knockhill crash
Discussion
Glad to hear they were ok, but car looks a total write off.
the danger of track days i guess.
http://forums.twobrutal.com/showthread.php?t=14620...
the danger of track days i guess.
http://forums.twobrutal.com/showthread.php?t=14620...
Well that was me wrecking my car. Was too fast to be scary, and after a few of my biking experiences, it was rather unscary, big tribute to the strength of the design and chassis build. Worst injury was my daughter breaking a toenail, and thankfully within an hour she was asking how long it wouild take before we could be back on track. As for what went wrong, it is still to be decided, some of the bits are off to Ted and co to scrutinise, but suspension failure was my initial thought but another theory has been that the rear clip opened, but a post-mortem will hopefully reveal all. The front chassis of the car is pretty intact, although most of the rear suspension mounting flanges are badly deformed by the impact. Have to say I am glad that the bash happened on track with no other traffic coming the opposite way, and that I didnt have any head-on impact. It's what I built the car to do, and I'm glad I achieved all my aims with the car, 200mph, the ring and a huge amount of fun on track.
All that matters is you are both safe....
if there is a component failure it will be very differcult to find it after a crash like that and very differcult to prove as well.. Most crash evidence relies on telemitry or camera photos and video...I dont suppose you had incar video at the time???.
if clip came open you would have to have been on your first lap and the first chance of high speed..
Again glad you are safe... you can rebuild a broken car but not always the occupents..
Dom
if there is a component failure it will be very differcult to find it after a crash like that and very differcult to prove as well.. Most crash evidence relies on telemitry or camera photos and video...I dont suppose you had incar video at the time???.
if clip came open you would have to have been on your first lap and the first chance of high speed..
Again glad you are safe... you can rebuild a broken car but not always the occupents..
Dom
Very little video is available, might be able to get some from the officials at KH to look at but don't know. There are some scuff marks on the back but they are not severe and rather random in direction. It was about 20 laps into the session, all I can say happened is that the car was going straight, flat out and then something let go and through me immediately off backwards into the tyres.
If a clip comes open it rips the gas struts off then goes vertical with the back first digging into the road then lifting the rear wheels of the ground so there would be significant 'flat-spots' on the clip. If it just flew open and ripped off in one move then it would be up the track aways from you impact point. Looking at the photos the clip is covered in trackside mud in the same way as the car so my CSI is that the clip was not the culprit.
Steve
Steve
Very glad to hear that you are both ok. It will be interesting to find out what happened. It seems lately that there has been a lot of problems with suspension on track day cars. I am getting a designer at work (I am an aircraft engineer) to model the back of the car in a CAD package called CATIA. Once done I will run some stress analysis on the rear suspension and come up with some load results. It is very difficult towork out what the road loads would be, but it may show up weak areas...
Again, glad to hear you are both ok. Are you planning to repair her?
Mart
Again, glad to hear you are both ok. Are you planning to repair her?
Mart
By a lot I mean there have been 3 or 4 incidents in the past 6 months where people have had suspension damage, like bent supports or broken wishbones. I will be putting my car on the road at the end of this year, so if there is anything I can do to prevent this happening to me, then I think it is worth investigating. I must add that it only seems to be track cars that have any problems, but I don't want to take any chances. Just my own opinion.
Mart
Mart
Tim - Glad to hear you & the little lady are both fine! Also, it doesn't seem to have dimmed her enjoyment of fast cars.
Steve, I know what you mean about the rear clip but if it has opened due to a latch problem (ie not left entirely open by mistake) it would possibly behave rather differently if suddenly exposed to a 130mph jet stream rather than a low speed opening (40ish mph) Unfortunately it appears to have been ripped off either by deployment or impact so it will show damage either way.
Tim, what makes you think the rear clip opened? Eye witness?
Anyhow, good luck with the re-build and I hope your back out there soon.
Paul.B
Steve, I know what you mean about the rear clip but if it has opened due to a latch problem (ie not left entirely open by mistake) it would possibly behave rather differently if suddenly exposed to a 130mph jet stream rather than a low speed opening (40ish mph) Unfortunately it appears to have been ripped off either by deployment or impact so it will show damage either way.
Tim, what makes you think the rear clip opened? Eye witness?
Anyhow, good luck with the re-build and I hope your back out there soon.
Paul.B
I am told someone saw the clip come open but my copilot on the pit wall says he thinks he saw something fly out of the rear before the car spun. Hard to say, but will try to keep an open mind. I know the clip was secured before returning to the track as I stopped just before the pit lane to get out and click the latches. I will be very interested to hear Ted's view but it may not be possible to give a conclusive report on what i have sent down.
eliot said:
Davrianman said:
I must add that it only seems to be track cars that have any problems, but I don't want to take any chances.
An Ultima is a track car though?They will certainly make sure there is not a design floor as cars get quicker and quicker and tyres stickier.....Were you on Kumos???
The car is advertised as a road car but with race pedigree and a trackday car with plates so if it is found its not upto the job the Ultima factory will react otherwise sales will drop...
Dom
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