[Pete Kuncis]

I have to give kudos to the SCCA and the car builders regarding the safety construction of cars. Seeing 2 very big high speed crashes last weekend (Drislane (pictured below) & Malaszuk) where the car occupants got out pretty much without a scratch shows the quality of the cars and the effort put into building them. Both cars went off at a high rate of speed, wiped out a few trees, hit a few others, and the roll cage wasn't bent or moved at all.

http://www.onalimbracing.com/2003sawmill/DSCN3591.jpg

Pete

 

[Pinochle]

Pete,
I agree w/ you. The safety standards of the cars are very good. And thank goodness for that. There are some great drivers out there. This keeps them in the game.

 

[grinner323]

Ow... that looks expensive. Nice cage though.

Philip J. Boer
[email protected]

 

[markn]

Credit should go to TAD in one case

The credit for how well John Drislane's car held up should go completely to TAD Motorsports (not SCCA). TAD's cages are some of the best around - important areas such as completely welding around the connecting tubes (esp. near the roof panel), minimizing bends, tight fit to the shell, etc. The quality is second to none. It's amazing how many cars out there have poor quality welds and many of the welds don't go around the circumference of the tubing (again, esp. near the roof panel) leaving a major weakness in the cage. It's surprising how some of these cars have log books.

-mark

 

[starion887]

RE: Credit should go to TAD in one case

>It's amazing how many
>cars out there have poor quality welds and many of the welds
>don't go around the circumference of the tubing (again, esp.
>near the roof panel) leaving a major weakness in the cage.
>It's surprising how some of these cars have log books.

I caught one, and had the poor owner (now ever poorer) re-cage the thing; you would be surprised at the professional organization that sold this car claiming that the cage was 'legal'. The orignal log book was issued by a very highly regarded organization; it went through the hands of another organization and may have gotten poorly recaged for whatever reason; the history of the cage and where the problems arose is very uncertain. All I can say is that the logbook bears the issuing signature of a well known person in the original and highly regarded organization.

So not all 'pro' organizations are equal. The only way this got caught was that a totally disinterested party (me) did an annual and caught the problems (incomplete welds, .065 wall tubes in some places, etc.). I am not totally sure whay I am writing this now... maybe it's to warn all to 'caveat emptor!', not matter who you buy things from....

Thanks for posting the information, Peter. That picture IS a good testimonial to the builder. I hope you are personally doing better.

Mark B.