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  • So you crashed your race car - now what?

    SO YOU CRASHED YOUR RACE CAR - NOW WHAT?

    On Friday October 25, 2024, I was racing our S550 Mustang (that we call "Trigger") at the SCCA Time Trial Nationals, which is an event that has competition times taken over 4 days at a track called NCM. This was a new track to me so I was trying to learn the course, but lost my first 2 sessions Thursday to other cars spinning, crashing, or traffic. I literally could not afford to waste a single lap on track, as I had much to learn but this big car really falls off after lap 1, due to the way Yokohama A052 tires heat up.



    After this first Friday session (below, my 4th total session) I had barely gotten 4 laps unencumbered with traffic or yellow flags, and was really trying to zero in on the leaders in my class. I was having a pretty good time up to that point, and was within reach of a win, if I had more time...



    In the very next session, on lap 1, I crashed in Turn 17 and impacted the outside wall at about 40 mph, with the left front of the car taking the brunt of the impact, but also hitting the left rear as well.



    From the moment that I crashed I knew that I needed to record this - as I had good data logging and video recorders going. My hope now is to share what I have learned in this incident, as well as the last 36 years of track events and Time Trial competition, and fixing crashed customers' cars at my shop - so others can learn from my mistakes and be prepared for this end result, should it happen to them. If you do track driving for long enough, it is a statistical probability you might "join the club".

    This article will start moments after the crash and cover the exit from the car, unloading from the roll back, loading the busted car for the trip home, damage assessment, parts ordering, the in-house repairs and final alignment work on the fixed race car, then track testing. Hopefully we can ALL avoid using The Money Gun if this happens to you!



    1. DURING AND RIGHT AFTER THE CRASH

    Nobody ever wants to contact a barrier or another car when you are on a race track, but if it happens to you, there are things you can do to minimize damage to your body - which is your FIRST concern. WEAR THE RIGHT SAFETY GEAR. I was wearing a HANS device, had brand new Lifeline 6-point harnesses that I had tightened well, was in a FIA / SFI 3.2 A/5 racing suit / gloves / shoes, and I could see the crash coming for a couple of seconds. I knew it was going to be a hit.

    It is easy to say this, but harder to do: DON'T TENSE UP! That's how you pull muscles or break bones.



    The steering wheel can whip in your hands, so be ready for that (unhook your thumbs). The data from the impact showed a 2.5g shock, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't very high. This car regularly sees 2.0g stops and cornering, with sticky tires and big aero. What you need to worry about is 10-20g+ impact loads that last for more than a few milliseconds. That sort of BIG impact flings arms and legs around and can break bones, for sure, but a brain moving inside a skull can be a real problem at those loads. This is getting more attention lately from boxers and football players, ie: Traumatic Brain Injury



    Not the case here, I never blacked out. After the impact on the left front corner and side of the car at around 35 mph, I still had some forward momentum. Once I found that I still had some steering and stopping power, I traveled a little further along the side of the track, to better clear a potential second car's impact zone. I traveled slowly straight along the wall, through the grass and away from the impact site. The video below shows the crash and the aftermath - I turned the video off right before the EMT and wrecker showed up, which took about 5 minutes.



    In case I had slipped off in someone else's fluids, moving ahead clears me from a potential second racer, who might join the party. By all means try to NOT make another impact with anything solid. If you can keep the car OFF the racing line, and even the entire racing surface if possible (sometimes dry grass means getting to the edge of the track). Stop moving safely and quickly, of course.



    Once the car was fully stopped, it was time to KILL THE POWER. I shut off every system by hitting the main Cartek battery isolator (kill switch), which we have located in three places - one in the center gauge panel (for me to use) and two more buttons on both the left and right sides of the dash, within easy reach of a corner worker (if I am incapacitated or if I get out in the hurry and forget to shut off the power). These buttons have the required "lightning bolt" decal, both inside and outside of the car.

    Then it was time to LOOK FOR SMOKE, and while I did see some brake smoke from the left front, it went away quickly. I could tell by the smell it was just tire klag on the brakes. I had the fire suppression system pulls within reach - with pulls located at both lateral edges of the dash, so I or a corner worker could get to them from either side. Luckily I didn't have to discharge the Lifeline AFFF system.



