A competitor at the local autoX had an unfortunate encounter with a guard rail. I missed the incident, so I don't know exactly what happened. I know there were a few other members at the event that may know more.
At least they are all bolt on panels. Wrecking isn't something you normally think of as a hazard of autoX, but I know it will be on my mind during my next run!
Yikes. I watched a new BMW M3 slide into a curb at a autoX last year. Saw it hop up on two wheels and land on the sidewalk (this is MetLife stadium in NJ). The side airbags went off as well as lots of suspension damage...lots of repair for for that car.
I also watched an S200 to a similar fate. It went backwards into the curb and broke less.
Slow is fast, ease up if you have no runoff no future in bending up stuff.
bentwrench wrote: Slow is fast, ease up if you have no runoff no future in bending up stuff.
what?
I've seen several broken wheels, and at least one totaled car. All the instances I have seen were people driving without thinking. It isn't possible to make a corner at formula car speeds with a Focus.
This guy seemed to be a quick driver. The SCCA stickers make me think this wasn't his first rodeo. I guess all it takes is one mistake. It was a wet and slippery course.
Good thing he didn't tweak the wheel. That Volk is worth more than the bent sheet metal.
Autocross is low risk, not no risk. I see about 1 car per year take a significant hit. Sometimes it is a mistake by the driver and sometimes it is just bad luck. I understand someone slid into a pole at the DC Pro on Saturday.
Photographic evidence on the interweb adds insult to injury, in many cases - food for thought.
Not that I've run 100's of auto crosses, but I've never seen damage. In fact, I don't even know how you could damage your car unless you were WAAAAAY off course AND WAAAAAAY over-driving it.
In reply to bludroptop:
Image posted to prompt discussion, event details left out to protect the innocent. If the owner of the car wants me to remove it I will.
DrBoost wrote: Not that I've run 100's of auto crosses, but I've never seen damage. In fact, I don't even know how you could damage your car unless you were WAAAAAY off course AND WAAAAAAY over-driving it.
This^^^^. If the course is laid out correctly (safely) and the driver has basic ability it seems very unlikely that damage could occur. Having said that, I once saw an AH Sprite go up on two wheels and almost roll at an autoX as it went around a tight turn.
A few years back at a local event, we had a pro-class car miss the first turn in the course, proceed 100 feet past where he should have turned, and directly t-bone another car slowing into the finish gate. The pro car had the whole front mashed in. The other car (hit on/just in front of the back wheel) was probably frame-bent total (just a guess). Worst part was that the car that got hit was on its first run of its first autocross after the owner had been building it for a good while.
The pro driver said he just spaced out and thought that the cones on the turn were a gate, and he went right through them....Nobody else had had any problem with that turn all day.
I won't post the pics I have (I was 20 feet away from it) or say when/where (by request of the organizer in the past), but the course was perfectly safe. And a highly-experienced driver just spaced out.....things can happen, even in autocross.
I also watched a Ferrari F430 come within about an inch of a parking lot island at a high rate of speed when the owner's girlfriend was driving it on course and underestimated how much power it had coming off a turn...
I also recall hearing something about someone putting their car in a lake at a recent local stadium event. Having run that venue before, I don't really see how that could have happened unless the car had total brake failure and/or steering failure and just got unlucky with its direction, but IDK..
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