Video: Sauber-Mercedes C11 suffers terrifying tyre blowout at Le Mans

Well, imagine no more as we jump on board the C11 of Group C racer and promoter Bob Berridge as he skips and bounces down the haloed French Tarmac at breakneck speed during qualifying for 2012’s Le Mans Legends race. Knowing what we know, that creeping sense of catastrophe feels very real, doesn't it?

The blowout itself is over in seconds, meaning this three-minute video is plenty long enough to let the sense of dread build like the shower scene in Psycho. We know something awful is about to happen; we just don’t know precisely when. 

Whether it's the three-decade-old car or the decade-old camera filming it, the sense of speed is rawer than you’ll ever experience in contemporary footage, giving us a visceral sense of just how much energy is going through the Merc’s soft rubber contact patches. 

And then – bang – it happens, at exactly the point we don’t want it to, skelping down the Mulsanne straight as the needle nudges through 300 clicks. The C11 looks like a superbike in the throws of a tank slapper as it pinballs from left to right, threatening to send man and machine spearing into the barrier. 

It’s a testament to Berridge’s skills that the whole experience is almost a non-event. A series of lightning-quick but gentle steering corrections bring his iconic steed back into line before he carefully chaperones it back to the pits. 

It's a reminder of what makes motorsport so captivating. You can pre-write the results of a race in your head as much as you like, but the fact is, at any moment, something can happen that turns that story flat on its head.

Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: On-board the Czinger 21C’s record-breaking FOS assault