    Next up you need to let the corner workers you are OK with the universal RAISED ARM OUT THE WINDOW WITH A THUMBS UP! This is important to remember, as the nearest corner worker is also likely furiously waving YELLOW FLAGS until other cars on track are gone (black flagged) or otherwise clearly informed that that they have a crashed car ahead. DON'T LEAVE THEM HANGING - get that arm out, over and over, with a thumbs up each time until you hear an audible "THANK YOU - WE SEE YOU!" from the corner worker. And that is exactly what happened.

    By all means STAY IN THE CAR and tighten your belts UNLESS the car is ON FIRE. If you smell or see fuel leaking, get ready to exit, otherwise stay belted in. Belted in keeps you protected if another racer goes off in the same spot and impacts you.

    2. GETTING OUT OF THE CAR + AMBULANCE RIDE

    After the wrecker arrived on scene, someone came to the door and asked me if I was OK. I was still belted in and helmet on. I had already done a quick assessment of arms, legs, and head in the 5 minutes I waited until they arrived arrive, and said I was fine and had no pain. Of course you will have BUCKETS of adrenaline flowing through your veins, so don't trust this feeling fully. You will need to re-assess how you feel with the EMTs.



    Getting out of the car can be easy, or maybe not. In my case this caged car has a fully functional door that opens, but a head restraint style containment Sparco seat which makes things harder. It helps in my case if I can slide the seat back (Sparco sliders) to get out of the open door quickly. Once the wrecker and EMTs arrived I unstrapped harnesses and started to get out. The slider was jammed AND the door wouldn't open more than a few inches, as the front fender had been shoved back into the door. And as you can see, with the door closed my helmet will not fit through the side window opening (this is common in modern cars with high shoulder lines).

    This type of "restricted exit" was clearly something I should have practiced. Removing the helmet and HANs inside the car, maybe blindfolded, then climb out the window with the seat in the normal position IS MUCH HARDER THAN IT SEEMS. What followed was a less than graceful exit - with the help of the track official we opened the door partially, I got my head and back out the now wider window opening, then we re-closed the door, I sat on the window sill, and shimmied my body out. I will work on practicing this before I go back out on track.

    Then I was taken to go to the nearby ambulance where EMTs did a quick assessment and asked me to go to the nearby hospital for examination. I knew my body was fine, no soreness or double vision, and I never blacked out (unlike a previous crash 10 years earlier). I refused the hospital visit and had to fill out a form stating that. I really wanted to go help with the cleanup and make sure we got all of the pieces that broke off the car, but they will NOT let you. The track workers will load your car with the front or rear tow hooks that your car (hopefully) has.

    3. HOW TO UNLOAD FROM THE ROLL BACK IN PITS

    The ambulance got back to my paddock spot and dropped me off before the wrecker arrived. The first thing I did was FIND MY PHONE and call my wife. She was on site and a bit frantic, but I got her calmed down and asked her to meet me at our trailer. I quickly got out of my fire suit and Coolshirt vest and got ready for the dirty work to follow.



    When the roll back wrecker arrived moments later I could finally see the extent of the damage - the left front corner was pretty smashy, and the left front suspension, wheel, and steering were pretty tanked. This National TT Championship event was over for me, which was a real gut punch.

    We needed to remove the rear diffuser to get the car off the wrecker. I knew what tools were needed, and I along with some buddies got to work quickly. With the diffuser off, the wrecker driver slid and tilted the flat bed back and dumped the car onto the pavement near my trailer. Plop!

    4. TIPS TO LOADING A BUSTED RACE CAR INTO YOUR TRAILER

    The car would not roll, as the left front wheel and suspension was flopping around like a badly broken limb. With the car on the ground, it was time to figure out how to get this busted mess into our trailer, which was no small matter. This wide car barely fits between the fenders inside this 8'6" wide trailer, so we needed to get that left front wheel off. At this point I regretted not having a "slider plate" (a big plastic panel that you can slide a car around on) or a wheel dolly.



    We took a full sized floor jack and got to work - but it was too low to slide under the side with the busted tire. Some other racers pitched in and within a few minutes we had the front bumper cover plastics removed, which gave us access to lift up on the front bumper beam. We put a jack stand on the bumper to secure everything and allow me to work.

    In the future we might add some "pockets" and a slip-in jack pad on the side, to help get a car with a flat tire up off the ground - as the jack would not fit under the side skirt, and we couldn't exactly "drive up on a board" to get some height. With the front off the ground, I removed the camber plate from the strut tower, which dropped the rest of that corner's suspension down. Then after cutting a few zip ties and disconnecting one brake line, the whole front left wheel, brake, and suspension came off.



