He's on the big track at Willow Springs, he could have been going even faster!
It's interesting to see is arms waving around. That really demonstrates the reason why many drivers use arm restraints.
At least it wasn't a real Cobra.
I have seen quite a few cars/drivers fail tech inspection because their head/helmet out higher than their little roll hoop behind their head. This video shows they are almost worthless unless you land on your top or have a true 5 point harness that will keep you in the seat. Glad he made it out alive.
This is why I am not a fan of kit cars. He's more than lucky, that thing should have killed him.
Steve,...why is this a kit car at fault? I am not disagreeing....I really want to know why? Thanks My guess is poor suspension tuning? Not sure though.
This is why I am not a fan of kit cars. He's more than lucky, that thing should have killed him.
Steve,...why is this a kit car at fault? I am not disagreeing....I really want to know why? Thanks My guess is poor suspension tuning? Not sure though.
Usually they are poorly built, poorly designed and not crash tested.
But at 130mph not a whole lot other than luck will save you. If he hit a wall he would have been dead.
MOst kit cars are just fine. It's the person doing the assembly that's usually the problem IMO. If they were crash tested I doubt any of the kit cars would pass.
Then it would be mandated to include all the safety stuff in the kit, then the prices would go through the roof for them, then people wouldn't install the stuff anyway, then we'd be in the same place as we are now. Except the kit car hobby would take a huge kit because of crazy costs.
"But at 130mph not a whole lot other than luck will save you. If he hit a wall he would have been dead."
At 130 MPH he could be driving a big rig and the same thing applies.
I guarantee you if you were driving my car or a big Merc you could walk away from a mega crash like this and you probably wouldn't have rolled. But then production cars rarely have suspension parts break.
It's all academic, some crashes are just not survivable and others are. This guy was LUCKY!
I have a replica car and it has cost me a ton of money to try and update the suspension to be safe and handle like a modern car. The kit car guys do not test or sweat the details like the OEM's do, and it really shows in a wreck.
I really don't think that the kit car is to blame, but obviously can't say for sure. After all, how many Cobra kits are out there and getting flogged on a routine basis? True, while kit cars don't have to undergo the same rigors as an OE auto maker would, this particular kit model (not necessarily the maker) has been around the block (or track as it may be) once or twice with few major design related failure as I understand it.
One thing that most all of us can say for sure is that we need more details before we can make an accurate assessment of what went on. We can say with a high degree of certainty is that if he were a cat, he'd just used 8 out of his 9 nine lives...
What amateur race cars are as safe as a full sized sedan? Is a kit car any less safe than a factory car that's stripped and heavily modified?
Isn't racing about the defiance of danger? Being on the edge?
It's not about driving your Volvo 240 around the countryside on Sunday afternoon.
I guarantee you if you were driving my car or a big Merc you could walk away from a mega crash like this and you probably wouldn't have rolled. But then production cars rarely have suspension parts break.
It's all academic, some crashes are just not survivable and others are. This guy was LUCKY!
I have a replica car and it has cost me a ton of money to try and update the suspension to be safe and handle like a modern car. The kit car guys do not test or sweat the details like the OEM's do, and it really shows in a wreck.
Yeah I have seen Merc's and Porsche's roll and not do a lot of damage. If your buckled in your going to be fine.
But the Germans are OCD with high speed crashes since the chances of it happening on the Autobahn are pretty good.
Kit cars are...well most would probably not pass US or Euro crash tests to well. I have seen some really good ones, and I have seen some where the welds looked like out of a freshman shop class.