Pezhead

Naw mate, you'll see it in due time. As I said, this project has turned into an epic episode. Can't tell the story before it's done.

It's nice to see some levity return to the thread. Sorry I haven't been my normal chipper self folks. Spent most of the weekend just mentally and physically recovering. I used that time to start the video and I think it is fair to say that it is going to be EPIC! Sorry to give you the teaser and then tell you that it's going to be weeks if not months before it is done but let me assure you it will be worth the wait. I'm estimating right now that it will end up being close to 30 minutes long. Geez, I'm making a TV SHOW!

Yes, it was. Was based in Vic. Car was up for sale about a year go. Can't remember the name of the owner though.

Here's a video of a few laps in the MX5. Best time was 1:20.5 which isn't bad considering it's absolutely bone stock. You can really hear the street bridgestones complaining on some of the corners. Nice burnout Dunc!

Appreciate your honesty, and by your own words you know what a strength it then takes to admit you are sensitive despite our cool exterior. I had the fortune of being raised by a very sensitive and mostly sensible man. He was raised by a very insensitive father. My father chose to break the vicous cycle. He had his faults, his temper trantrums, but had the feelings and patience of a saint. If you seek to strike hold of the good in a person, you will appreciate him for his efforts. My family has also seen its share of tragedy. I could embellesh but that isn't the point. I will admit that I have spent many cycles of my own personal interest time researching and developing my own emotional intelligence. "EI" is now being recognised in business as one of the primary skills of corporate leaders in successful organisations. So I am not implying it is in anyway common to display or understand your emotions. I'm just saying that I personally have had to develop those skills to overcome the adversities life has thrown at me and my family. As a younger man, I did think like you have stated. My perception has changed over the years and I have a new appreciation for people that demonstrate true life balance rather than one or two domineering strengths. ANYWAY, the point in moving forward from an event like this I have quoted in this thread: Attitude and your own moral compass guide you as to what are the right things to do in any given situation and I believe you have to design your own destiny despite the obstacles that will appear in your path A wise man that holds those two thoughs knows that he must build his own road to his own future and thus takes charge of his life. I truely do beleive this in my heart. So it matter not what others think. I've probably got a few years on most people in SAU (besides Neil & Terry - haha!). And I do not expect everyone to relate to what I am saying in this thread. I do, however, have my own confidence that it has taken me decades to build. Thus I do feel I can share freely in hopes that some of you can share in my journey and get a glimpse of my journey - what this thread is actually about. So no, it is not a Yankee thing about sensitive men. I would not even normally open my self up publicly like this either. The reason I have decided to write this blog is because what has happened to me a week ago, is the exact fear that keeps most people from entering these events in the first place. I can now honestly share that I have no intention of this event keeping me from further pursuing motorsport. I doubt that I will be able to participate for about a year, but I have already discussed my future intentions with Debra and she is supportive of me pursuing my passion as long as it does not conflict with the security of our life. I am thankful that the accident happened on a race course where there were no pedestrians, no telephone poles and no cliffs that would complicate things. I'm thankful that we were wearing safety equipment and the car had been emptied to ensure no flying debris caused further injury. I will leave you with these thoughts. I hope that those of you reading this will realise despite the emotion and strife, everyone walked away with no perminent physical harm. The race track IS the safest place to enjoy your car's performance potential - even a bone stock MX5. I've highlighted this because if you've made it this far in the thread and this is the last thing you read, this is the message I want you to take away with you.