    The wrecker driver brought back part of the splitter, so we were able to salvage some of the splitter strut parts and one "tunnel". The wheel was deformed and stuck around the brake rotor and caliper, so that was set aside with a hope that we could re-use some of these pieces during repairs.



    To get the car to roll we ran to Harbor Freight and paid $64 for a pair of 1500 pound car dollies, placing one under the front subframe. That allowed the car to roll, and I actually drove the car about 20 feet towards the trailer like this (see video below left).



    Once lined up with the trailer, we used a jack and the dolly to get the car up onto the ramp, and the trailer's winch to pull the car in. Without the winch it would have taken a LOT of strong backs to load this car (have done it that way for a friend and it was terrible). A winch is a MUST inside of any race car trailer - you will thank me later. Spend the $300 to get you an 8000-12000 pound winch with Nylon cord that runs off a 12V battery. It is worth every penny.

    Now that the car was in the trailer we could strap it down, then load and secure all of the broken bits we removed - the wheel / strut / brake assembly, the diffuser, remains of the splitter, and all of our normal track gear.

    5. ONCE HOME - ASSESS THE DAMAGE QUICKLY

    After the long 700 mile, 11 hour tow back to Texas, I got out of the truck and rested for a full day - just didn't touch anything inside the trailer. I was frustrated from the crash and tired from the trip back.

    JUST DON'T GET IN A FUNK!

    Do not let depression or procrastination sink in. What you do NOT want to do is "let the car sit" while you lick your wounds and think about racing again. Look, even if you lose your nerve and get out of the sport (a very small but real chance, in some cases) you can never sell a wrecked race car for any amount of money. And even if the unibody or chassis is damaged beyond repair, it is always better to know that sooner rather than later, and start to part out the good stuff quickly.

    I've had customers that crashed a race car only to leave them in the trailer for a year or two, or shove them in storage and forget about them. Once you do that you can lose the momentum to ever want to work on the car again. I've seen wrecked cars sold after letting them sit and fester, and it is always at a huge loss. By any means possible FIX THE CAR as soon as you can, or at least do a good assessment and figure out if the chassis is a write off.



    Some buddies of mine ran an endurance car for ten years, but nearly 18 months after a crash that wiped out the chassis, it took some pressing timelines on their new race car build to force them to strip the usable safety gear and electronics off the wreck. YES, it hurts to look at a wrecked race car, especially one that is totaled and not rebuildable. Still, the sooner you can get the valuable bits off and junk or sell the chassis, the better it is for your soul.

    On the Monday after I got back, I was in a real funk. We removed some busted parts from the trailer, took a look at what could be seen without unloading, and started ordering some parts. By the Tuesday after returning, I was getting pressure from the crew, so we had to unload the car. Unfortunately our facility doesn't have a "fancy paved parking area" yet, so that act took some plywood, some pushing, and a winch to pull the car over gravel and up the slight ramp and into the shop.



    After 45 minutes of work doing this, it was in the shop. Getting the car quickly onto a lift, removing busted bits, and assessing the damage was VERY cathartic. We noted broken control arms and some other things right away, but as more pieces came off the more we realized how GOOD the actual chassis looked.

    Sure, there are some obviously bent and busted parts, but in any impact the ENERGY from the crash has to be absorbed somewhere - like through the wheels, fenders, control arms, spindles, dampers, and other parts. These are at the extremities and easily replaced, unlike the subframe, chassis, firewall, cage, and other core structures inside the car.



    Now it was time to look at all of the load paths from this crash. The control arms that broke, where do they mount to? The splitter and diffuser that came loose or broke off, how do those mounting points look? In a big impact the mass of the engine and transmission can bend or break mounts or mounting points, so those need to be looked at.



    The video above was taken on day 2 and 3 of repairs and shows our assessment and some of the main fixes done over that 48 hour period. I will touch on some of those things from the video throughout this post.

    continued below
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

  • #2
    continued from above

    Having those obvious broken items was sort of a blessing in disguise, because what those parts attach TO starts to get complicated and expensive. The strut housing wasn't bent, but the main shaft was - which can be repaired and not simply just thrown away and replaced. We also could see that we had not deformed the subframe mounting points or strut tower. The brake caliper was extracted from the very bent wheel, and the only damage was to a crossover tube, which was easily re-made. The rotor was not so lucky, but we had a spare rotor ring in stock.



    The entire set of struts and shocks was removed sent in for service, as one fitting for the remote reservoir hose broke off, plus it was past time for a refresh with MCS after four hard seasons for these dampers on two different cars.

