I wrecked my car

Wess-RA · #1 03-03-2009, 05:40 PM

I went through the SCCA school this weekend. Good news is that I had the fastest times in both dry and wet weather. Thanks to a great car. The bad news is what happened on the last race session. I was pushing the car into the final turn before the straight, in order to get the momentum I needed to pass the car in front of me who had been holding me up. That would have put me into 2nd spot, ready to take the 1st car. (the school started me in 4th position even though I had the fastest times in the morning, just to make the driving more interesting) It was the hardest rain of the day; the car in front of me wiggled, unfortunately I did my thing to the right, the next car (RX3) went left, the driver who did the recording did his dance as well. I ended up the worst. http://www.vimeo.com/3454006 It was strange, how quickly my trajectory changed, it's not really apparent in the video, but I am thinking that I caught traction momentarily which shot me off to the right-after that my steering input had no affect. No "both feet in" could help me here.

Sucks!!!!

This is what a 75MPH impact into a tirewall will do. The crushbox did it's job.

Unfortunately I couldn't get my Traqmate to turn on before that particular session. It would have been good to get data. Especially the G-force on impact. I'm going out and buying a HANS device. As I was heading for the tires, the thought if a neck snapper came to mind.

Anybody have suggestions on where to get almost all the right side suspension, shock, radiator and steering parts (including the rack). New crush box, body parts etc have to come from Panoz directly. Bummer that at least one of the frame members got bent as well.

It took 2 tow trucks lifting the car from front and rear straps to get on my trailer. I backed the trailer in under the dangling car.

Off I go, to disassemble to see how bad it really is!!!

Gatorac · #2 03-03-2009, 05:59 PM

Man, that sucks. At least the car did it's job and took the impact.

David Eastman · #3 03-03-2009, 06:42 PM

Wess

Sorry to here the bad news. My first thought when I saw the pic was I hope he had a Hans. I guess you will have one for your next event. As for the parts call Gary Jones he may have some as well.

David

Dawgfan · #4 03-03-2009, 07:50 PM

Sorry to hear about the accident, the car did indeed look like it done it's job. Panoz in Braselton, GA has all the parts. If you can not get the # from information I will be glad to go by there and get a number for you. I was there yesterday and the parts guy is very nice and I sure he will be very helpful. Good luck.

Squerly · #5 03-03-2009, 07:56 PM

Sorry Wess, I feel your pain. I was there not to long ago.

But I've got it back now and she looks great. Glad to hear the safety equipment worked as advertised.

panozracing · #6 03-03-2009, 08:24 PM

Panoz - Brandon or Josh - 770-867-4796 - BUY EVERYTHING FROM THEM.....I have been here several times and getting everything from one place at GREAT prices and knowing they all will be correct is worth it. Rarely do I find it cheaper and if so its by very little so why bother... I have almost stopped checking their prices.

Squerly....from the pics it doesnt look like you needed the car clipped and redone? I have had to do that as well! Mine looked worse because it was a side impact which bent the whole frame....(i have a pic but I still havent setup an account to post on here).

NZGTRA17 · #7 03-03-2009, 11:43 PM

Uwe, sorry to hear of your accident and trust it doesnt put you off. Hard to see the up side when things like that happen but I know you will get the car back on the track as a better package than it was before.

Squerly · #8 03-04-2009, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panozracing

Squerly....from the pics it doesnt look like you needed the car clipped and redone?

I don't know what all they did Brian. I have a 5 page itemized bill of everything around here somewhere, but I think my loosing it is a subconscious effort to forget the whole unhappy event.

Panoz Paul · #9 03-04-2009, 09:45 AM

Ouch ... Had a simular experiance last summer ; got caught in a rain shower w/ slicks ... Went around 6 + times & tagged the wall 3 times ; lost it at 100 mph ... Josh at Panoz was great council , walked through parts list w/ me & 10 days later UPS dropped off ever thing ... About $ 3200.00 total ; A true testimate of these cars to be fixed qiuck & relative easely ... Glad it was'nt w/ my Cobra ; I think it woud have been totaled ... Paul W.

wirewheel99 · #10 03-04-2009, 10:12 AM

Hi Wess..sorry about the accident. At least it wasn't your Porsche...

We have most of the parts including..
front crush box assembly, radiator & shroud, a arms, possibly a steering rack and more.

Drop us a line or give us a call if we can help.

Best wishes,
James Redman
wirewheel.com
772-299-9788

eric1h · #11 03-04-2009, 01:21 PM

man, how did i miss this post????

Uwe, a small consolation, but when you get it all reassembled let me know what decals were mangled and I'll send them free of charge, just cover shipping. Consider it your first sponsorship! lol maybe throw on one of my vinyl biz decals in exchange!

Really sorry to see about it!

Cobra4B · #12 03-04-2009, 03:11 PM

Well that sucks... but at least it was in a car like this that is simple to fix. If I did that in my Corvette it'd be major carnage to have it all fixed.

Wess-RA · #13 03-07-2009, 02:00 PM

Does anyone know how to post an excel spreadsheet on this forum? Copy/paste doesn't work. Photobucket won't let me copy anything but photo or video files. I haven't been able to convert the excel into a jpeg. I'd like to share various parts costs from Panoz for your reference. (hopefully you'll never need these parts)

Thanks for the sympathies guys. Yes that's why my turbo Porsche doesn't see the track. It would undoubtedly have been $40+K to fix. My total in parts will be around $6K; plus whatever the frame work will be, plus realignment plus corner weighting. Still a lot for a split second error.
My labor is free as I work for track time.

Squerly, sorry to see you had a similar situation.
panozracing, just open a free photobucket account then copy and paste your photos in.

eric1h · #14 03-07-2009, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wess-RA

Does anyone know how to post an excel spreadsheet on this forum? Copy/paste doesn't work. Photobucket won't let me copy anything but photo or video files. I haven't been able to convert the excel into a jpeg. I'd like to share various parts costs from Panoz for your reference. (hopefully you'll never need these parts)

Thanks for the sympathies guys. Yes that's why my turbo Porsche doesn't see the track. It would undoubtedly have been $40+K to fix. My total in parts will be around $6K; plus whatever the frame work will be, plus realignment plus corner weighting. Still a lot for a split second error.
My labor is free as I work for track time.

Squerly, sorry to see you had a similar situation.
panozracing, just open a free photobucket account then copy and paste your photos in.

if you want to email it to me i can host it on my web servers

panozracing · #15 03-07-2009, 07:41 PM

This is what happens when you spin in turn 17 at sebring and the engine wont fire. The rest of the field has a good chance of hitting you. I got CREAMED by a miata that never saw the waving yellow. He barely hit his brakes. Drove right into the drivers side front wheel. OUCH. The worst part about this was I bought the car about 1 event prior to this....I think it was about 6k including shipping back from PAD.

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