Rally Protege: Officially Dead
Well folks, the Rally Protege is no more.
Short Version:
Good News: Everyone's fine. No injuries to speak of. Very minor neck soreness the morning after for myself. Everything but the rollcage and car shell was salvagable.
Bad News: I crashed the Protege and extracting it damaged it more than the body shell was worth.
Long Version:
Just over two weeks ago I drove from MN to Colorado to compete in the Colorado Cog Rally. Stage one went fine. I ended up in 2nd place in G2 taking it a little slower to let my Dad get used to reading notes.
The second stage started off well. I noticed that most of the time there was amazing amounts of grip on these roads. They are nothing like the gravel/sand roads of Minnesota. The surface is a hard-packed clay with loose gravel on the top. After the front runners go past, the surface is swept and I could cruise.
4-5 miles into stage 2, I came upto a slight right that tightened over a crest. I let the backend go into the loose gravel and it let loose into a slide. I turned into it to try to regain control. The massive grip difference between the front and back wheels whipped the backend back the other way. I steered back again but by this point I had pretty much lost control of the car.
I flew over a ditch, sideways, then hit a rock. That launched me into a deep, steep ditch. After that the car rolled over like a good little dog. The time between initial slide to being upside-down in the ditch was about 6 seconds.
I looked at my dad, confirmed we were both OK and then proceeded to get out of my car. The panel in front of the driver's side door had been pushed under that of the door. Thus, getting the door open required me to bend the sheet metal. It would not very difficult under normal circumstances to do this. However, from a seated position, with one hand versus gravity and the strength of the metal... it wasn't too easy.
Amazingly, the car didn't look too bad the way it sat. The windshield had webbed slightly, but other than that, no windows broke. The right-front wheel and attached suspension parts (control arm, tie rod etc) had been ripped off. The trunk also was crushed during the rollover.
All the problems were in getting it back out of the ditch. The tow truck (only with one working winch) had to drag the car up and out of the ditch on its roof. This broke the back window, tore off the roof scoop and dented the roof. Then upon rolling it back onto its wheels, the passenger window broke.
Needless to say, the images of the aftermath were much worse than the car looked in the ditch.
The tech inspector came to view the car after the accident. He said that the cage itself didn't deform at all. If we hadn't incurred all the sheet metal and glass damage, he'd have let us race the second day.
So, I drove 1,000 miles to compete a scant 8 miles out of the 100 mile route. Rally definitely is not a sport for those that take disappointment poorly.
Now it's back to the drawing board. At least a clubprotege member will get to take advantage of the struts Dave (cablemirc) found for me. They survived the roll even with one getting ripped straight through the top mount.
Lessons learned:
1) I cannot race in Colorado like I had in Minnesota. The road surfaces are just too different.
2) Beware of deep ditches.
3) Don't skimp on safety equipment.
-Ben
P.S. If I get off my ass, I'll probably post a quick in-car video of it
Short Version:
Good News: Everyone's fine. No injuries to speak of. Very minor neck soreness the morning after for myself. Everything but the rollcage and car shell was salvagable.
Bad News: I crashed the Protege and extracting it damaged it more than the body shell was worth.
Long Version:
Just over two weeks ago I drove from MN to Colorado to compete in the Colorado Cog Rally. Stage one went fine. I ended up in 2nd place in G2 taking it a little slower to let my Dad get used to reading notes.
The second stage started off well. I noticed that most of the time there was amazing amounts of grip on these roads. They are nothing like the gravel/sand roads of Minnesota. The surface is a hard-packed clay with loose gravel on the top. After the front runners go past, the surface is swept and I could cruise.
4-5 miles into stage 2, I came upto a slight right that tightened over a crest. I let the backend go into the loose gravel and it let loose into a slide. I turned into it to try to regain control. The massive grip difference between the front and back wheels whipped the backend back the other way. I steered back again but by this point I had pretty much lost control of the car.
I flew over a ditch, sideways, then hit a rock. That launched me into a deep, steep ditch. After that the car rolled over like a good little dog. The time between initial slide to being upside-down in the ditch was about 6 seconds.
I looked at my dad, confirmed we were both OK and then proceeded to get out of my car. The panel in front of the driver's side door had been pushed under that of the door. Thus, getting the door open required me to bend the sheet metal. It would not very difficult under normal circumstances to do this. However, from a seated position, with one hand versus gravity and the strength of the metal... it wasn't too easy.
Amazingly, the car didn't look too bad the way it sat. The windshield had webbed slightly, but other than that, no windows broke. The right-front wheel and attached suspension parts (control arm, tie rod etc) had been ripped off. The trunk also was crushed during the rollover.
All the problems were in getting it back out of the ditch. The tow truck (only with one working winch) had to drag the car up and out of the ditch on its roof. This broke the back window, tore off the roof scoop and dented the roof. Then upon rolling it back onto its wheels, the passenger window broke.
Needless to say, the images of the aftermath were much worse than the car looked in the ditch.
The tech inspector came to view the car after the accident. He said that the cage itself didn't deform at all. If we hadn't incurred all the sheet metal and glass damage, he'd have let us race the second day.
So, I drove 1,000 miles to compete a scant 8 miles out of the 100 mile route. Rally definitely is not a sport for those that take disappointment poorly.
Now it's back to the drawing board. At least a clubprotege member will get to take advantage of the struts Dave (cablemirc) found for me. They survived the roll even with one getting ripped straight through the top mount.
Lessons learned:
1) I cannot race in Colorado like I had in Minnesota. The road surfaces are just too different.
2) Beware of deep ditches.
3) Don't skimp on safety equipment.
-Ben
P.S. If I get off my ass, I'll probably post a quick in-car video of it
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