PLANNING THE ROAD AHEAD - A BIT HARDER THANK I FIRST THOUGHT Thanks for sticking with me on this folks. I'm usually a quite decisive thinker and planner. The giant shift in goal and the emotional weight of this situation has honestly overwhelmed me a bit in the last 24 hours. So Hamilton, I'm still working on my plans and goals. I've taken a big step back to try to gain objectivity on what is the best outcome for everyone involved and observing this story as it unfolds. I promise I'll let you know the plan once I get it laid out in my head, but in the meantime I appreciate your moral support and eagerness to help out. This is a fantastic club full of great people. What can I share with you today then? Well, let me bring you up to date and open up to you about what I've been going through emotionally over the last 24 hours. To fully understand the feelings behind the little MX5 I'm going to have to take you back to why we bought it in the first place. My Wife and I migrated here to Oz in 2000. Some of you might notice that I have a strange accent and sometimes spell things with a "Z". Yes, I'm a Yank and sometimes even wear it proudly. Well, since first arriving here we had a Toyota 4-Runner. It was dependable but pretty much a boring bit lug of a thing to drive. We needed a family truckster and it fit the bit. Some of you will already know the joke that when my wife decided she wanted to stay in Australia and asked me what it would take for us to stay here, without a single hesitation I said "I need a GTR - and it has to be a V-Spec!". 5 years later we made good on that comment. I found my R33 GTR that had most of the modifications I wanted done the way I would have done them. So in August 2006 I finally got my dream. Initially Debra was really happy seeing me so excited at every opportunity to drive the car around. But soon she concluded that she was stuck driving the boring truckster while I was sporting around in GD2ILA. We examined the finances and figured that we could budget a bit of money to get her something fun too. We initially were hoping to get her a 350Z - we both have always loved them, but our budget didn't strech that far. So I started doing research what else falls in the budget. Z3, MR2, god forbid even some of those Brittish things (some other story - I have mechanical mental scaring from my classic mini cooper). When I initially suggested an MX5 she said "everyone has those". Of course when several co-workers suggested it she warmed to the idea. So I think I planted the initial seed. We went around and checked out a few but found we really liked the 2000-2003 body shape. It got rid of the pop-up headlamps and gave the car just enough of a "Peanut" shape that it really looked nice. There were a few in our price range too (which the Z3 and MR2 were just out of reach). So we found the little Crystal Blue sportser with only 70k on the clock! She's enjoyed driving it every day since then up until this incident. To her it that car represents "FUN" and that it's her car. [flash forward to the present] Yesterday after the DR had made his prognosis, I had to shuffle off to work. I'm driving the GTR daily again since the accident. As I drove down the road, a little later than normal, I drove past a few secondary school boys waiting for the bus. As I drove past they waived their arms and big approving smiles on their faces as the sight of my GTR. It made me feel all proud of my car and little did I know it planted a seed that could recoil in a few hours. In to work and getting right to it I got my coffee and started plodding on the computer. I have a desk job and today didn't have a lot of meeting so I could focus on getting a few tasks done for a change. So I donned my headphones turned on the iPod and started working through a few tasks that didn't take a lot of brainpower so I could think on what to do next about the MX5. About an hour in when the iPod shuffled to something with a bit of feeling (can't even remember what song it was now), I felt myself welling up. There were these waves of emotion that started and I could feel them starting to splash over my barriers of control. I casually got up and went to the lifts, down to the car park and sat in my car for a few moments. Thank god for tinted windows and dark carparks. I usually not a very emotional person. Some people read this that I'm cold, but my coping mechanism is to logic my way through a situation and then let my emotions rationalise in the context of the framework I've created. It's not very often that I get overwhelmed like this. I sat and pondered what had caused such an overwhelming feeling. It is really quite logical now that I've laid out the context for you. Since the accident I'm back to driving my pride and joy - my GTR. Ask anyone that knows me and my car. I'm proud of it and will not accept anything less than my own standards when it comes to that car. My wife's car, her pride and joy is totalled. Here I am proudly driving my car and she is the victom left without. The guilt became overwhelming. I sat with that realisation and cried for the first time in many years. I dearly love my wife and I had to deal with the guilt of what she has gone through in this experience. That night when I got home, I sat her down and explained and appologised. She's an amazing woman, my wife. She said that she had gone through the greiving last week and that she didn't blame me. She even felt empathy for me in my guilt, but that I need to resolve that so I can move on too. She said that she already had in her head, but that your emotions naturally lag behind your reason. So that's what has preoccupied most of my extra thinking capacity over the last 24 hours. I think it will continue to consumer a fair bit as I work through the emotions and endeaver to put them into rational context. Some of you may wonder what we are doing for transportation. Two months back we decided that it was time of the truck to retire. It had done 200,000k's and was just getting tired. So we traded it in on a new family car - a Mazda 3. GD2ILA really isn't the kind of car you put friends and family in to go to dinner or pick up from an airport and a MX5 really didn't do that either. So now at least Debra can drive the 3 and GD2ILA goes back to daily duties. So at least Debra has transportation, but we all know what it means to drive something you truely love. Thank you for sticking through that whole long winded story.

Damage to the rear included broken diff mount (Right side), broken hub/upright, snapped upper control arm and bent lower A-Arm. Um so yeah going to be an alignment problem on that rear wheel. The ONLY thing holding the wheel remotely in the correct spot was that the fenders were smashed around it. We removed the wheel so we could get it up on the trailer. We had to let all the air out of the tyres and then put on the spare. The spare sits at about -20 camber. A so yeah - Hella flush with a safety spare

Hmm may have to consider it. It's a 1.8l w/6 spd. 98k on the clock. But main thing will be to see if I can get rid of the whole thing quickly so it isn't sitting around in pieces. I have those kind of neighbors and GD2ILA isn't willing to sit outside while the 5 gets parted out.

Thanks for letting us know that the other driver and passenger are ok.

