It just dawned on me to see what experiences people have had with cars (equipped with rollover protection) that rolled over.

The only car I've ever seen with my own eyes was a 89-91 CRX locally that rolled over on the road course at the end of the front straight. In his case, he was braking for the left turn after the straight when the rear end kicked out to the right. He tried to correct, but the back end kicked left this time. Tires dug into the ground and the car rolled.

I later inspected his car while it sat in his garage and noticed that his roof did not come into contact with his cage at all. In fact nowhere did his cage contact any part of his car, where it normally wouldn't.

FWIW, he has a 6 point custom, welded-in cage.

In your experiences is the shell of the car normally wrapped around the cage/bar?

 

I've seen a similar year CRX at a local gas station a few years ago that had apparently been rolled,
with only the A-pillar and top of the windshield areas showing any signs of the abuse.

Then again, one of the greats died recently at Road Altlanta earlier this year in a full safety equipped race car!

 

A yellow one at Thunderhill?

 

Here is what I have seen that I can remember offhand:

- Chevy Monza roll 4 times on its nose at Summit Point. Front and back were destroyed. Roof came down to cage but the cage was intact and undamaged. Car was replaced.

- GT Pinto rolled once and tagged the pit wall with both the front and back ends. Car crumpled up to cage in both the front and back (cage went through the firewall in the front). The roof was not really compressed. Car was rebuilt and raced again.

- Mazda RX-7 rolled in T4. Roof buckled substantially and front of roof was pushed down. Windshield was cracked.

- Mazda Miata rolled in 3 at VIR. All 4 corners suffered damage but the bar appeared to be unscathed.

- Volkswagen GTI rolled in T3 at Summit. Car destroyed. All glass broken out. Roof crushed to cage and back end crushed up to cage.

- Celebrity Challenge Neon rolled just before bridge at Lime Rock. Roof buckled and corners suffered damage.

- Celebrity Challenge Neon rolled same place by same driver the following season at Lime Rock (the driver was Alfonso Ribero from Silver Spoons and The Fresh Prince). Same damage as previous roll.

- Mazda Miata rolled in T10 at Summit. Roof buckled slightly. Front windshield cracked severely. Minimal body damage. Car ran later in the weekend.

Those are the ones I can remember seeing firsthand. There are more (27 years worth of races to try and analyze) but those are the ones that stick out. Cages do work exceptionally well - this is why I am such a big proponent of them.

 

There are an infinite number of ways that a car can be upside down and the same number of ways they will be damaged. I have seen...

** Cars that pop up in the air and come down hard on one or more corner - this usually caves in a corner and stresses the cage. In one of these cases, when the floor mounting bolts were undone, the cage went "boing!" and popped back into its original shape!

** A car that just tipped over and slid along the track on its roof, for the longest dang way. It ground through the sheetmetal above the windshield and into the "halo" bar of the cage.

** A rally car that pitched nose down off of a bank and into a huge tree, with the top of the hatch. Smashed the rear structure down to the point that it looked like an old VW Type II fastback but the car drove home.

** A couple of IMSA Renault Cup cars that rolled and collapsed the A-pillars and cage structure to the point that the driver was in serious danger. The tech people issued and required rolled gussets to be added to the bends (a la the triangulated door bars picture).

** A car that tripped in the dirt going sideways, jumped up, rolled over and landed back on the wheels. The suspension was damaged (not badly enough that it couldn't roll in under its own power) but we could not find ANY evidence that it had been upside down! Not so much as a scratch

Kirk

 

Someone post a link to Mark Vitacco's incident at VIR...

Scott

 

Where's civicrr.....?

 

Here I am! I rolled @ Sears Point in Feb. '01. The rear kicked left & I tried to save it. The front left went off & dug into the wet dirt. The car rolled completely in the air coming down on the passenger corner of the windshield. The car rolled 1 & 1/2 more times ending up on the roof. The car roof was 'ironed' around the cage. I escaped with a 1" scratch on my leg. The car was a complete total. Even if I wanted to fix it, it wouldn't have been worth it. The whole body was twisted. I can't find the pics. Anybody have them? Black #11 Civic coupe.