Winton Track Day

[32brother]

Hey all,

Went up to Winton last Sunday.

First track outing and f_cking loved it, before.....

I'll give you's a write up later but thought I'd share my unbelievable misfortune with the community......

Cheap and nasty rims, yeah probably. On the car when I bought them. Got new pads fitted on saturday, went to change all four rims to standard 32's but couldn't get the front ones loose. f**king rattle gun did them up so tight so I thought, ok I'll leave them on. I'll give you the write up soon, just at work. Just defending the stupid 'captain obvious' replies that I'm sure will bombard this post.

Here goes. This was e email sent to friend, couldn't be bothered re-writting it, so if it reads like you should know me, you now understand.

Hello all,

As some of you may or not know, I went on a track day at Winton race way Sunday just past. Let me start by saying, it was awesome! Next open track day I'll sure be back, really nice track.

As per usual with motor sport, if something can go wrong, it usually does, in a mean/bizarre fashion.

Set the story for you, Saturday, got new front brake pads fitted, went to another place and got a front end alignment done. Saturday arvo, went to a mates to borrow some standard skyline rims, predominately to save rooting my street tyres and secondly to eliminate the chance of stuffing a rim(s).

Changed the rear tyres no probs' tried the fronts, but no go. The rattle gun (from the brake shop) that had tightened the nuts back up, were so tight that the pressure put on the tyre wrench to loosen them was lifting the front end of my car, so i decided to leave them on, as we couldn’t get them off.

My car had recently been upgraded with a computer and a few assorted goodies, made 220 kw @ the rears so I was keen as ever to get out. As for you who have been in my car, you can understand due to it making power in the higher end of the rev range, its not real street friendly or should i say, police/licence friendly, lets not bullshit.

Sunday, Winton race way.

Cut a few laps, my intake pipe kept blowing out from the cooler, first two times from a dodgy pipe clamp, third time, a new clamp but a creeping 19psi plus was just smashing the pipe out. Lowered the boost to 15 - 16 Psi, no dramas.

Did a few more laps no worries, trying to find the best line around and be a smooth.

Had my car booked in for ‘Tein’ fully adjustable suspension last week, but just couldn't make it. The car was surprisingly holding up ok with standard gear, but just couldn’t maintain decent corner speed with the combination of standard suspension and mixture of soft compound on the fronts and old weathered hard compounds on the back.

So I thought bugger this, didn’t come all this way to just go for a cruise. Lap by lap I was increasingly growing confidence with my car and the circuit. My driving style became more of a “how fast and sideways can I get this thing” sort of a semi race/drift. Unreal to just be in the ideal environment to do and try, how and what ever, you feel like. You don’t loose points out there…. Footage will be sweet people.

Just about to wrap up the day but decided (I know your thinking, ooh yes, as it all ways happens) To go out for a quick squirt, before packing up.

Second or third lap in, come through a sweeping left (Ford cedit sweeper), just about to throw it right (Roll over corner). Knock, Thud, Crack! What the F_ck! Look out the window and there is my front left tyre over taking me. Don’t know exactly how fast I was going but I’d take a rough punt on at least a 100.

Front left slammed into the track, managed to keep it straight, Bang ,Bang, Bang, Crunch, over the ripple strip and came to rest on the grass. My tyre ended up a good 150 meters away after it could have being mistaken for a low flying plane. Brake rotor was ground flat.

So, so lucky that it happened on the most forgiving part of the track, due to the most run off and my old time favourite, no close concrete barriers, considering also that I had a passenger. Even worse if it had of being comming back down the hume......

My rim had broken away from the studs, not something I’d consider “ oh yeah, that happened to you, what a bitch”.

Checked the front right rim out of interest, while calling a tow truck, and what do you know there’s two hair line fractures on two spokes, comming from the studs.

Can’t help but consider the co-incidence of the rims being done up so tight, or maybe just a shit compound of alloy added with the abuse of track work I don’t know. Rims came with the car. Max load after the fact of 690Kg per rim, think I would've pushed that!

But luckily after that little expensive experience I got footage, in car footage. Awesome. Haven’t seen it yet my self, but should be cut on to dvd soon.

Have a close look at the photos, you can see the centre of my rim still firmly bolted to the hub.

Edited November 2, 2006 by 32brother

[Snowman]

God damn! That's a new one.

[--{TRYDIS}--]

hence the reason why u dont buy cheap rims lol no offence dude damn sorry bout da bad news! by the way doesnt that classify as a right off??? how fast wer u goin give us a right up god damn it lol

[allblitz]

Another victim of Winton - sorry to hear the news man.

[Bec]

Something Ive never seen before......

OUCH!!!

[phunky_monkey]

Jeez, don't see that everyday...

[West]

Shit happened man.

I've seen that before, on a GTR in QLD a while a go i think, let me try to find the pic. As long as there isn't much damage to the car itself.

[d00dz]

damm...

[Wink]

ouch

I really want to know whether the undeniable root cause of this was the poor integrity of the rim.

We've all heard horror stories of cheap rims doing stuff like this but here could be firsthand photographic proof.

[Moanie]

hence the reason why u dont buy cheap rims lol no offence dude damn sorry bout da bad news! by the way doesnt that classify as a right off??? how fast wer u goin give us a right up god damn it lol

he did say those rims came with the car and he tried to change them... with no luck!

and dayum that sux dude hope the bill isn't too bad

[--{TRYDIS}--]

umm Moanie he edited the post u nut i posted my reply b4 that was ritten lol

[Bass Junky]

Holy Moly.

[Moanie]

umm Moanie he edited the post u nut i posted my reply b4 that was ritten lol

lol!! damn edit button

[--{TRYDIS}--]

its ok Moanie i forgive u lol

[Sass]

that's gotta suck

[ferni]

Fark dude, that sucks, can't belive the rim fell apart like that even if it was cheap...

What were you doing at the time it happened? (braking? cornering etc.?)

[Mr. Oizo]

Ouch.

How fast were you going when that happened?

[ziad]

that look quite bad. hopefully u r alright. have u heard from the mechanics how much and what damage to the car?

[Downforce]

Holy shit! Haven't seen that happen before. You're lucky you didn't roll it!

[R32gts-t]

Those wheels are the shittesticle things to hit the road inthis country, i'll try and dig up a pic i have somewhere on this laptop.

edit: i couldn't find the picture, it was of a yellow twin turbo z32 with exactly the same problem as above, with the same "quality wheels" too.

Edited November 2, 2006 by R32gts-t