I found this "Viper Crash" video on Audi's board (www.audiworld.com):

Viper Crash Video

This is a 2.83 MB file by the way.

Have a nice weekend,
pin

 

Holy Crap - that's the front straight at Kershaw (CMP). Ouch.

E. J.

 

Watching that makes my knees weak as I know I have been in the left and right seat plenty of times in THAT car.
That is my friend and student that I instructed at VIR and Putnam Park. Sam Kelly, hell of a nice guy, and with an unbelievable car, dyno'd 500 hp at the rear wheel.
He was at a BMW event getting ready for the Viper Days finale at Hallett motorspeedway.
The car was totaled well over $100K and Chryser came to get the master cylinder. He had brakes on the turn before and when he went in to turn one nothing. He and his passenger are damn lucky, I can think of a lot of tracks where this could have been much worse.
Greg

 

Damn Greg, same car as VIR this year huh? That is scarry. Glad to hear everyone was alright. Is he going to get any recourse from Dodge since they took the master cylinder?


E. J.

 

Wow, guys. A couple of things impressed me. One -- how (apparently) well the occupants did in the crash. A testament to good protection (cage, belts, etc.) I'm sure. Second -- how clearly the instructor was thinking with the immediate "turn the ignition off" literally within a second or two of stopping. Good experience in the right seat!

I'm sure the same could happen to a P-car, but particularly after seeing this and with our experience at Viper Days, thank God for P-car brakes!

Greg, was he going somewhere between 60 - 90 mph before leaving the track?

 

Wow - what a video. I am glad they are OK since the car can be replaced!

John - I've been on this track about 50 hours and I would say he left the track at 60-70 or so. My only track accident happened about 500 yards after this one! I hit a tire wall with minor damage. EJ was there.

For those of you unfamiliar with the track I think there is runoff room if he had not tried to follow the track around. But with no brakes he would have hit something anyway.

Chris

 

Not sure how fast he was going. I think he said the instuctor pulled the e-brake but I didn't see it. He was working with the instructor on some of the finer points on the track and not really pushing it fortunately. If he had been full tilt his speed would have been a good 20mph more than our top speed there. He did say the car's cockpit held together well, I am sure the tires help disipate a lot of energy. This was my student at VIR, IMO the car was a nice as any Viper I had seen, don't know what will happen with DC, maybe they will put him to the top of the Competition Coupe list.

 

A theoretical question for those who know this track.

Would the driver have been better off spinning the car in this turn, in hopes of scrubbing off speed?

I suppose flipping is a danger with that tactic, but he hit awfully hard?

M in C

 

Guys,

I can't seem to be able to open the link, is this just me?

Thanks

 

I have not been on this track but I think it almost turns 90 degrees or more to the left. I personally would have gone straight off, maybe tried to downshift into second to get some engine braking. Even if you didn't flip hitting the door could have caused more personal injury as there is a larger crumple zone on the front of the car.
Good thing that wasn't a Jersey barrier, the tires really do a good job of decreasing the force of the impact ( I know from first hand experience, unfortunately )
Greg

P.S. Did anyone save this video to their harddrive? If so could you please email it to me as an attachment.
Thanks

greg.fishman@anthem.com

 

I got it. Thanks Pin!

Greg

 

Could someone please email this video
info@atmproductions.com

thanks in advance.

 

On my server, here.