    6. ORDERING NEW OR USED PARTS VS REPAIRING

    We had already started ordering parts for anything that was bent, broken, or slightly suspect. On a car like this we're not going to re-use a suspension mounting bolt that saw this sort of impact - most of those big M14 bolts were $3 to $6 each from the Ford dealer, so why risk it? We ordered a new wheel bearing and hub from Ford, but could have gone with a less costly option from RockAuto if we could wait - but those take more time to arrive, and we've got a race in 3 weeks we cannot afford to miss.



    We also called our friends at SPL Parts and ordered one side's worth of lower control arms. They were happy to see how the parts failed - each broke at pre-designed spots, which helped save the chassis. The same impact on the white Mustang from the video below had the factory forged steel lower arms (that still bent) and it bent both the subframe and chassis.



    When we built this car from a salvaged chassis I had located some good deals on used headlights, bumper covers, and other missing or busted parts. It was just dumb luck that I had a spare left front headlight on hand that I had picked up for $75, as these can run $300-600 each. Likewise I had a nicer used front bumper cover (2018-23 Mustang GTs all shared the same parts) that was sitting in storage, which was also a $100 find years earlier - if we needed that.



    The fender, side skirt, and hood all took some damage. In a pinch we could have repaired all 3 pieces, but then ALL the carbon would need paint. When we found the need for wider fenders to run these 13" wide front wheels, we "saved money" by running raw carbon parts on this black car for years, which I kind of like now running "Raw".



    Most OEM body panels that bolt onto the chassis have moved from steel to aluminum sheet metal or even plastic parts. The S550 Mustang's front fenders and hood are aluminum. Aluminum and plastic panels tend to crumple or tear and become essentially "unrepairable" after an accident. A crafty racer will head to social media marketplaces to look for used but good OEM parts locally, then spend time running around to pick those up locally. Or if you hate money, a trip to the dealership to pay for brand new parts.



    In my case here, we are using aftermarket carbon fiber parts for these 3 broken pieces. I had purchased the Anderson Composites carbon "GT500 style" hood (above left) for my red 2018 Mustang back in February of 2019, and the Anderson "JTP" widebody kit (above right) and carbon side skirts were purchased for Trigger in January of 2024. The hood moved over to our 2015 Mustang race car here along with a "2018-23" front end conversion in 2020, and it was all modified further for better venting.



    Since these aren't exactly common items and they are not sold individually, I had to purchase all of these parts from Anderson again, including an entire carbon body kit. This is most expensive part of these repairs - but will end up with extra RF fender, both rear fenders, and extra one side skirt when complete. The busted pieces can make for a heck of a wall trophy, too!

    7. BENDING BACK CHASSIS PANELS AND MOUNTS

    We are going to save as much of the steel in the chassis and subframe as possible, which we will show below. But first - let's see how these cars "Tend to crash".

    HOW DOES THIS S550 CHASSIS TEND TO CRASH?

    Below is a video we made five years ago, when we had two crashed S550 Mustang chassis in our shop at the same time. We have worked on dozens of crashed race cars over the years, but these two were the same year and model of chassis as our recent crash in Trigger. In the video we discuss how both cars deformed in similar ways and how they differed in some other key areas. This 15 minute video is worth your time if you want to ever race one of these cars.



    The black car in the video above was our original 2015 Mustang chassis, which became this race car we call Trigger (shown below left). It was already wrecked when we bought it as a $2500 salvage rolling chassis to start with. The white car (below right) is another 2015 Mustang GT owned by a customer and tester of ours - that had a very unusual car-to-car impact on the left front corner during a Time Trial.



    We fixed the majority of the bent and broken parts on both cars here in-house at Vorshlag, with some additional paint and bodywork done to the white car by our friends at Heritage Collision in Sherman, TX. The white car was fixed, painted, and back on track in under 4 weeks. The latest crash damage to Trigger took exactly 3 weeks to go from crash to racing again. You can read much more about the repair of the white Mustang in this thread spot.



    The original frame rail damage (as purchased) and repairs we did to our black Mustang Trigger was documented in the same thread in this location.

    SAVING THE FRONT SUBFRAME?

    Most modern unibody cars have a bolt-on front subframe that the suspension and drivetrain bolts to. These can get damaged in a crash, and the replacement for this car is about $500 used (and you have to REALLY check these used ones over closely) and about $1000 new.



