If serious... my advice is do not get trapped in endless repairs bills - car #254 will never 'feel' straight anymore/anyway. Second advice is to buy a roller and swap the racing bits over bud. I bet it will be 50% cheaper that way and you'll be back on the track twice faster also I'm sure
I hear what you're saying and I felt the same when I first looked at it. The bottom line is that the car will be disassembled and then sent to a professional body shop for evaluation. Then we'll make a determination whether to repair or replace the chassis.
I appreciate your comments about endless repair bills and it never feeling right again. For now, let's wait and see what is really damaged and how badly. I hope that will point us in the right direction.
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1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
Bummer. Glad you're okay. FWIW I think it might not be worth the effort to fix. Mine was hit in the same corner (although not quite as badly from the looks of it) and was written off.
Might be cheaper just to buy a roller or something with damage in the rear and swap your parts over, pending the results of the assessment of course. Best of luck.
Location: Montreal, QC. (currently expat to Shanghai)
Posts: 3,249
Tom, good luck with the estimate. Really hope it turns out to be a quick job for you and the car.
What a mess. Just had a look at the very first pics you posted on this thread and I'm bloody speechless. Racing is a nasty game.... and believe me when I say I know how it feels... I've just trashed a US$50k (worth) Superbike a few months ago. In my case its totaled, so is my shoulder lolll
Keep us posted man and good luck again
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'97 Boxster base model 2.5L, Guards Red/Tan leather, with a new but old Alpine am/fm radio.
Tom, glad you're Ok!
Now get that baby fixed and back on track. I live vicariously through your videos, and I will need another fix soon. Or it's back to Seinfeld reruns -- totally pathetic.
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James now has: 2008 987S 6 speed
Crashed: 2010 987.2 pdk in speed yellow!
Sold to a cool racer chick: 2004 986 S
YouTube channel: the PORSCHE as seen by NewArt www.youtube.com/channel/UCohdrH2xHTklM1thxk0KKOQ?
I think I read that your boxster was a 97. If so, it would be a good time to upgrade to the 98.5-2000 front subframe. I'd also throw in some bigger S coolant tubes. Over heating doesn't seem to be a problem once you're on the track but guys that have them seem to run a little cooler when stationary. I wouldn't trust the rack and pinion even if it looks like it survived untouched. I've seen guys have issue down the road with those. They do well in street cars but really get abused on track cars and don't take well to getting hit.
This is the second race on Saturday. I had finished 4th of 14 in the first race so I started this race in P4. At the start, I got a good run and was able to get to 3rd. Then 1st-4th were all within a few car lengths of each other for a couple of laps. Subsequently, the white car that spins in front of me caught our group and passed 4th and then passed me to move into 3rd.
The video below starts shortly after that. After working on the camera system over the holidays, I now have three cameras: front view, rear view, and a camera pointing at me.
The video starts as I upshift to 5th as I enter Turn 8 and then downshift to 4th on the short chute before entering Turn 9. The white car ahead takes a highly non-traditional line as he cuts down to the inside of the turn and then starts to spin. All the while I am taking the more traditional line to the outside.
When I saw the spin carrying him towards the inside of the turn, I maintained my line towards the outside of the turn intending to pass behind him.
Then his car reverses direction and starts to come back towards the outside. Oh crap. Let me say that again: Oh crap. For a moment, I thought that I might get by but I quickly see that the angles and speeds are not working in my favor. Damn, I am pretty screwed at this point. I turn left to try and miss him but we hit. Of course, this all happens pretty quickly at 90mph.
My car careens off his and heads into the desert run off area. The impact damaged the front suspension so I don't have any steering and I have the brake on the floor but the car doesn't slow much as I head straight towards a 3-4 ft berm in front of the track retaining wall. The car hits the berm pretty hard but it slows me down and I come to a stop on the backside of the berm. As I was going over the berm, I remember thinking: please don't flip over!
As soon as I come to a stop, I unlatch my belts and pull down the window net in preparation for the car possibly catching fire. I wanted to be ready to get out quickly if needed. The car doesn't seem to be on fire so I take a few breaths and then put my left arm out the window and tap my hand on the roof to let the track officials know that I am conscious and ok.
The edited video ends at that point, but then I re-attached my belts and waited in the car for the safety crew to arrive.
There were two other 986Forum members in this BSR race, Branimir (bkovac) and Justin (jedd). Branimir was right behind me and is going to send me his video. Justin was further back in the pack.
The in-car video shows that my harnesses keep me in the seat and I cinch them up pretty tightly for exactly this reason. My head flops around a bit from the impact but the HANS device would have presumably prevented over-extension of my neck. With that being said, my neck and shoulders were sore the next day.
Video from Race 1 and the start of this race coming soon!
__________________
1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
I think I read that your boxster was a 97. If so, it would be a good time to upgrade to the 98.5-2000 front subframe. I'd also throw in some bigger S coolant tubes. Over heating doesn't seem to be a problem once you're on the track but guys that have them seem to run a little cooler when stationary. I wouldn't trust the rack and pinion even if it looks like it survived untouched. I've seen guys have issue down the road with those. They do well in street cars but really get abused on track cars and don't take well to getting hit.
