking quite a bit of risk as something could go horribly wrong in the blink of an eye. Mick Mansour learned that lesson the hard way after crashing a Nissan GT-R last month in Australia during the 2022 GT-R Challenge held at the Cootamundra Airport. It was the first crash in the 14 years the event has been held, and easily one of the scariest accidents involving Godzilla. Thankfully, the driver lived to tell the story.
The car technically rolled over 11 and a half times since it ended with its wheels facing the sky. How did it end up there? We can see Mick struggling to keep the GT-R in a straight line by correcting the steering while the high-powered machine was beginning to pull him toward the grass. Confident in his ability to tame the beast, he pressed on. However, it all went south when one of the tires touched the grass. The next moment, he was going sideways at about 270 km/h (168 mph).
The front-right tire exploded and there was nothing he could do to safely stop the car. Mick admits he thought he would die that day. He actually had a bad feeling about the run prior to the accident but decided to ignore his gut and race the GT-R anyway. That could’ve cost him his life, and yet here he is, explaining the horrible accident.
He was rushed over to the hospital where the doctors repeated the MRA scan since they couldn’t believe he was ok. When they got back with the results confirming he had escaped unscathed, the doctors told him it was a miracle he survived with no broken bones and only some bruising. He was allowed to go home the same day to see his wife and kids.
Built for drag racing, the GT-R was making around 1,500 horsepower on E98 fuel. It was actually detuned from 2,100 hp as that proved to be too much to handle. As it turns out, those 1,500 horses were still too wild to tame. Thankfully, the Nissan was fully prepped for drag racing and the driver wore a helmet that most likely saved his life.
He admits rolling over 11 times was a traumatic event that gave him nightmares, but he’s not giving up on racing. With this video, Mick wants to emphasize the importance of safety gear: roll cage, helmet, harness, etc. As for the car, they were able to save the engine, gearbox, differential, two wheels, and many bits from the interior, including the nitrous bottle.
Source: Motive Video / YouTube