I have a brand new left front lower arm if you still need it! I'll let you have it for $180!

 

Makes we want a full cage now...

@ Sam...I may take you up on that, let you know in a day or two...

 

Wow, I knew your car was out of commission but I didn't know how bad the damage was until I got home Monday night.

Glad everything worked out fine in the end and that you were able to make it home.

 

That's exactly why the guys competing in S2k Challenge scare me. Watching their on-boards, they are pushing very hard and often over the limit as evidenced by how many times they go off-track during an event. I remember reading one guy went off 4 times in one day (I think Chuckwalla event this year); I've gone off 4 times in 10 years and they were all low-speed with tons of runoff area, so places I knew the consequences wouldn't be bad if I goofed.

I think it was a year or two ago that an older gentleman went off at Big Willow in a Mini Cooper, I think during a NASA event, and passed away.

All it takes is for a tire to go flat (puncture, debead, etc) or hit something slick (car spraying oil, coolant, dirt/sand kicked on track) in a fast sweeper and you're toast.

 

^^^ that would be me. I think I went off 4 or 5 times that day. It's mainly because it's chuckwalla and I was willing to push the limits and exceed them at that particular track. But yeah, I still got lucky.

That's probably equal to the number of offs I've had in all my last 15 or so track days combined. Some tracks I won't push the limit anywhere near as much, like at WSIR, and ACS (roval track with lots of concrete). This does make me want a harddog style roll bar a lot more... I need a second car though since this is still my DD and gutting the rear would make the car a whole lot louder than it already is (and I'm still stock everything).

 

Tolle/driving ambition ftw!

btw not sure how much of a difference a cage made in this crash since most of the impact was into the frontend.

 

Or someone could run a red light then you're driving to the track!

I hear you, I tend to try to run with good safety gear, but, it's not quite that bad

 

I ride motorcycles too and have been for about 10 years. I've had one accident, my fault, but I'm damn glad I had my gear on! We all take calculated risks. I track my s2000 as often as possible without a cage, but I also won't do Big Willow or Autoclub, and I drive well within limits. Still going fast, but I always leave some reserve for the unexpected. Hardtop and roll bar are in the plans for this year.

 

 

By this logic, you should be tracking nothing except a fully caged car with halo seats and the appropriate restraints. The common "rollbar harness seat" only protects you from rollovers, not lateral impacts and the lateral impacts that can happen as a result of rolling sideways...

While we are pushing, we generally know where we can and cannot get away with possibly going over the limit and not regaining control in time. E.g., my tires saw the lowest wear this weekend of any track day I've done in the last year. Why? Because Laguna has walls. Everywhere. Sure, I had several 2 offs, but each one was controlled, and a direct result of me choosing to go 2 off rather than attempt to muscle the car into line and possibly spinning.