Do you mind if I use your video to demonstrate to my students why we tell them to go off straight, put both feet in, and never try to save it?

 

Have at it. However, in this case all I needed to do was lightly back out of it and then bring it back on while minding my mirrors. Oh well.

 

I have recently watched a lot of Nurburgring Nordschleife crash videos lately. Almost all hit the wall opposite side of the track from where they first off.

I was not going to say anything because Hornetball is 100 X the driver I am, but I will just make the supporting observation.

That track you run has super run-off areas.

 

Probably one of the safest teaching tracks in the country. And only 10 miles from the house.

 

Sure, WE know that. But novices have absolutely no idea and don't want any patina on their fancy-definitely-not-track-cars. This video is a perfect teaching tool, and it worked great last Saturday at a BMW CCA event. You should have heard the gasps at the horror!

To even things out, I showed them one of your ridiculously fast laps. There was much soul searching when a Miata was 20 seconds faster than their brand spanking new M whatevers.

Thanks!

 

 

Even my f*ck-ups are instructional!

 

One of my Bauer ELBJs installed on 1/24/2016 (https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...5/#post1302020) broke. It's bad. I haven't torn into the car yet, but I'm afraid of what I'm going to find.


:(

On the plus side, I did an inaugural drive in the 1964 Corvette vintage racer I've been working on (build thread: https://www.trackjunkies.org/topic/7...at-did-i-do/):

 

Man...that sucks!

Looks like if it would have let go a second earlier or a second later you would have just done a lot of mowing. So unfortunate that it went right when you were pointing straight at the corner station...

 

Jesus! Man glad you're alright. Wild.

 

I'm glad the corner worker is OK.

 

Damn WTF, all that grass and straight to the corner station.

 

I had no idea he could scoot like that!

Glad you are both OK. Obviously, we will need pics of the car.

[Creates reminder to inspect ball joints, hubs, etc...]

What do you think of the new track surface? I found it to be different, but my lap times are the same in both directions. Bumps are moved around, but not eliminated. Hopefully it will break in and be a little faster.

 

Well, there is a new bump right at the apex of Big Bend, which is where the BJ let go. Could it be related? Don't know.

I inspected this BJ the night before. The shaft broke catastrophically from the ball, there was no looseness or degradation. From here out, the lower BJs will be on a 3-year replacement schedule (kind of like the annual replacement of rear hubs). I've seen similar BJ failures on SM cars that see contact. Didn't expect it on this car.

 

So, here are pictures of the broken ball joints from the car (my mourning period ended and I worked on the car Saturday). These are not the same ball joints as the ones from my 1/24/2016 build thread post. I remember that the first set developed some play fairly early on and I replaced them. But I can't remember the exact date they were replaced.




As for the car, I replaced the ball joint, pulled the nose and fender off the car, and drove it to the bodyshop of a racer friend of mine. The car tracked perfectly straight! We're going to do a bit of frame pulling and then it will live again.

Of course, part of me wanted to order an Exocet kit. Maybe next time.

 

quick glance at the first post and instantly got pissed off. I cant believe you snagged all of that for $5k. car alone would be like $9-11k in today's market. How I wish we could go back to mid-2010's prices. can't wait to read the rest of the thread