333pg333

I have to say (without one shred of expertise) that the when seeing inside the car from the video my first thoughts were that something didn't look quite right with that cage.

BlueRiver86

RIP.

Sterling Doc

Incredible car, speed, danger, and sadness. R.I.P.

9142986spec

Assuming that cage bar wasn't cut by the safety crew, I would assume it snapped rear the HAZ (heat affected zone) of the weld because of it was probably constructed of 4130 chromoly instead of 1018 DOM.

DC5Chick06

RIP

Veloce Raptor

Big assumption, but possible

lowside67

It seems hard to believe that there was an obvious design or fabrication problem with the car. They modelled the entire car in CAD, ran FEA on all the stressed components, etc.

rlm328

While I will defer to the roll cage specialists, it does not look like the roof is damaged much from a roll over. From other photos on the web it appears it has more front end damage.

My condolences to his family.

Hate mixing 2 messages like this in one post.

9142986spec

CAD modeling and design can not account for the variable of the welding process which is still done by human hands. 4130 is not a magical material without flaw. It can become very brittle if not properly welded and stress relieved. 1018 bends rather than crack and is more forgiving in the hands of lesser skilled welders.

A.Wayne

WTH is wrong with you guys,.......... no need to **** here !!!

Veloce Raptor

+1, Wayne.

A.Wayne

More pics of the cage , not enuff crumple zone....?

Jeff Lamb

Wow. What an amazing car. The product of a guy with amazing passion, funding and engineering expertise. I love what he built and I am very sorry to hear of his death. I guess we can take comfort in the fact that he was doing what he absolutely loved.

This is a stark reminder of the risks involved in motorsports but especially with rally / hill climb events where there isn't the same level of predictability in the course or the run-off areas in a closed, dedicated road course. I love motorsports and taking calculated risks, however, I am not sure I will ever step it up to the next level by attempting a rally / hill climb event . . . but I respect those who do.

Regarding the crash, if anyone gets ahold of additional details in terms of what was the primary cause of the fatal injury, please respectfully share. The roll cage design and fabrication looks amazing, however, the one thing I noticed in the design is those diagonal tubes running from the tops of the front shock towers to the "dashboard bar" inside the cabin. Then, you can see how the steering wheel shaft is supported by some more bars that come from the dashboard bar towards the driver. When I saw this, my concern is that in a massive frontal impact, the shock towers could be pushed back towards the driver that pushes the unsupported dashboard bar towards the driver which pushes the steering wheel / shaft towards the driver and potentially causes a fatal injury. To me, the A-pillar support looked incredible in that cage with two separate load paths to prevent the A-pillar from collapsing.

Jeff

AC coupe

If anyone cares, the local reports say the there was a failure of the shoulder harness (lap belts intact). that can also speak to the violence of the impact. Locals are theorizing he was "lost" on the course though everyone is puzzled how that could happen to a very experienced, meticulous competitor. he hit the side of the mountain at over 120mph on the driver's side. Witnesses say he only tried to correct at the very last instance, almost as if he had thought he was in a different part of the course...

Jeff Lamb

That does look like the aftermath of a VERY bad impact. If the shoulder harnesses did fail, there is almost no way to avoid a fatal injury even with a far less severe impact. I sure wish the harnesses would not have failed so he would have at least had a chance at survival.

Regarding Georg possibly looking "lost" on the course, one other thing that is a remote possibility for any of us on the track is a medical issue that could pop up at any time. If he would have lost conciousness briefly or suffered a very brief episode of blurred vision, this could cause just enough of a loss of focus to cause an incident . . . but we will never know.

One other observation from the photo: Clearly the A pillar support worked.

Jeff