Scooter off a cliff...

[EddieStone]

I was watching Quadrophenia the other night, and as Sting's GS smashed to bits on the rocks below the cliffs, I wondered how fast it was going. Then I wondered how high a cliff has to be for my scooter to go faster than it already does.

So here are the calcs. Some assumptions - no air resistance as none of the cliffs are very high, and a scooter (even a GS) is compact enough for it's weight.

So assuming that Sting's GS was thrown off Seven Sisters cliffs, which are 77m high (according to Google), Stings GS would have been travelling close to 38m/s or 85mph.

For a scooter to exceed 50-odd mph, the cliff must be higher than 25m high, and if you want to get it to go faster than 70mph, the cliff needs to be higher than 49m.

So there you, when you hear the expression, 'He'd have only gone that fast by throwing it off a cliff" you know roughly how high the cliff's got to be.

I'm so looking forward to the end of COVID restrictions....

[wintermod65]

if it was filmed going over beachy head or near it he height there is in the region of 160 metres .

there are rocky outcrops at the base of the cliffs there adjacent to the beachy heady lighthouse , like where the scooter lands in the film .

beachy head is a well known suicide spot too i dealt with several incidents there when i was a Coastguard watch officer at the rescue coordination centre at Dover

[EddieStone]

I always thought it was Seven Sisters. It would be long way for him to ride from Brighton to Beachy Head in the state he was in.

[nick b]

alot of quadrophenia was shot at eastbourne also did you see the error in the film with the vespa?

[Daggs]

alot of quadrophenia was shot at eastbourne also did you see the error in the film with the vespa?

I think you mean errors..................

[wintermod65]

I always thought it was Seven Sisters. It would be long way for him to ride from Brighton to Beachy Head in the state he was in.

thats why he took the Vespa , a lambretta would never had made it without breaking down !!!


(im a lambretta owner too winter model / TV 175 s3 but can laugh at self too )

[nick b]

for anyone that doesnt know look at the fly screen when it goes off the cliff from what i understand from my mate that was there at the time they had about 8 vespas lined up at the time and it went off the cliff so fast it nearly hit the helecopter filming

[Burnside]

Splat calculator;

https://www.angio.net/personal/climb/speed.html

[southernick]

The GS went off very closely to the Belle Tout lighthouse. When I lived down there it was a bit of a mecca for mods to come and view. I guess it is Seven Sisters as well as Beachy Head. As Wintermodel says it was sadly a suicide hotspot. I worked at the local MH hospital and sometimes help care for the poor souls who survived. Because people often used their vehicles to go over the cliff this meant there was often debris on or at the base of the cliff. Although I never saw it many people said Stings scooter was left at the bottom. I also heard the story about the helicopter.

[czeckson]

it was no GS - it was a Rally (because at the time filming several GSs were not available)