JackMcCornack wrote:
There's a lot I don't get about this structural failure. If the tabs failed simultaneously, why did they fail 5 minutes and 32 seconds after the impact? Where did the "twisting motion" come from? And though I understand how braking puts a pull on the front chassis attachment, it doesn't seem like it would be within an order of magnitude as great as the "pull" caused by hitting the pothole. I'm still flummoxed.
Jack, perhaps this will help clarify. And I’d truly be interested in learning what your long-term recovery results have been since your accident.
horizenjob wrote:
. . . . . . Looking at the parts of the bracket connected to the control arm you can see only the top part of the ears are bent backwards. So there was backwards movement when the top part gave away but not the bottom part.
horizenjob wrote:
How did a big vertical load get to that bracket? The control arm has a . . . . (bushing), so the vertical load should just be a percentage of the load at the coil over. Did it get an outwards load from the front wheel getting pushed backwards hitting the pothole?
horizenjob wrote:
So that seems most likely to me, a large amount of the bracket failed in tension from rearward force, that would show up as outward force on this bracket (tension ). At some point there must have been rearward movement of the control arm to cause the rearward bending of the remainder of the tabs still on the control arm.
horizenjob is asking the right questions and is pondering in the right direction regarding what actually happened with the mount.
If you break down the complete failure of the mount into two parts, it helps to understand what took place. A) Impacting the pothole was the onset of the failure; it caused the lower portion of each of those mounting tabs to rip/tear from the bottom of the tabs upward, to partially ‘fail in tension’. They didn’t rip away completely. However, just exactly how much of those tabs were still attached to the car is (and always will be) an unknown. After reviewing the damage to the RH tab, following the impact from the vertical drop that took place during the accident, I’m fairly certain the initial damage was substantial; the impact with the pothole was extremely hard. B) following the impact with the pothole, the mounting tabs were exposed to five minutes and thirty-two seconds worth of metal fatigue during braking for corners; this caused the majority of the rest of the damage to the (still attached) portion of the tabs which, in turn, led to their complete failure as I braked for turn 11.
After contact with the pothole, I slowed down and began evaluating the car and picked up the pace a little with each successive lap. I drove approximately 2 and a half more circuits before the suspension broke down. During the five minutes and thirty-two seconds that followed (after impacting the pothole), the car drove perfectly and exhibited no abnormalities in handling…..nothing whatsoever…..right up to the point the suspension broke down in the braking zone of turn 11. Having said that, my personal thoughts are this; even though there was well over five minutes of fatigue time to account for (again, after impact with the pothole), the breakdown (the separating of the rest of the tabs) was aggressive and sudden. I dare say that as I braked for turn 11, the forward tab (the most damaged of the two) was the first to completely fail. The complete failure of the rear tab followed. All of this, obviously, literally happened in a fraction of a second. That this happened during braking, in turn, caused the rearward bending of the ‘remainder’ (the still-connected portion) of the tabs.
[/quote]I'm surprised there isn't more damage to the frame. Wouldn't that front corner drag on the pavement/ground when the front suspension gave away? [/quote]
See the photos below. The front wing mount and the oil pan took the brunt of the impact after breakdown; this resulted in very little ‘visual damage’ to the frame.
There’s been a lot of speculation, and sometimes, presumptuousness, thrown on the table regarding my accident. The difference is that I had a front row seat and back stage pass, and luckily, I’m still here to tell the tale. The bottom line is this; the accident happened. Period. I didn’t post the information on this forum because I didn’t plan on discussing the information on this forum. It was brought up by another…and that’s fine. But now that it’s here, I ask, that unless your criticism is constructive and carries merit, to please keep it yourself. And that truly interested parties simply carry away something positive and instructional from all this so that it doesn’t jump up and bite you in a$$ that the way it did me.