    We had put a used but good subframe into our car 3 years earlier, as the salvaged car was purchased with a bent front subframe - so I really wanted to save this one. I was also hoping that the electric assist (EPAS) steering rack wasn't busted, because that is about $350 used and $1100 new.



    After checking all of the load paths for the left side suspension, we noticed deformation on the lateral link mounting flanges (see above left) from parts whipping around, but the mounting points themselves were still in the right places. Looks like the wheel came inboard after the arms broke and smashed into these vertical flanges. I was fairly confident those steel components could be bent back into shape and fixed. But sure, if you wanted a perfect subframe, buy one from the dealer. Swapping that out is a good bit more labor, as you have to hang the drivetrain to swap that out.



    Brad built a piece of steel sleeve that fit between these flanges at the suspension pickup points, which slide over the lower control arm bolt. He got that into place first. Then using a big adjustable wrench to grab the flanges, the steel could be worked back into shape.

    Finally a piece of 1" x 2" chunk of steel scrap (from our CNC shop) was used as a dolly along with a 5 pound sledge hammer. Brad worked the flanges flat and got them to match the angles on the other side. That was about an hour of work and we saved the $1000 subframe!



    One of the first things unloaded on the Monday after getting back was the diffuser. The rear diffuser was mounted almost too well, and while it didn't come off in the crash, it took a big hit against something, likely the ground. Brad took some pieces of 2x12" lumber, a hammer, and some persuasion to get that bent back into shape in no time.



    Likewise, there was a rear panel behind the trunk that we had bolted the diffuser to that was bent (see above left). With a bit of the trunk's structure (spare tire well) cut away to clear this car's massive mufflers, that panel deformed more than it normally would have.

    Brad got that panel bent back to vertical and then reinforced the curved section with some aluminum sheet, wrapping around the lower curves (see above right), plus added a new bracket to the rear bumper cover made of aluminum vs the plastic OEM piece that broke. We are eventually moving to a "quick release" rear diffuser mount from Speed Italia, so that hopefully if we ever have another shunt the diffuser will "release" and do less damage.



    We paid close attention to everything under the left front fender. The upper "shotgun" frame horns looked great, but if in doubt, get your car where it can roll and go to your body shop to have them check tram lines for diagonal squareness, and possibly do some pulls or repairs. Our custom tubular bumper beam was bent, but the original frame rail was perfectly straight. There was a big OEM reinforcement plate that covered up rear brake lines and our fuel lines that bent into the chassis, so we needed to look closer at those pieces.



    By dumb luck we had a brand new, spare corner reinforcement panel on hand. The old one bent in enough to pinch the rear brake lines and fuel lines, though. The 1/2" and 5/8" aluminum fuel lines just got small dents, nothing sharp or restrictive enough to matter. But the two factory steel brake lines were pinched badly, so those needed to be replaced.



    Christian cut away the badly bent portions of both lines, made new lines with the right flares, and added a splice to the long rear lines underneath where this reinforcing panel goes. With the brakes bled we are good to go here.



    In most front end hits the headlights often get broken. Modern cars can have expensive replacement costs, from $300-1200 each new. We're not too fancy around here and built this car with two used and broken headlights that I bought for $50 and $75.

    These Mustangs tend to break the upper mounting bracket on the headlight housings in any crash, so you can buy those "broken" units for cheap - and repair them. We had made small aluminum panels to cover the busted brackets, which were riveted and epoxied in place. Then we made a small aluminum bracket to mimic the stock piece - and they both worked for 3 years without issue.



    Luckily, as I said in the assessment video, I had found a perfectly intact used headlight housing later for only $75, so that went on in place of the now TRULY busted unit. So this was an upgrade of sorts!



    Most cars will re-use the factory front crash beam, or replace that if bent in a crash. We like to make these full width tubular front bumper beams - as we have seen these "do better" in W2W crashes with car-to-car impacts for our customers in the past. The left front "wing" of our tube was bent, but that soaked up some real energy and kept the frame rail from bending.

    This is where a fabrication shop is needed for some repairs, but luckily we have 3 fabricators here. We looked at the unit and figured we could re-use most of it, then remake the outer 30 inches of beam. I worked with Christian to show where I felt like we should splice the tube and he got to work cutting out the bent part.



    He then made a mirrored pattern from the right "good side" and then bent up a new piece for the left side. That was shaped with our air-over-hydraulic JD2 tubing bender and dies. That was spliced in with an inner piece of smaller tubing, located away from the frame rail mount. That was mocked up on the car and tack welded, then the bumper cover fitted to make sure everything line up.



