Here we go again…
As the 1997 season wound up I was determined that ’98 would be my "No Excuses" year. I had managed to win the Southwest Divisional series for the first time, but finished a disappointing 12th in Topeka. So, I did what any die hard Prepared driver does when they feel like they are going too slow… I went shopping! I ordered the Ground Control adjustable coil-overs and springs for the front as well as new Tokico Illuminas, a set of Complete Custom Wheel’s 16x10 2 piece "mesh" wheels and I also performed the Brake Job from Hell. The rotors were shot and the pads were gone, and since the whole front brake sytem was custom, that demanded that I modify rotors and also ended up fabricating new caliper mounting brackets to get the necessary clearance on the new rotors.
I spent many days and weekends getting everything together and installed. Finally it was down about two weeks until our first race and all I was lacking were the new wheels. I had to hound John Purner at CCW to get them in time but he shipped them Fed Ex overnight for Saturday pickup, the day before our season began. John makes some great wheels, but he just seems to love to ship them out at the last possible moment… He did tell me that he hates to ship stuff overnight, because SOMETHING always happens and it becomes wasted money. It either rains or some other unforeseeable accident occurs. I assured him that the forecast was for sunshine and I would be careful… Famous last words.
I picked up the wheels on Saturday morning and drove straight to Discount Tire to get my tires mounted. A friend who was racing a Shelby Can Am car had donated some of his used Goodyear slicks… The tires were a pathetic excuse for race tires. They had been sitting outdoors for many months and were harder than the asphalt I hoped to drive them on, however I figured they would be a good way to make sure I didn’t have any rubbing problems. After getting them mounted I made plans with Vitek Boruvka to take our cars to a local parking lot in an industrial area so that we could bed in our brakes and scrub some of the crust off of these crappy tires. Vitek arrived and mentioned that "Tommy called and wants to tag along"… no problem… Famous last words.
Tommy finally showed up and we head out. At the lot, we spot a security guard and ask if he would mind if we used the lot… he didn’t care, so we unload and start driving. After a few dozen laps I stop… Vitek had already stopped and seemed to be overheating a little. I climb out and offer Tommy the chance to drive my car. I figure here is the reigning Driver of the Year for our club, he ought to be okay. Famous last words.
Tommy takes a couple of laps and I turn to look at Vitek’s car. Next I hear my car revving pretty high, followed by the sound of skidding… I turn and see the car sliding about 20 feet from us, through some gravel, over the curb of a small island, back into a parking space and immediately over another curb into some weeds. I knew the car was messed up… I didn’t even look at the front left corner until we pulled it out of the weeds, I knew the frame was significantly bent. It probably took us close to an hour to winch the car back up on the trailer.
Tommy was incredibly aplogetic and swore he would do everything he could to get the car back to it’s original condition. I probably blamed myself more than him. I never should have let him drive a very powerful and unfamiliar car on crusty trash tires with brakes that were not fully bedded in, in a lot that was too small with too many obstacles. I still hold it over his head and torture him about it, but that’s what friends are for!
Here is the car after we got it home.
Notice the strut angle… It should probably be about 20 degrees farther forward.
Damn! The flare is cracked!
The damage was significant but not nearly as extensive as the accident with the previous car. The front left control arm and TC rod were both bent about 90 degrees but the strut assembly was not hurt. The crossmember had some minor damage, but the main problem was the frame rail. It was bent upwards several inches and caused a minor pucker in the floorpan… Oh yeah and one of my 5 hour old wheels was destroyed and another had some repairable damage.
My youngest girl tried to push the dent out with her feet, but was unsuccessful.