skxf430

A catastrophic crash at Willow Springs

Please be safe out there.

BBMGT3

Scary

I send my car for a "look over" after every DE.

But what specifics should we look for?

NorthVan

Wow, that guy is lucky to walk away from that crash.

Mvez

Glad he is alive. That's why you don't drive convertible KIT cars on track.

utkinpol

you raise the car, you check each bolt, then take a bottle with red paint and you draw mark lines across all connections. - toe arms, dogbones, LCAs, etc.
most of them never move so you just do it once and then checks are very easy to do.
problem with that is that most of joints are hidden under plastic panels - in 997 car you need to watch for bolts in front crossmember, bolts around spots where front arms meet, most critical bolts have holes cut under them in the panels, so you take a flashlight and look if anything came loose.
for wheel bearings you jack up car and try to jiggle whole wheel, it should be no movement. then when you change tires and tighten up lugs, check if at moment when you press hardest anything moves.

my mechanic overlooked one joint last season, i discovered it exactly by that movement of left front wheel while changing tires, it was a link to front fork arm.

Yoops Racing

I bet he checks all his bolts next time.....looks like one less Fast Five kit cobra huh? He is very very lucky to be alive

BBMGT3

I've copied and pasted your post. Will have it as S.O.P for my car from now on - love the dabble of red paint too, great idea.

Cheers

utkinpol

no problem, it is easy enought thing to do.
other joint i did not tell is what people should check from time to time - it is upper nut in the strut rod mount on top of a monoball that keeps shock rod in place, with time it may also move and allow some 'play'. people who did not strip car rarely go to those, especially in rear axle.

also keep in mind that those nuts that keep upper strut mount itself are small and do not take much of torque or you will strip off bolts.

on my car that goes off all the time are sway bar links, they take 1-2 DEs to get loose usually, no matter stock ones or tarett ones. stock droplinks are even better a bit in that area. you will hear knocking from them if they come loose. all the rest considering you have aftermarket rear toe links is pretty solid.

very alarming sound is when you brake hard or take a sweeper where car goes above 1G in the corner and you hear very characteristic hard 'hit' as one solid metal part hits another - that means there is somethng big moving in your suspension, it should not be doing so, ever.

tomburdge

No HANS and no arm restraints that I could see.

He's one lucky man. Thankfully he was not driving faster than his angels could fly.

Serge944

You have to do visual inspection.

The rear lower control arm ball joint is pretty hidden and you really have to poke your head in there to see it. The nut backed off once and the ball joint was still wedged in place with the tapered pin. So, during normal driving you couldn't tell anything was wrong. As I attacked a curb at Laguna, the ball joint broke loose and had about 3/8" vertical play (the nut was at the end of the threads).

The resulting bump steer was scary.

dan212

Lets hear it for using ARM RESTRAINTS in open cars. Notice his right arm flailing around as the car rolled?? I'm amazed he didn't break both arms.

Conekilr

One lucky guys...So many things wrong with his safety equipment; seatbelts incorrectly mounted, no arm restraints, rollbar too low for his height with helmet, no hans device...

OldGuy

Bmardini, becoming aware of your GT3 is a great idea. Remember you have Porsche on your side. They put the car together not some backyard mechanic. But still if you could have a jack on site that would be great. Pull off the tires and inspect the whole wheel assy. The calipers, the rotors the pads the half shafts. And like someone said paint some of the more important nuts and bolts and check for movement on any of that stuff. Since your car is still a more recent copy, you get notice anything amiss. Some people do their oil and pads between sessions. Just get to know your car, since your life is in the hands of your car, just get to know every nut and bolt. I use to do that in my garage on weekends and just look to admire the engineering and know what ever thing looks like.
AND if you MOD the car you REALLY need to pay attention to everything that happens after the mod twice as much. JUST pay attention. Here is a perfect example. I put on GT3 Sways on my 993 Twin Turbo and off to the track I rush. I get there and the car is really tight, then after a couple sessions REALLY sloppy!! Well I didnt pay attention to how much strain the new sways put on the stock drop links. SO half way through the middle sessions both rear drop links fail!!!!
Just little stuff, can bite BIG!!

I like the factory five Daytona coupes, and I would like to build one but I dont know that I would race the thing. Do I trust myself? I would Love to build Home made Helicopter too, but I dont know if I would fly that thing. I know the FAA has to inspect it but still I BUILT IT! Do I trust myself?

BBMGT3

Thanks OG & UTkinpol

Learning these cars is half the fun. When I bought it, I barely had half a clue about how these cars work.

Now, with mod rear links, toe links, GT LSD, SWbypass, driftbox laptimer, ps29 pads, racing brake fluid and an alignment done before every track day (they are once a month over here, and the shop I go to gives me the "buddy" price of $50 an alignment. And they are right next to my office..... ) the amount I'm learning about the car is incredible.

Then I've had misfires, a control unit short out (and catch fire), a bad alignment that tried to kill me for a couple of weeks (4mm total toe OUT in the rear. Wanna learn how to drive? Try that). Oh and an accident - aquaplaned off the road at like 40mph, *** first into the armco, 2 weeks after I bought the car. Rain in the UAE doesn't come often, and when it does all bets are off. So, I learnt plenty about why the OEM decklid/wing cost a bloody fortune, and exactly how bad it is for power/torque not to have that ram-air gasket between the decklid and intake..

Then the little stuff, I had a fuel pump / relay go. Twice. A few little oil leaks here and there.

And its all good! I love every minute of it. Along the way I've tracked the car to death, and the laptimes keep coming down. Good times.

tomburdge

So much for the pre-event safety tech .
What organization lets anyone out on the track in an open car with no arm restraints.
Someone ought to get their *** handed to them.... and believe me , the driver/owner also has a responsibility to
Was this guy a newbie or just a dope? Same question about the tech inspector, if there was one.
Tom B.