    This was then TIG welded at the seam and MIG welded at some plug welds along the spliced inner slug. A new tow hook tab and the old splitter mounting points were welded onto this new section of tube as well. That bumper beam was fixed in a fraction of the time it would take to make an all new one.

    continued below
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

    Comment


    • #3
      continued from above

      What took the longest on the bumper beam was adding red powder coating - nearly 10 days (we had the car driving and aligned by then). I had been meaning to put some color on this piece for a while, so it was worth the wait.



      UNEXPECTED THINGS THAT CAN BREAK?

      The are often "non-obvious" items that can bend or break in a crash. In the video of "Common crash damage" linked above, a customer's similar Mustang had a bigger side impact than our car here. The mass of the engine and transmission moving in the impact broke the cast aluminum transmission crossmember. We were quite a bit luckier on our black Mustang, but is something to look for.



      That white Mustang took a big car-to-car impact directly into the left front wheel, and the damage extended through the broken wheel to the control arms and tie rods, and enough energy still went into the steering rack to break mounts off of that. Again, a crash's energy keeps going through load paths until it dissipates. These broken parts shown above DID NOT happen in our crash, luckily.



      In our Mustang's relatively light 2.5g impact, the majority of the load went onto the left front wheel laterally, and also the left rear wheel - both of which were broken in the impact. The forces were partially absorbed by the flow formed wheels' deformations - but even a Forged wheel would have bent and broken in this impact (most aftermarket race wheels typically are built to take the exact same "1600 pound" load rating, no matter the construction method). Once the wheel deformed it transferred load into the front upright (spindle) and the lower control arms, all of which were bent or broken.

      Another unexpected part was the splitter mounting bracket. Don't be surprised if the splitter has to be completely replaced, like our's - a front splitter is the lowest part of the chassis and is considered to be sacrificial. Luckily, we make these out of relatively inexpensive plywood, and had a spare splitter already made.



      Before we could install the backup splitter we needed to replace the rear splitter bracket, as the old one was mangled. This is essentially a shelf that sandwiches the plywood splitter under the front subframe. We have used this design for many months with success, so Brad just made a new one and transferred over the square "blocks" that nest into slots in the back of the splitter, shown above right.



      The new bracket was built and bolted to the subframe and the replacement splitter slid right into the slot, as before.

      8. PAINT AND BODY WORK

      We have been "Saving Money" by not painting our (expensive) carbon fiber fenders, hood, trunk and doors. That can only really work on an otherwise black colored chassis. When we first got this car running in 2022 (before the widebody and carbon doors) we had a white door, blue fender, and white door. Since nobody likes a random 3 color car, before we took the car on track the first time, we got those panels resprayed black.



      This is how a lot of racers will approach crash repairs - finding good but used body panels, then have them painted to match the rest of the car. We took the off color fenders and nose to our painter in 2022, and got them refinished and sprayed a matching black for a few hundred bucks.



      After this latest 2024 incident, the left front looked terrible. But Brad used cutting an buffing compounds and was able to remove the heavy scratches from when the nose tagged the Armco disappeared. That saved us a trip to the painters, for both a time and cost savings.



      Two plastic mounting tabs broke off the bumper cover, but we made aluminum replacements for both. The one along the top edge (above left) was bonded to the backside of the plastic. The other holds the outer edge of the cover to the fender (above right) - it was made to rivet to the bumper cover. We have made these several times for S550 Mustangs, as that plastic part always break offs. We will make a production run of these for other racers to help save their bumper covers.



      We have been using some unusual front splitter "end plates" that act as both a tire wall (covering the leading edge of the front tire that sticks out past the fender flare), an aero end plate, and as a strengthening device for splitter mounting. We re-used the old patterns we had made for the first set to quickly remake this new version.



      This time we made a small aero change and included a curved shape in the side treatments, with an open slot at the bottom and our square "pressure bleed hole" at the top. With those completed, and new Professional Awesome assemblies rebuilt for 2 of the 4 struts that broke in the crash, the splitter was finally attached.

      9. REPLACE ALL OF THE BROKEN SUSPENSION PARTS

      There is rarely a time where a bent suspension component is mended and re-used, so we fired the money gun early on to get new pieces coming in. The left front suspension took the brunt of the impact and we broke a spindle, two control arms, a swaybar endlink, tie rod assembly, a front hub, and some other bits.



      Some of the pieces were still available new from Ford, like the tie rod, 2022 Mach I spindle, and Mach I front hub. We got the replacement adjustable arms and endlinks from SPL Parts, and they were kind enough to break apart a set and only sell us the new left side bits.



