Check this out:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3197431

 

Someone already posted this, sorry you're alittle late.

 

Gee, sorry--I missed it.

 

I used to autoX there at PIR. That's a shame. With all those stickers on the car, you would think the driver at least knows the difference between the clutch and the brake. That guy should be sentenced to drive an automatic for life. I wonder whose insurance will cover what.

 

NO worries. I would have missed this little gem had not not posted it!

Glad nobody was harmed. No biggie about the totaled Porsche. Anybody that can afford one of those can afford two of them.

I am sorry about those other innocent cars involved, but Porsche boy or Corvette boy will buy them new ones. . . .

 

Only a REALLY BAD course design would allow something like that to happen.

 

From what I read, it was more a matter of a REALLY bad driver than the course design.

 

WOW what a shame ... not fun for anyone involved



"Yucca" Ahhh ....intereting unnecessary Porsche and Corvette coments

 

yep, it was almost ALL driver error. He COASTED into these cars by thinking the clutch was the brake. I guess he had a few tries at the wrong pedal thinking the brakes were out, all the while he zoomed closer to the cars. Can't expect to do the same thing over and over with a different result.

 

Poor guy. I'm sure he didn't make many friends that day. Luckily only bent metal. No injuries. Gotta look at the bright side... someone could have been standing between cars in that parking area and got squished between them or just plain run over. Sucks all the same.

 

I guess I'm lucky--we have our autocrosses at the Houston police academy, and the course is completely separate from any spectators and/or cars. Only the stop box would be remotely close, but an out of control car like this would have plenty of room to skid, or would hit a water-filled barrier.

Having said this, twice I've manned the sign-up table only to see a car skidding toward me. Fortunately there was no damage on one occasion, and minor damage the second. I think both drivers really learned a lesson or two!

 

[shudder]

Hopefully now better barriers will be put up so that nothing like this can happen again. Driver error will unavoidably occur but it's a shame when innocent bystanders (and their cars) are put in danger because of stupid course design.

On a tangential note, I used to frequent the Wednesday drags at Infineon and once watched a brand-new C5 Z06 slam sideways into a concrete barrier while burning out. Painful.

 

WOW, that makes me cringe. Hopefully no one was hurt...that is a very dangerous situation, especially with the mystery fluids leaking out.

 

back in '86 i was running my GTI at an auto-x and heard a couple of guys trying to convince a 3rd guy to run his '67 Sting Ray, just for the fun of it. He did and while trying to turn into a hard left all of the left rear lugs sheared and shot his tire and wheel up through the fender. Moral of story, leave your friends at home.

 

I see the problem as one of course design. I have been a safety steward and I drive in an area where safety is given absolute maximum emphasis. At most of our events a car that blows the finish will have close to a city block of run out area. Certainly no cars or people would be in an area where an out of control vehicle could hit them.

I have attended several events where the SS made course adjustments around the finish area to reduce the possibility of this kind of sad situation from happening. I sometimes grumble about the SCCA, but I give the SCCA club a lot of credit for making motorsports safer. Injuries and damaged cars are not fun, so it an event is not safe, it is not fun.

Joe

 

Was it really a friend of the owner that did that? Awesome friend! Friends don't let friends wreck friend's GT3.

 

Definitely some lessons to be learned from that fiasco:
1) safety of the course impacts everyone
2) don't loan your car. My friend loaned his RX7 back the the previous owner of it, who was a former SCCA champ in THAT car, and he managed to crash it in the first turn.
3) insurance will often not cover an autocross accident unless you are less than honest with them about the fact that it's a timed event.
4) autocross accidents do happen - don't think it can't happen to you
5) when the course is hot, EVERYONE should be aware of all cars competing. That could have been a spectator section he launched into instead of the paddock.

 

We had an incident here in New Mexico. It was a DE event, not autocross, but it involved some of the things Karl mentioned. Two men came to the track in a beautiful Viper that had been somewhat modified. The car belonged to the wife of one of the two men; the other gentleman was a friend of the fellow whose wife owned the car. It happens that the wife had not been advised that the car was going to the track.

The friend was driving the car. He entered a sharp turn at a not unreasonable speed, but locked the brakes, allowing the car to plow into a K wall. The car was a total loss. (the hood alone costs $10,000) I later heard that an insurance company covered the loss, at least to some extent.

Loaning cars is very tricky. I have been asked--when instructing--to drive a student's car, but have only done so on one occasion. I have loaned my car on a few occasions, but only to skilled drivers of long experience, people that I knew well as safe and consistent drivers. I dislike driving other people's cars unless I know the car and the person quite well. Otherwise, you can't know the condition of the car, or how it's set up. Yoo many variables, too many risks, not much to be gained.

Be safe,

Joe