RIP LITTLE MX5 Ok, it's time for the next installment of the blog now that I've had some time to think about things and discuss them with my wife. She loved that little car so much but it is time to let it go. My wife is an amazing woman. She started dealing with the grief last weekend and now that I am dealing with it she is supporting me as I go through the guilt and greiving. I actually had to leave my desk today at work as the emotions overwhelmed me so I could just walk it off for a few minutes. I feel so bad that it was her car that got totalled. I'll swap the wheels and tyres over to our little Mazda 3 as that was one option I had planned to upgrade on it down the track. So I guess some part of the little car will be carried forward with us. I know that the MX5's are popular little rally and race cars so if anyone knows of someone looking to buy the rest of the car for parts, please let me know. I think that some of the clubman guys use MX5 parts? If any of you have contacts or ideas let me know. I really don't have the space here at my house to part it out over time so I need to get rid of the whole thing if possible. Actually it was my wife who has supported just getting a salvager to take it away. However, I do know that they will only give the minimum price as they are a business and need to make big margins on the parts in order to operate revenue positive. Once the little car has gone, we luckily have the little Mazda 3 and my GTR. So at least we both still have transportation.

Actually we haven't heard anything about Richard and his passenger. Does anyone know how they are doing?

Folks, still have a "Grand Plan". Just the distance between the goal posts is longer than I thought. I'm an optimist and have always held true to the belief in possibility - you have to design your own destiny despite the obstacles that will appear in your path. (Sitting here at work today with my iPod on, plodding through my database queries so I do have some extra capacity to multitask on this issue).

PROGNOSIS FROM THE CAR DOCTOR You know that look your doctor gives you when he has bad news? I could see the signs on his face before he even opened his mouth. Methodically he walked around the car inspecting panels and gaps between. When he told me that the rear subframe has shifted, my heart sank. This is a convertable after all and took a big hit. You really can't blame the little car it did its best and has faired suprisingly well. But my amature eyes didn't find the small crease marks in areas of the boot floor. Phil graciously pointed them out to me and was kind enough to explain all the details about how it affects the total alignment of the car. Well, this is a game changer for Project Wifie. I'll have to have a good think about it now. I will post up once I revise my plans.

Thanks Owen, I do hope that Reece and Richard are ok too. Hey folks, sorry I didn't really have much time this week to organise a fundraiser to co-incide with the cruise on Saturday. I contemplated doing a BBQ but short timing, logistics and the fact that I may need to run to start picking up parts just makes it a bit to hard to pull off. Let alone notify everyone to show up early for a snag. I've got some planning in the works so you'll be seeing some kind of social events & fund raising coming up soon.

CAR DOCTOR TO MAKE A HOUSE CALL A forum member's father runs a smash repair near me. He has graciously offered to stop by on his way to work tomorrow to give me an assessment of the damage and what he thinks it will take to repair it. I've got some parts lined up already but just don't want to drop the cash and effort to pick them up until I'm sure the car can be repaired. With this development, I could be getting parts this weekend if the car doctor gives the OK! With only a week gone by I'm pleased with the progress. I hope all goes well tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted.

Zebra, thanks for your concern but this gound has been covered again and again. I'm really having second thoughts that I should have followed my initial judgement about not posting the video until this story was farther progressed. Please respect my wishes that we move on and progress this thread back to the journey forward from this unfortunate accident. Both Thunder and I agree that there is no changing what happened. We both have chosen how we will move forward. Please everyone, cease the discussion on the what/who/could have etc about the accident.

tk80, I would never compare my personal issue to those ones. I have personally donated to both causes as it is important for community to always do our share to pitch in. However, there are large organisations and government funds going into those causes. I'm not saying my issue is larger, only that perspective is needed. Also, I'm simply asking for those that feel they'd like to help. If you don't or cannot contribute that is fine. I welcome the moral support as well. We are a community of car enthusiast. I hope I never have to organise another one of these, but if another club member were in a similar predicament I would definately be there to help them sort it out as much as I can.

Prue, I really appreciate the support but all this discussion needs to stop. Thunder, if you want to have a personal rant at me - go start another thread and you and I can have as many words as you like there. This thread is about me getting my problem sorted and the club support I'm getting to help me get there. If you have nothing constructive to offer than leave.

I sent a PM to Reece to see how he's going and offer the advice I've received from my Physio. I hope to hear back from him soon.

For clarity I didn't threaten you I asked you to review the photos and video and provide your view as having been drawn in as an active participant (e.g. owner of the car involved). I said, I will seek legal advice once I had obtained the waiver. I didn't say I would sue you. I suggested that as a personal moral ethic, I believe there is more that could be done outside the fixed legal requirement. That is all factual. I have been nothing but professional with you and in return have been accused of being "the only one who could have avoided the accident". I am done with this discussion! Thunder, we have put these issues to bed. I am done discussing them with you and would request that all of our other members cease all discussions on that topic. This thread is my PERSONAL ACCOUNT of what happened and how I am working through it (with the help of our club). Thunder, you are neither helping support my initiative or providing any thing that helps me achieve the correct outcome which is to get my car, body and mind back to normal. Please leave!