      I had hoped the front strut had remained undamaged, but with broken spindles and control arms, we weren't so lucky. The strut shaft was bent so that entire set of MCS RR2 dampers was sent in for repair and service.

      We just so happened to have a second set of MCS RR3 triple adjustables from another Mustang we had just sold, and they had only been used for part of one season, so on those went for a nice upgrade! We swapped over the springs and got to work.



      Above you can see the new damper, spindle, control arms, tie rods and hub in place. The end link went on next, along with a new brake rotor (it got beat up) and the existing caliper.



      Then a spare pair of matching wheels went on (who only has ONE set of race wheels on hand, right?), ride height and toe was set, and we drove it to the trailer 10 days after the crash. We didn't have the replacement fender on hand yet, so we took it without the nose and fender (some of the repairs above are shown out of order), hoping those would arrive before our next test/race.



      One last thing - don't neglect to check your safety gear. We use a slider on the seats, as it makes getting out of the car easier. In the impact one of the Sparco sliders was bent, so that pair was replaced. Everything else on the seat brackets, seat, and harnesses checked out.

      continued below
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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      • #4
        continued from above

        10. GETTING EVERYTHING REALIGNED

        Now that the car runs and drives again, it was time for a proper alignment. With so many parts replaced, you should ALWAYS at least have the alignment checked - and likely adjusted - to get back to your own favored race specification. We do these alignment tests for a living and have a good handle on what the tires and chassis like, so we wrote out that and gave it to the alignment shop.



        We scheduled than took the car to a local shop that does "laser" alignments, BSP Motorsports. Our car has adjustable camber/caster plates up top, slotted mounting holes in the struts, both front control arms are adjustable, and rear adjustable arms - so even if the pickup points are off by a fraction of an inch, the alignment shop can dial in the camber, caster, and toe to perfection with these adjustments. And they did.

        11. SCHEDULE A TRACK TEST!

        I never understand how little dedicated testing some serious competitors actually perform, and checking out a car on a familiar track after a big shunt and repair is a VERY smart idea. Don't wait for your next competition to make sure the car is driving right. More than half of my track days each year are just test days.



        Of course I don't follow my own advice here! We "Tested in production", ie: went right to a race with the repaired car. Why? Well because we had the last Time Trial competition of the Texas Region SCCA for the year coming up, and I was out of "drops" - I needed the class points. We could not miss this event.

        Not only that, our new carbon bodywork had still not arrived. Never fear, Brad is here! He managed to get the busted fender and hood to work, but left off the wrecked carbon side skirt and some other small aero treatments. We made it to the final SCCA TT event of the season exactly 3 weeks after the NCM incident.



        The car wasn't 100% perfect right out of the trailer, and I had to make some adjustments to the dampers and splitter height between sessions, but it was good enough for a 6th class Win in a row for the season, and my time tied for FTD with an Unlimited 1 car (we were within .001 sec, which to me is a tie!) That wrapped up the season championship for me, at least for our local series (let's not fixate on the DNF at TT Nationals, shall we?) Missing this event would have lost me the season win.



        My fastest time that day was 0.1 sec off from my best lap at this same event in 2023, which was a bit frustrating. I felt like the car (which is much improved since 2023) should have been faster, because in 2024 I beat all of the Max1 track records I set in class last year - expect this one. I heard some nasty gear noises in my 3rd session and didn't go out again. I made this note in my audio recording I make after every track day so I could share that with the crew when we got the car unloaded at the shop after the event...

        12. WHAT NEW THINGS DID THE TRACK TEST UNCOVER?

        Being a race car, it is never easy to "test" systems properly on a quick test drive around the block. So we always go to the track to test. While there, always use your 5 senses - sight, sound, smell, touch (feel), but maybe not taste. Tasting leaking fluids from a car can be deadly, so maybe use just 4 senses!

        My point is - don't be surprised when you find something else wrong, after you drive a repaired race car on track and push it hard again. I noticed some new noises at this test event (ie: competition), and that led to a deeper dive into some systems.



        As the crew was unloading the car out of the trailer, it would barely roll when pushed. They drove it into the shop, put it up on the lift, then showed me that the rear wheels were massively bound up inside the axle. The video above is with the car in neutral. That is FAR from correct.



        We drained the axle fluid and it was full of aluminum shavings. Pulled the axles and - lots of shavings. Time to yank the pumpkin...