Yes, my car is a 97 and I appreciate all of the advice and recommendations!
__________________
1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
This is the second race on Saturday. I had finished 4th of 14 in the first race so I started this race in P4. At the start, I got a good run and was able to get to 3rd. Then 1st-4th were all within a few car lengths of each other for a couple of laps. Subsequently, the white car that spins in front of me caught our group and passed 4th and then passed me to move into 3rd.
The video below starts shortly after that. After working on the camera system over the holidays, I now have three cameras: front view, rear view, and a camera pointing at me.
The video starts as I upshift to 5th as I enter Turn 8 and then downshift to 4th on the short chute before entering Turn 9. The white car ahead takes a highly non-traditional line as he cuts down to the inside of the turn and then starts to spin. All the while I am taking the more traditional line to the outside.
When I saw the spin carrying him towards the inside of the turn, I maintained my line towards the outside of the turn intending to pass behind him.
Then his car reverses direction and starts to come back towards the outside. Oh crap. Let me say that again: Oh crap. For a moment, I thought that I might get by but I quickly see that the angles and speeds are not working in my favor. Damn, I am pretty screwed at this point. I turn left to try and miss him but we hit. Of course, this all happens pretty quickly at 90mph.
My car careens off his and heads into the desert run off area. The impact damaged the front suspension so I don't have any steering and I have the brake on the floor but the car doesn't slow much as I head straight towards a 3-4 ft berm in front of the track retaining wall. The car hits the berm pretty hard but it slows me down and I come to a stop on the backside of the berm. As I was going over the berm, I remember thinking: please don't flip over!
As soon as I come to a stop, I unlatch my belts and pull down the window net in preparation for the car possibly catching fire. I wanted to be ready to get out quickly if needed. The car doesn't seem to be on fire so I take a few breaths and then put my left arm out the window and tap my hand on the roof to let the track officials know that I am conscious and ok.
The edited video ends at that point, but then I re-attached my belts and waited in the car for the safety crew to arrive.
There were two other 986Forum members in this BSR race, Branimir (bkovac) and Justin (jedd). Branimir was right behind me and is going to send me his video. Justin was further back in the pack.
The in-car video shows that my harnesses keep me in the seat and I cinch them up pretty tightly for exactly this reason. My head flops around a bit from the impact but the HANS device would have presumably prevented over-extension of my neck. With that being said, my neck and shoulders were sore the next day.
Video from Race 1 and the start of this race coming soon!
Ouch -- hard hit indeed. The berm looked even worse.
With the white car rolling back onto the racing line, that is why they teach the two foot in rule for when you lose control on track to prevent shooting backwards on track. Might not have helped, but you can see in the video that the brakes were not fully engaged on the white car as there was quite a bit of rolling backwards (as opposed to sliding).
No, that's not a wheel, that's the fuel filler flap.
Hope the guy in the white car is also OK. Getting hit from the side without knowing it can be very hard to the body, because you're not as prepared as somebody seeing what might come next.
Regards, Markus
Last edited by Smallblock454; 02-15-2017 at 03:38 AM.
Certainly the fact you walked away is excellent news, but it is actually encouraging to see how well the boxster took the hit. Of course on the streets the airbags would have deployed and a standard seat belt would have much less restraining. I fear a driver with standard seat belts may have fair less well.
Good luck and always enjoy the show
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2002 S - old school third pedal
Seal Grey
Ugly all the way around. Just not a lot you could have done but what you did. Just glad you were safe and as you said - hit that berm straight on and didn't flip.
Ouch that was a hard hit, and when I saw that berm coming up I though you were going to go flying.
The white car said he released the brake? From looking it almost seems like he never pressed it.
I have had "ABS Rollback" one time, it looked very similar to that, and was pretty scary as I went rolling back across the track at a good clip even though I was pressing as hard as I could on the brake. I wonder if in a spin I should quickly release and reapply the brake when the car is sideways? Not the time that I want to be experimenting...
Hope the guy in the white car is also OK. Getting hit from the side without knowing it can be very hard to the body, because you're not as prepared as somebody seeing what might come next.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that the other driver was also fine.
__________________
1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
Ouch that was a hard hit, and when I saw that berm coming up I though you were going to go flying.
The white car said he released the brake? From looking it almost seems like he never pressed it.
I have had "ABS Rollback" one time, it looked very similar to that, and was pretty scary as I went rolling back across the track at a good clip even though I was pressing as hard as I could on the brake. I wonder if in a spin I should quickly release and reapply the brake when the car is sideways? Not the time that I want to be experimenting...
You know it might just be this --
I remember hydroplaning and heading backwards down 10-11 at COTA -- I wasn't slowing down despite what I thought was brakes to the floor. I then jumped on them again and quickly slowed down and rotated back around and got control of the car.
I figured it was just that I was hydroplaning (it was raining HARD!).
Will try to keep that in me mind when my Boxster rotates the next time.
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