SEEING THE DOCTOR After the accident I gave my Physio a call. I was concerned because it was two days after the crash and I was still really sore. He said that day two is sometimes the worst for muscle pain. Give it two more days and if it doesn't get better then come in and see me. I went to the Physio this morning to have my shoulder checked out. I get a sharp pain when I cough and sometimes if I bend a certain way. He had me bend and stretch certain ways and measured the tension of various muscles. The muscle in my neck on the right side is really taught. That is pulling on a joint which causes a spasm in my shoulder blade under certain circumstances. He's said that because I have full movement and don't appear to have any specific tender spots it looks to be just muscular. He's given me a few stretching exercises to do and in two weeks the muscle should be back to a normal tension level. It's a relief. I wouldn't want to have any nerve damage. Oh, I also asked cause a couple of people recommended I get a massage after the accident. He said that is the worst thing you can do. The muscles are already pulled, stretched and tensioned from the trauma. The last thing you want to do is pull further which can cause some real damage. Luckily I was just too tired on Sunday after the accident cause I was thinking of going to the mall for a massage. Please keep that good advice in mind folks. So, now that I have my body maintenance plan underway that's one more item on the road to recovery.

I don't have it. It was rotorg33 company that has it. Ironically I convinced them NOT to put it in their commercial DVD. I didn't want to post it out of the context of the whole story.

As some others have said I shouldn't have mentioned legal so soon. To be honest I was a bit emotional and hadn't gotten the copy of the waiver from Wakefield to have a detailed review. Legally I do understand that I signed away the rights outlined in that Waiver, but I has also promised my wife (who really doesn't understand motorsport) as she wanted me to see if I could pursue that as an avenue. With that behind now, it is forward to working with all of you and your good will to get this car back to road worthy. As has been said many times already in this thread, attitude and your own moral compass guide you as to what are the right things to do in any given situation. The Legal boundaries are clear (now).

FOND MEMORIES The discussion in here needs to take a new direction so here is the next installment of the blog. I've been excited about motor racing ever since I was a little boy watching the Mach 5 with my brothers. We'd make lego cars and pretend to race them all over the house. My first track experience was when a friend invited me to an Alfa Romeo club track day in Seattle. I only had a modest Celica and took it out to run. It leaned so bad that the shoulders of the tyres worn down so I couldn't run anymore but I was hooked. I though, wow I couldn't get over how different it is to drive on a race track. Being able to really push the car and my driving skills to a limit. That car would eventually got a Japanese import motor with side draft carbies, A008 porsche spec tyres and centerline rims and a number of other goodies. Wasn't ever as fast as a car you can get now but was lots of fun and started my interest in motorsport. In a lot of ways the MX5 reminded me of that experience. My GTR is way faster. It's a beast coming on boost and fighting the weight as you enter turn 1 at 180 and try to slow it back down. The MX5 was full throttle through 1 and could late brake up to turn 1 using the trail braking to turn in and then right back on the power as hard as possible with the 1.8 litre working hard. I was surpised how fun it is to drive given that it only makes 1/3 what the GTR does. It did lean a lot being a totally stock car, but being so light the RE001 rubber didn't have to work as hard and so held pretty good considering how hard I was pushing the car. Did I push the car too hard sometimes - well, yes but being small light and a bit underpowered it didn't matter the back would casually come out and so controllably do as you command. Of course that is a slow way around the track - but it sure was fun. I randomly picked a few laps and uploaded to youtube - excuse the poor driving lines. But I needed to get this thread back on track. This is the excitement and thrill of a track day. A day when you are one with your mechanical friend. There is simply nothing like the sensation of taking a car out on the track for a few laps. (Oh and nice burn out Duncan!)

Trozzle, In my opinion once he attempted to make the corner he was committed. If he straightended out he would have impacted the tyre wall at speed. Given that fact, I do not think he could have made it back on to the track either even if my car weren't on the exit lane. Of course this IS my opinion - I leave that to you to form an opinion of your own given my video and Brian/Bianca's photos. Please remember folks great for you to have an opinion, but they are only that. The facts on this accident have already occurred. I'm not one for a great deal of pondering spilt milk. However, since Greg and I have such differing opinions on the matter I just wanted to give you the facts that I had documented through photos and video for you to have your own opinion. At the end of the day, it is done. The owner and Driver of the car are not legally bound per the terms of the WP waiver to provide me with any sort of compensation. Fine. They must choose their own moral code as to what is the "right" thing to do in this situation. They have chosen. I have to move on - I have no choice.