        With the housing out on the bench and the "case spreader" tool we built, the diff had trouble coming out. That is because the end cap of the Auburn Pro differential was coming apart. Apparently the impact with the wall broke all of these small bolts, and they were digging into the aluminum housing. Again, this was an old unit which was actually a prototype, and the production version has some updates to prevent these bolt heads from touching the housing.



        How do we fix this? FIRE THE MONEY GUN! A new differential was ordered and a new pair of axles, too. One of the CV boots got ripped (long story) and was slinging grease, but those are relatively cheap ($350/pair for GT350 axles).



        Luckily the ring and pinion gears were fine, as were the bearings - but we replaced the bearings and seals anyway, because that's good insurance. A quick setting of the backlash and wear pattern then the diff housing went back into the car with the new axles. "Easy" fix.

        13. IS THE DRIVER REALLY OK?

        If you had your bell rung or still feel pain days after the incident, it is time to schedule a doctor's visit. Call your normal physician and get an extra "annual checkup", and tell them what happened in detail.

        I had one other accident over my 36 years of track events in 2014, at Road Atlanta. I went off the end of Turn 10A at 150+ mph with zero brakes. Foot to the floor, nothing. In an effort to avoid two cars in going slowly through turns 10A and 10B, I went straight off and into a gravel trap. The gravel trap was about 18" below the grass surface, and coming out of that still going 130 mph, the car went vertical a couple of feet in the air, and that compressed my spine.



        That jolt also knocked the wind out of me and I couldn't breathe for 90+ seconds. Before I blacked out, I let the car coast up the hill at T12 and into the pits - I knew there was an ambulance there and I knew I was hurt. I slowed and stopped with the e-brake, shut off the car, rolled out of the car and onto the ground in excruciating pain. The EMTs strongly suggested a trip to the hospital, but I refused and withstood intense pain on the 15 hour tow home from this event. That was pretty dumb.

        Once I was home the pain was still intense, so I went to the doctor and they did an X-ray on my back. I had crushed a vertebrae with what they call a "pie fracture", which is somewhat common among high g racing crashes. I got some pain killers, a pat on the head, and sent on my way. I should have gone to the hospital up front, of course, but at least did the follow up. My point is, if you feel intense pain, listen to the EMTs! And if when you get home have dizziness, blurry vision, or sharp pains - seek medical help. If you are "still sore" a week later, something might have torn or pulled, so go see your doctor.

        14. WILL YOU GET A BILL TO FIX THE TRACK?

        Places like COTA and BARBER are notorious for sending racers bills to fix barriers or clean up oil spills. Don't ask about it, but don't be surprised if you do get a bill days or weeks later from the track. Some racing groups cover this, some leave it up to the driver. Part of the game - just know that you could get an invoice. So far, 3 weeks after the event, I have not. I'm still holding my breath.

        15. INVESTIGATE THE CAUSE AND MAKE CHANGES

        Last but not least - figure out WHY you crashed, then mitigate learn from the mistakes. Looking at my video 1 week after the event, my tuner saw the cause in the data - as I was braking into T17 and downshifting, the Throttle Position Sensor was still showing 30% throttle opening! While I was braking. WHAT?!



        And him saying that jarred my memory. Yes, my foot kept catching the throttle pedal while braking at some events this season, just never caused a crash. We had made this pedal extension to help me with heel-toe downshifts, which was useful, but also made it easier to press both pedals at the same time on accident.



        2 events earlier the tuner removed the NEED to hell-toe, with an automatic rev match scheme added into the Haltech EFI system. We just forgot to remove this no-longer-needed gas pedal extension, and my foot caught the edge of the gas pedal while braking. And in that corner, there was no room for error - I was braking hard, and the extra forward thrust from a 700 hp engine even at only 30% throttle pushed through the brakes and took me off into the grass and into the wall.



        So we removed the pedal extension before our track test and it was a 100% drama free drive with respect to the pedals. I am still frustrated that I missed removing it - that extension should have come off as soon as the rev-matching system went online. Oh well, LIVE AND LEARN. I'm just glad I didn't get hurt myself and the car was a relatively easy fix. We didn't even miss a single event, so overall this was a not-too-terrible outcome. Just costly.

        Last piece of racer advice after any crash or major upgrade: NEVER ADD UP THE RECEIPTS! I tell this to my customers and I live by the same motto. My wife the accountant knows, but I ask her not to tell me. It is better to not know, trust me.

        Thanks for reading!
        Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
        2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
        EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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