The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Summit this weekend...
10-21-2004, 07:31 AM
#85
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Speaking of the good old days... ;-)
<ul><li><a href="http://public.fotki.com/genxguy/motorsports/beaverun_-_audi/the_crew.html">http://public.fotki.com/genxguy/motorsports/beaverun_-_audi/the_crew.html</a</li></ul>
10-21-2004, 08:08 AM
#89
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I was driving the Evo
Chris, I hope you're doing well. Sorry about the scare =(
Anyhow, yes, some of the organizers had the opinion that the reason I got into the accident was because I was driving over my head. If that was the cause, I would have happily owned up to it.
They are welcome to whatever opinions they like. I know that when I hear someone had a brake failure, it's generally pretty hard to believe. I have no doubts in my abilities though, and I know what happened. It does tweak me a bit that some people made assumptions about what occurred.
For those who were not there, or who did not get to hear about it, here's what happened from my seat. We were probably about 3-4 laps into a session, and we caught some traffic going out on to the back straight at the Jefferson Circuit. I was unable to get up to full speed on the back straight because of this, so I didn't go into the brake zone quite as quickly as normal.
I hit the brakes as normal going into the first gentle left, and they went straight to the floor with almost no pressure. I hit the brakes again, this time, I'm sure I hit it quite hard, due to adrenaline rush, and it was just enough to turn the car around. We went backwards up towards the tire wall and hit it quite fast, as I was unable to bleed off much speed. There is very little run off room at Jefferson.
I saw the accident coming and from the instant that I lost pedal pressure, I knew we were going to hit something. I ducked my head into my neck brace and let go of the steering wheel at the last second, because I was afraid the airbag would go off. I'm sorry I couldn't communicate all this to Chris though :-/
I had no warning from previous corners that the brakes were going. The were completely solid. The last time I looked at the instrument panel was down the front straight of the same lap, and nothing was odd.
After inspecting the car more closely, it appears that the brake line seperated from the caliper section. The banjo bolt is still in place. It looks like it flat out pulled out from the crimped section. It is a stock line, stock wheels, stock tires, stock calipers and rotors, so rubbing should not be an issue. It's far too protected to have come off due to debris, and Mitsubishi even prevents kinking by surrounding it with a spring. I do not know why it seperated.
Warren
Anyhow, yes, some of the organizers had the opinion that the reason I got into the accident was because I was driving over my head. If that was the cause, I would have happily owned up to it.
They are welcome to whatever opinions they like. I know that when I hear someone had a brake failure, it's generally pretty hard to believe. I have no doubts in my abilities though, and I know what happened. It does tweak me a bit that some people made assumptions about what occurred.
For those who were not there, or who did not get to hear about it, here's what happened from my seat. We were probably about 3-4 laps into a session, and we caught some traffic going out on to the back straight at the Jefferson Circuit. I was unable to get up to full speed on the back straight because of this, so I didn't go into the brake zone quite as quickly as normal.
I hit the brakes as normal going into the first gentle left, and they went straight to the floor with almost no pressure. I hit the brakes again, this time, I'm sure I hit it quite hard, due to adrenaline rush, and it was just enough to turn the car around. We went backwards up towards the tire wall and hit it quite fast, as I was unable to bleed off much speed. There is very little run off room at Jefferson.
I saw the accident coming and from the instant that I lost pedal pressure, I knew we were going to hit something. I ducked my head into my neck brace and let go of the steering wheel at the last second, because I was afraid the airbag would go off. I'm sorry I couldn't communicate all this to Chris though :-/
I had no warning from previous corners that the brakes were going. The were completely solid. The last time I looked at the instrument panel was down the front straight of the same lap, and nothing was odd.
After inspecting the car more closely, it appears that the brake line seperated from the caliper section. The banjo bolt is still in place. It looks like it flat out pulled out from the crimped section. It is a stock line, stock wheels, stock tires, stock calipers and rotors, so rubbing should not be an issue. It's far too protected to have come off due to debris, and Mitsubishi even prevents kinking by surrounding it with a spring. I do not know why it seperated.
Warren