I struggled a bit with where to post this on NAM. There are a few people on this forum that do not venture into the other places I have told this story, so I felt like it should be on here to. But I don't want a whole lot of "what happened?" questions or "advice" on what I could have done differently.

This is not posted because I'm looking for sympathy. It's also not posted becuase I'm proud of what I have done. Quite the opposite.

Anyway...

As some of you know, the brown MINI did not entirely survive my most recent weekend of driving.

I did manage to get a sub-minute time in it on Saturday at the go-kart tack. That's a time I didn't expect to be able to accomplish.

Sunday, I was stupid. I went out way too hard on cold tires on my first lap in the morning.

I did my braking at the end of the front straight, and made the first right turn of the chicane. I do not remember what happened immediately after that.

The next thing I do remember is sliding sideways, 180° from the direction the car should have been pointed, towards the two big trees near the swamp.

Somehow, I managed to make contact with a large rock that sits between the two big trees. I never knew that rock was there before. The rock clipped the front bumper and clobbered the right front wheel.





The wheel moved back a bit and closed the gap between the quarter panel and door



The door will open, but it makes nasty sounds as the door contacts the body panel in front of it.

The inside of the wheel made contact with the strut



The suspension on that corner of the car is done. The control arm is bent, the ball joint popped off, the half shaft pulled out of the transmission, and probably more.

I also seem to have take a bite out of one of the pulleys



And on the inside, both front airbags deployed



which caused some damage to my helmet (which doesn't photograph well)



And, if you really need to see it, there's video:
caution, contains adult language

Like I said, I was stupid.

But, I'm fairly certain the brown MINI can be put back together... time will tell... perhaps it will wind up being rebuilt better than it was before.

 

Well, you are now a nominee for the 2007 "Oh Sh*t" award.

Great video, glad you walked away.

Go kart track????

 

did you turn the car on or off at the end? how fast do you think? It didnt look like a high-speed but video can be deceiving. Glad you walked away...I've been in that same pucker inducing type situation where impending doom is coming your way and you see it coming. No fun at all.

 

Ouch, man... just, ouch. I hope you're okay, though?

 

"opportunity in disguise?" yep - you should take this opp and be the first MINI to do an LSx swap with T56 and RWD.

 

Wow, that happened very quickly.

What strikes me about that course is the trees "look" a bit close to the track at some turns with the only thing helping a big accident is runoff space.

As speed on the course increases the safe zone along the course edges are shrinking.

What tires did you have? How worn?

Quite a bit of damage to the Centerline RPM wheel.

The new version of the RPM II has a beefier center hub that is solid and the spoke inner sides are not fluted but solid. This adds to the weight which is more like 16.5 lbs. Since the older RPM was 14.5 lbs if you keep the RPMs you'll need a pair not just one rim. Otherwise you can replace the entire rim set.

I had a similar spin out that happened at autocross with fairly low speeds but once I lost control I had to slide on the grass and dirt and come to a rest against a hedge and chainlink fence. I got a bit of damage to the front plastic of my bumper and lower valence but otherwise OK. That was my one and only spin and bump against something. I've spun out before but usually hit nothing.

I'm glad you are OK.

What suspension are you running?

Hopefully Brown MINI can be repaired.

 

At the end of the video, I turned the car off. Well, the car itself turned the ignition off during the accident. I just turned the key off. I should have taken it out of the ignition, but I didn't get that right either. We had a volunteer firefighter and an ambulance crew member at the track with our club, so they remembered that kind of stuff that I didn't. If the video ran for another minute, you would have seen people running up with fire extinguishers (not needed) and people doing all that stuff that you are supposed to do.

I was at about 50mph when the spin started.

 

A bruise on my right arm from the airbag, and bruises on my chest and hips from the seatbelt (or possibly airbag, I guess). But, I'm okay.

I may eventually be giving TSW a call for some parts... I keep forgetting to check if the brake on that corner of the car is messed up too.

 

Toyo RA-1... still showing 4 rings, but no tread blocks. They were cold, which was the problem. I went in at a speed that would have been 9/10ths with hot RA-1s.

Wheels are down at the bottom of the list to worry about right now. I've got a set of snows on steelies and my summer daily driver tires on the stock wheels. So, I;ve got wheels to get it rolling with. I don't know what the plan will be for new race wheels. Probably 15s.

JCW struts and springs, Helix camber plates.

 

As is always said in the aftermath - the good news is that you weren't injured....cars can be replaced people can't...etc etc

Also is a good reminder to the rest of us that things can go wrong really fast if we lose concentration for even a moment. I'm sorry about your accident, but when I am out at the track next week, I'll be doubly sure to make sure everything is optimal before I start pushing towards the limits.

Can you confirm that the airbag did that damage to your helmet? I've read all manner of information and apparently there is a camp that thinks helmet + airbag = bad. However, all of that was second-hand ("my brother's friend was at a DE and...") and I'm interested on your first-hand experience. Thanks!

 

I've read similiar arguments, but its full face helmet & airbags = bad. Argument is that you want to wear an open face helmet so the airbag does not strike the front of a full face helmet driving it backwards while your head is still moving forward.

Alan

 

The damage to the helmet was caused by the airbag. There are the cracks you can see in the picture, a hairline crack to about the same spot on the other side, and a few more little cracks on the other side.

My next helmet will be full face. I'm not an expert, but that's what I'm going with. Your head / helmet should be pretty close to the headrest anyway, so I don't think it's going to move too far backwards. And with an open face helmet, the airbag is just going to make contact with your face instead of the helmet.

But, like I said, I'm not an expert.

 

At least you know the airbag works

 

I'm guessing I just don't understand "dry British humour".

 

I'm sorry snid, I was tought to make the best of an situation, I'm glad your'e OK, and hope Brown mini will be up and around soon

 

Cars can be replaced - people can't - I'm glad you were able to walk away and you're okay...

Donna

 

Sorry to see the damage to your rather rare velvet red MINI. Good news is you're ok and it's just you and your MINIs pride slightly wounded. I watched the clip hitting the trees a couple of times - it's truly amazing how fast you hit and how fast you stop and the next thing you know the airbags are decompressing gases.

 

Just a car snid. Fix or replace. I'm very glad you are OK.

 

scrolling through your post/photos i felt your pain. literally. not many folks have seen these for obvious reasons

(not the same extent, but still...)







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