TRACKMAN2

guys i need vids i can publicly use showing your bad wrecks that you escaped injury because of a head and neck restraint...chance to be famous!!!!!!

rmackintosh

Don't know about escaping injury, but I did break the HANS and it DID save my life....NO DOUBT about it--along with the Racetech head restraint seat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=numLu...nkpNKch60oeMQ=

fatbillybob

Geez that was nasty. At speed it does not take much to make a car change direction in a negative way. Did you walk away or.....

TRACKMAN2

Awsom mixed emotions want most gorrey fotage but then i reaolize there my friends the vet that hit the wall at texas a few years ago red one who was that..

Racingswh

Wow! Now that's frustrating. I am glad you're here to write and post. That was a wicked wreck.

rmackintosh

I did not walk away. It took them an hour to cut me out of that car. I was then Lifeflighted to the nearest trauma center for emergency surgery on my left shoulder....whole left side was busted up. Spent a week in the hospital and months recovering. Still can't see too well.

The aftermath:




My kids favorite from the hospital:



Lucky to be here!!!

Shaka

We're lucky you're here.

rmackintosh

Hehe....just looking at that wreck....that motor is this very minute sitting in the new Corvette race car!!! :woot:

fatbillybob

Man I'm glad you are here to tell your story. From the pics...did your seat break from the mountings so that's the reason your left side got busted up? If its too painful to relive just ignore my post. The reason I ask is because I'm the safety weenie always telling people to consider mounting their seats to their cages not just the floor.

rmackintosh

No....our seat was FIRMLY mounted at the bottom. Due to the various opinions of solid mounting seat at the rear mount we had a stiff/thick aluminum mount that was bent to allow less shock fore/aft.

Problem was....what caused the seat movement...and you are correct, what caused the majority of my injuries was the movement of the seat when the belts DID NOT MOVE at all.....was the fact that the floor of the car buckled upward and outward about a FOOT!!! The backseat area buckled up upwards of TWO FEET in some areas.

You can mount the seat solid to anything, but if that thing moves....you are screwed. Thus, in the Corvette, I have removed all the balsa wood on the drivers side and put in steel flooring and rectangular stock to build a solid frame. Live and learn.....

The same motor from the Camaro...

fatbillybob

Wow! What a story. I was taught to build a seat frame welded to be part of the cage so that if the car disintegrated I would be safe. But from your description of your event I'm not sure if even my seat frame would have been enough. If you got pictures of your new design, knowing what you know now, I would love to see a picture of it. Your new design sounds very stout. I like aluminum nascar style full containment seats because they are stiff and can be drilled by design to be mounted to cages. I got mine bolted in at 8 places vs. the typical FIA plastic seat at 4 places on the bottom. That racetech seat you had was one of the best seats too. The problem is that FIA seats have smaller containment fences and were never designed to have back braces except the newest FIA seats that have back brace feature molded into the back like the anchors are for the base. I have unfotunately tested my custom ultrashield road race superseat in one rollover and one big rearender. I was lucky enough to walk away from both. I've been hurt more after a day of skiing. Kudo's to you for coming back to race again and telling us what you learned. Thanks!

travisnd

Do you know what was the guy in the blue Viper saying as you were crashing? I couldn't make it out.

I have my seat mounted with Hardbar rails on the stock studs and tied into my cage using part of an I/O port back brace, but every time I look at pics of your crash it makes me think about ditching the stock floor. My problem is that I'm tall (6'4") so every bit of space counts for fitting in the car.

rmackintosh

I will look for some seat mount pics. Basically the floor design is very similar to the Blackdog racing floors that have pics shown here if you do a search. Basically cut out balsa and thick plate steel in its place welded to a frame tied to the frame rails and surrounding area.

That is one reason I chose to race a Vette this time....REAL frame vs. unibody car that just got all torn up in the crash....spot welds ripped apart everywhere.

The RaceTech has the rear seat mounts in it as you mention....so did the old one....but our "flexible" mount was not designed to protect an upward and sideways movement, so the aircraft rivets in the aluminum failed.

The new rear mount is now steel and MUCH more sturdy....going the other direction in terms of what "experts" say on that...hehe.

rmackintosh

Being tall myself...not as tall as you, but tall in the torso and short legged, that was another reason to remove the floor. I gained space. The balsa wood is near 3/4" thick and the steel is much less. We put the steel down as low as it could go, gaining about 1/2" of headroom.

The Viper driver I believe is saying something to the effect of "Ken! Randy just crashed". Then a pause and repeats "RANDY!!!" as it seems the crew chief said "who" in response. What I have made out anyway.

The Viper and I have had many a good battle in the day...with me finishing just in front of it the last few events. It was on my but those last few laps and even though I was in the lead, my dad was warning me on the radio constantly of it creeping up!

larryfs

Can we assume you no longer race ?

My friend wrecked his harley, and his eyes looked like that for a good month.

travisnd

I had to get a waiver from the NASA National Director to cut out the top of my floor pan. I gained 5/8" over the Hardbar seat stud adapters you normally use. My waiver specifies the floor cannot look different fronm the bottom side. The seat is supported by the OEM metal "cross-ribs", the remaining floor, and it's tied into the cage on the seat back. Replacing with metal is a no-go in NASA w/o a 0.4 power/weight ratio adjustment. I'd really like to replace the stock metal channel seat supports with quality square tube.

96CollectorSport

Blackdog seat area with there description -

Here's a link to the build photos
http://blackdogspeedshop.com/builds/c5cage/

travisnd

Yep that's the best way to do it. However, I'd put the square tube on the bottom side to maintain all the head room possible.

rmackintosh

That's it! Pretty much what we have done.

Dr. Sunny

Hi Everyone,

My name is Dr. Sunder Sims-Lucas and i am working with George Davis to produce the first head and neck support system for children's car seats. As all of you know the Hans device saves lives on the race track every day. However, there is no such device for children in car seats who are very susceptible to head and neck injuries due to there heads being large in relation to the size of their bodies. We are extremely excited and passionate to be designing such a design for children and would like your help in relating the need for such a device.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Sunny