Anyone know any info on this vid. I really hope they had HNR systems on! At least there fire gear would be good as long as they were still conscious.

Just makes you think that all that safety gear is invaluable!

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/i...e.wmv

 

Red Flag all stations

 

OMG!

 

Hang on to that image any time you get involved in conversations about allowing increasingly faster cars in classes with IT-type safety requrements.

Funny thing about kinetic energy is that it increases with the square of the velocity. This means that a car with a top speed of 150mph has more than half again the amount of energy that has to be dissipated in an incident, than does one going 120mph.

Factor in here that we seem to be looking at some kind of vintage GT field - 935s on the front of the grid. Anyone who paid any attention to those cars when they were new knows enough to shudder at the idea of actually racing one. The cars in the incident look to be older 9XX's, too: Go to a Porsche Club race - like ran at the VIR GA weekend - and you'll see that it's very easy to get big performance without requiring more than a bolt-in cage and harness.

Very dumb sometimes translates to very sad.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hang on to that image any time you get involved in conversations about allowing increasingly faster cars in classes with IT-type safety requrements.
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K, is there any reference for Safety requirements that are higher than the standards most of us are using in a series like the Honda Challenge? I am curious to know how we can make our car even that much more safe. TIA

 

Wow!!! I wondering if everybody walked away... The corner workers in the tower , where they engulfed in flames also?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D.CACO &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">K, is there any reference for Safety requirements that are higher than the standards most of us are using in a series like the Honda Challenge? I am curious to know how we can make our car even that much more safe. TIA</TD></TR></TABLE>

At the end of the day, there are three basic choices where chassis construction is concerned - a stock tub car with a rollcage (a la IT), a specialty racing chassis (NASCAR), or something in between. The third option is the most expensive to build safety into because you are constrained by the tub - we used to call them "ship-in-a-bottle" cars, before the stock car paradigm came to TransAm and the GT classes.

A "real" racing chassis designed as an integrated system, with only limited compromises required to leave a hole in the structure for the driver. It's pretty easy to design something like a Nextel Cup car to cope with huge accelerations - negative ones, in a crash - in predictable ways.

Modern steel monocoque (unibody) production cars crush in predictable fashions, too but unfortunately, racers tend to want them to not squash themselves to protect the driver so we weld cages into them, that aren't really engineered into the structure.

If you want to REALLY understand where to go safety-wise, with stock-bodied racing cars, look to the WRC and FIA Touring Car series. Cage structure fully integrated into the tub, crushable composite side panels, and lots of other details.

The problem of translating that to our game is that those factory-supported teams have actual engineers designing their structures, and immensely talented people building them to exacting standards - all well beyond what is financially possible in Honda Challenge. Honda Cup? Maybe not.

The FIA specs tend to be written as performance standards (in g loads) rather than in terms of tubing sizes, because math, finite element analysis, and other engineering approaches will tell the teams what they will do before they are ever built. It's going to be tough looking at a cage at Willow some Friday evening, trying to figure out if it's going to meet the crash standards, but it's worth aspiring to.

K

 

Well said Kirk!!

Victor Penner

 

Take note of the structure BEHIND what we would normally think of as the "main hoop" of the rollcage



This wouldn't get a logbook in SCCA club racing because it doesn't have a diagonal in the "main hoop." It doesn't have the hoop either, but...

K

 

What is that machine it is sitting on?

 

OMG and those are some sick cars in the photos rally?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jisu009 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> What is that machine it is sitting on?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The steel gridded plate is a "bed plate" it is probably connected to a concrete block of the same outside dimensions and 3 to 5 meters thick.

IMHO It looks like the beginning of a structural deflection test to me. Getting ready to add the load cells and the hydraulics to drive the deflections... just an "educated" guess.

 

Kirk, does that design (the Focus) put the driver's/navigator's head at more risk? I'd imagine it would be a non-issue given that the seats would be very low and would most likely have those "grab-handle" things above the shoulder area (like yours, if I remember correctly).

 

I saw the Konami logo in the video. Does Konami have trackside signage on tracks outside of Japan?

 

someone posted that video on the S2000 board a few days ago....... supposedly both drivers were ok and supposedly the ferrari driver is sueing everyone.?? if you find the link there, you will see what people posted... they had quotes from japanese sources???

 

Wow! flagers?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Kirk, does that design (the Focus) put the driver's/navigator's head at more risk? ...</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's pretty common practice to put tubes by the drivers' heads in WRC, JWRC, and touring cars on the continent. I think the assumption is that, if your noggin is going to move far enough to hit something, there's going to eventually be something there for it to hit - whether it's a tube, a tree, another car, or whatever. They are padded of course.

Most (but not all) world-caliber rally guys do use seats with head restraints.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by oxstarsstripesxo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow!!! I wondering if everybody walked away... The corner workers in the tower , where they engulfed in flames also?</TD></TR></TABLE>
the way i understand it the porshce driver was OK and the ferrari driver was left in the car for over 90 seconds to burn in flames without help from the saftey workers. he lived but with severe burns. the saftey workers dropped the ball on that incident big time. you can even see the porsche driver struggling to get out of the car, while its still burning somewhat, and a saftey worker just standing there with a fire extinguisher.

 

My question is why the Porsche was carrying so much speed relative to the rest of the field on what seemed to be a warmup lap....

 

The video was posted twice on the MR2 forum and I believe I heard the Ferrari driver is now paralyzed.