Its all well and good building fast cars that might see track use here and there but dont skimp out on saftey people. Granted this is apples to oranges, Pikes Peak vs say a few LVD passes… but its still saftey one way or another.
Look at post 81 (http://forums.evolutionm.net/10157650-post81.html) where someone who races rally made a very good forethought suggestion, but the builder wanted to skimp on some cage features suggested to save a few lbs. Justification was they werent building a rally car they were building a time attack car that just happened to want to run for fun at PP.
Much like people building fast cars around here that might see a pass or two at LVD and skimp on DS hoops, scatter shields, cages, fuel cells, etc.
Page 25 picks up after the crash and lots of good information comes in to play from people doing this for a living. A few rally guys chime in with some polite “I told you so’s” that thankfully the builders understood it seems.
Stay safe people, plan accordingly when you build what ever you are building so you can enjoy the sport and more importantly your life if something god forbid were to happen.
Yeah, If you build a cage out of bamboo I am sure you can save a lot of weight.
Remember, you only need the cage when you crash, just like every piece of safety gear your wear, otherwise it is just a waste of money and space. :rofl
looks like KevinD is putting in alot of homework on this wreck and posted today that they are putting the design through stress testing software and from the sounds of it alot of good information will come from this.
+rep to him for realizing the downfalls, the luck from the wreck keeping the racers alive and for going the extra mile with the aftermath to hopefully save someones life at the next event.
Problems around the design were the B pillar support wasnt there, and much of the cage structure seem’d to be built around protecting the driver moreso. The pass side caved in and transmissed enough force into the car to tear the pass side floor out of the car, which the seat was bolted to. First off bolted in seats are frowned upon anyways I guess, but holy shit physics at work to be able to rip the sheet metal out from underneeth him! The worst parts of the navi’s side of the car’s design allowed the seat to come loose and his entire head and upper body was OUT OF THE CAR during the crash! Also both driver and navi had arms outside the structure while it rolled too, no nets or restraints. Lastly the door bars were designed for side impacts, IE road racing, not tumbling off course into trees, rocks or down a clif. X or Xx design aparantly would have helped alot too.
While they walked away, reconstructing it all along with the video proof shows it was 90% luck that kept them mostly in one piece and it fortunatly uncovered some serious design and specification flaws for the people running that race.
Yikes, that cage is by no means a legal rally cage in any sense. I may read that thread later but I’ll take a guess and say there’s going to be alot of input from people that don’t do this for a living so…
Last cage I built to FIA 253 specifications in an evo, and this is still missing a couple bars to be fully legal like vertical A pillar supports and foot protection(car still has oem HVAC and wiring harness making the last impossible to put in properly until it’s removed)
Also the seats in Erics car are not supporting on the factory floor rails either, but rather chromoly bars tied to the cage.
That entire event is getting really nutty and it’s due time for some serious regulation change. Paving the course destroyed the race IMO, but it’s also going to bring some downright blistering cars up the climb and unless they really start implementing mandatory regs people are going to get hurt bigtime. Luck doesn’t even begin to describe whatever was watching out for those men that day…
Its a good thread Adam. 2 guys in there build them for a living too, the first guy that said months back “you might want to put some bars here” does and chimes in very professionally for the most part after the wreck.
I am going to keep an eye out for the updates from KevinD on the post crash analysis thats for sure.
twas a great read