The importance of safety equipment....

[NJSPEEDER]

Last weekend an American Iron 4th gen piloted by Eric Fowler went off due to a catastrophic brake failure. Driver did a great job to get the car turned to avoid the driver he was following but could not control it across the grass or avoid the K-wall.

In Car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu0Wt98TT6c

Inside the car that he was following(4:10 into video): http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/?action=view&current=EricFowlercrash_0001.flv

The failure analysis discussion being led by the cars fabricator Alan Blaine(BlaineFab.com): http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=14156

The in car and the panicked tone you can hear in the corner worker's voice tell the tale of how vicious a hit this really was. Eric owes a big thanks to Alan for the great cage design and install and all the manufacturers of the safety equipment he uses. This could have been much worse if anyone had cut a corner.

-Tim

[dirtybird222]

interesting, a buddy of mine was telling me there was a big discussion about brake failures and calipers spreading on 4th gen and c5 brake designs after so many heat cycles over on tech. I can't view it, but I know this is an ongoing issue in the SCCA T1 class and they just got approval for a new kind of aftermarket calipers that can last through many more heat cycles than OEM C5 Z06, C6 Z51, etc. Don't know about 4th gen calipers being able to upgrade. Can't watch the vid because I'm at work, but from what you typed, sounds like it was a pretty viscious crash. Glad to hear everyone is ok.

[Jano4]

Discussion link... Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken.

[NJSPEEDER]

I just recopied the discussion link. Right now the culprit appears to be the passenger side brake line came apart. Alan sent the flex line section back to the manufacturer for a failure analysis.

I have heard a lot of various arguments about the caliper problems in SCCA/NASA classes. Most of the analysis seems to be pointing towards a temperature issue. Racing pads and fluids are capable of generating enough temp to distort the castings of the calipers under certain circumstances. As of now the only solution seems to be fitting more and more massive ducting to shed the temp as fast as possible.

-Tim

[cam]

WOW!!! I particularly liked the marshals comments "dude that was spectacular!" Hahaha that was insane

Glad hes ok

[NJSPEEDER]

Accidents like this are what always makes me wonder what value people who complain about required safety equipment place on their lives. We have all seen in person or on TV a million times and I am sure there are some on this forum that have experienced it first hand. Driver going along and does absolutely nothing wrong, some stupid little part that he relied on every day just like we all do fails and he is suddenly along for the ride of a lifetime.

-Tim

[dirtybird222]

Accidents like this are what always makes me wonder what value people who complain about required safety equipment place on their lives. We have all seen in person or on TV a million times and I am sure there are some on this forum that have experienced it first hand. Driver going along and does absolutely nothing wrong, some stupid little part that he relied on every day just like we all do fails and he is suddenly along for the ride of a lifetime.

-Tim

know what you mean man. I was just strolling along on my way to take an exam and bam this happened. Old lady decides it's a good idea to stop on an on-ramp on I-75, I slam on my brakes avoid her, guy behind me nails me, throws me into the middle lane of a highway and semi truck goes WHAM! But thank god the passenger cage, and body held up, I walked away unscathed.
http://hphotos-sjc1.fbcdn.net/hs199.snc3/20637_606208780915_33400106_35257552_2383333_n.jpg

Hell 24h de Lemons lets you have an unlimited budget when it comes to safety equipment which is nice. The SCCA would see a petition for a better brake line or calipers as trying to gain that "performance advantage" through safety equipment lol. Not sure about NASA, I just hear about SCCA BS all the time from a friend who runs in IT7 and T1