Trauma (Car Only)
10-01-2018, 10:32 AM
#1
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Trauma (Car Only)
This is what happens when you break a ball joint at speed
This was at Pueblo Motorsports Park yesterday. Fortunately, it was coming out of turn 7, the slowest part of the track. So I was only doing about 60mph or so. There were no other cars around me. And there was a nice spot of dirt of slow down in. Thirty seconds earlier I was doing 135 mph, and braking hard for turn 1. If it had broken then........
The car took a hard left into the dirt. I had to fight to keep it straight, I was worried it would get sideways and flip over. Once in the dirt, the drag from the tire turned the car to the right as as I slid to a stop, directly in front of the turn 8 flag stand. All the safety equipment worked as advertised. No fuss, no drama. Easy to fix. We used a cargo strap to hold it together, and drove it onto the trailer, and then into my garage.
As we were unloading the car, I heard the safety guys radio talking about heavy impact in turn 4, and someone was injured. I was thinking that I should quit what we were doing, and have the safety guy take me over there to help out. Moments later the ambulance guys are standing next to me!
He asked me, "Do you know where you are?". I said, "Yes".
This was at Pueblo Motorsports Park yesterday. Fortunately, it was coming out of turn 7, the slowest part of the track. So I was only doing about 60mph or so. There were no other cars around me. And there was a nice spot of dirt of slow down in. Thirty seconds earlier I was doing 135 mph, and braking hard for turn 1. If it had broken then........
The car took a hard left into the dirt. I had to fight to keep it straight, I was worried it would get sideways and flip over. Once in the dirt, the drag from the tire turned the car to the right as as I slid to a stop, directly in front of the turn 8 flag stand. All the safety equipment worked as advertised. No fuss, no drama. Easy to fix. We used a cargo strap to hold it together, and drove it onto the trailer, and then into my garage.
As we were unloading the car, I heard the safety guys radio talking about heavy impact in turn 4, and someone was injured. I was thinking that I should quit what we were doing, and have the safety guy take me over there to help out. Moments later the ambulance guys are standing next to me!
He asked me, "Do you know where you are?". I said, "Yes".
10-01-2018, 02:06 PM
#2
V8 Miata Enthusiast
Glad nobody was hurt.
Much safer than racing motorcycles, which I used to do.
So.....after having a bit of time to contemplate are you going to quit racing?
Much safer than racing motorcycles, which I used to do.
So.....after having a bit of time to contemplate are you going to quit racing?
10-08-2018, 10:03 PM
#4
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I tried to get the bolt out of the good one. But it was in too tight. Maybe they're over torqued?
Not a good design, IMO. I did not take them apart before installation to see what it was. This is something I have never seen before, and did not know it existed. Had I known what it was, I would not have installed it.
Just for fun, I'm sending the broken part and the good one to someone who can do a microscopic analysis to see why it failed.
I'm going back to a stock arm, and stock ball joints. But I will install spherical bearings in place of the rubber bushings. Spherical Bearings 1/4/18 ? Racing the Exocet
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