Lower than the guard rail?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdg1phQbAeU

Ouch

how did he not get decapitated?

Reacted just as it should.

Hillclimbs have a high level of danger.

Worked one for a few years and I have witnessed the following.

Car (mustang) mount a guardrail and slide along the top of it for 25 feet or more, other side of guardrail was an 80ft ravine. (personally witnessed) (no real injury)

Car (different mustang) blow a braking zone and crash down into a creek bed suffering over 13 inches worth of frame damage. (further up the hill from me) (driver bruised)

Car (porsche) overcook a turn, hit dirt berm and be launched into a rocky outcropping (5+ft in the air) and land on the drivers door. (personally witnessed) (drivers arm bruised by arm restraint, restraint broke)

Car (f-body) blow a braking zone, hit dirt berm and be launched 4ft in the air to dead center impact a tree (while 4 ft in the air) with center of front of car. Engine pushed back into firewall. (personally witnessed) (driver bruised (reportedly lightly) in unmentionables, best to spring for a 6pt harness over a 5pt)

Guardrail smacks personally witnessed, F-bod, AM car nose under, miata

Guardrail smack on other parts of hill while I was there, Corvette, Renault (heavy hit), and others I cannot remember.

Oh yeah, another AM car spinning mid-turn and backing into a enbankment/tree root, driver attempted to restart and had a muffler fire (raw fuel from cranking a hot rotary), ended up the transmission was scragged by the root anyways.

Thankfully never seen any real injury, but having seen all that, anything can happen. Hillclimb is not the same as the track, there is no runoff and the stuff you can hit can be really bad.

mad_machine wrote: how did he not get decapitated?

I think it stopped when it got to the parts of the frame where the the push rod shock assembly is mounted.

That's why we love hillclimbing

JoeyM wrote:

mad_machine wrote: how did he not get decapitated?

I think it stopped when it got to the parts of the frame where the the push rod shock assembly is mounted.

No, I think it's the side bars coming forward from the roll bar. If you watch the slo-mo carefully you can see that the car stopped going under the guard rail about where those bars met the "dash" area. And I wouldn't be surprised if it scuffed the guy's visor too.

This looks like a Radical SR8 and they don't use pushrods, the coilovers are mounted within the wishbones.

Edit: Looks like it does use pushrods for anti-roll though:

Excellent roll bar bracing!

GameboyRMH wrote: No, I think it's the side bars coming forward from the roll bar. If you watch the slo-mo carefully you can see that the car stopped going under the guard rail about where those bars met the "dash" area. And I wouldn't be surprised if it scuffed the guy's visor too.

That's exactly the way I saw it.

Me too. Lucky driver. I'd been changing my firesuit if it were me

GameboyRMH wrote: Edit: Looks like it does use pushrods for anti-roll though:

Good edit: you can clearly see pushrods in the video

I'm not sure what the car is, though......I don't see any dampers in the orientation of your photo

I watched the video as best I could (stopping and starting) and it seems that the forward tubes of the cage did catch the rail before it imacted his helmet. It does appear that it was also momentium that saved him, the car kept spinning even after impact at the left bar kept the guardrail from hitting the left side of his helmet

There should be plexiglass and wire mesh on that guard rail. Also, another guard rail behind it. If it were me I would be calling up my loyer as we speak.

Sorry.

Yeah I think the car is not actually an SR8/SR3...I can't find pics of any that have those bumps in the "dash"

There is a youtube video from a PA hillclinb assc. event from a few years ago in which a formula ford goes completely under the gaurd wires and down a steep embankment. IIRC the drivers helmet had a nasty gouge across thea top from the cable.

I don't have time to search for it now, but it was one of the Reading PA events.

I just discovered my Fiesta has push rods for the ant-roll bar. In the front.

Enyar wrote: There should be plexiglass and wire mesh on that guard rail. Also, another guard rail behind it. If it were me I would be calling up my loyer as we speak. Sorry.

And a rally through a forest should have every tree you might hit cut down?

Sorry, its a case of knowing the risk going in. This isn't a track, its a road surface with safety designed for road cars, not low-slung racers.

And wire mesh / plexi isnt gonna hold anything.

The events I worked put out hay bales, waste of time IMHO. Cars that hit them disintegrated them in nothing flat and didnt slow down at all.

If you don't want the risk, don't run hillclimbs.

Apexcarver wrote: And a rally through a forest should have every tree you might hit cut down? Sorry, its a case of knowing the risk going in. This isn't a track, its a road surface with safety designed for road cars, not low-slung racers. And wire mesh / plexi isnt gonna hold anything. The events I worked put out hay bales, waste of time IMHO. Cars that hit them disintegrated them in nothing flat and didnt slow down at all. If you don't want the risk, don't run hillclimbs.

I was making fun of the " Remember the Pittsburgh Zoo example of retarded parenting?" thread

Enyar wrote: I was making fun of the " Remember the Pittsburgh Zoo example of retarded parenting?" thread

those of us who come from a small planet is in the vicinity of Betelgeuse often fail to notice sarcasm if we're not paying particularly close attention.

I was hoping "loyer" which references the pronunciation map thread would have gave it away.

I'll try harder next time.

Enyar wrote: I was hoping "loyer" which references the pronunciation map thread would have gave it away. I'll try harder next time.

I did notice that it was a reference to this thread, but didn't make the connection that you were also referencing this one, too.

I drove Mt. Washington a couple of years ago. It was okay while I was behind the wheel, but when my driving partner took over, I almost pooped my pants. Holy snapping shiny happy people, that's quite a view over the edge!

Yeah - the front suspension isn't like anything that left the Radical factory - they use the (weird, proprietary) "Nik-Link" system. The coilovers are affixed to the lower control arms as are parallel pushrods. At the top of each shock/rod is a rocker link, and the left and right sides are connected mechanically by a long, bent bar from the top of one to the bottom of the other.

The bar controls anti-roll by transferring load to the less-loaded corner.

It makes now sense to me, but it works fine in practice.

My Prosport has a pretty hefty hoop behind the dash as well as the main hoop, forward and rear facing stays.

I aksed my friend who races an F500 why he doesn't run hillclimb events - incidents like this one was essentially his answer. Most of the purpose-built A-Mod HC cars I've seen run a full cage