Quote:
Originally Posted by Halon
Crazy crash. I don't know much about roll cages, but looks like theirs sure did save their life all debating aside.
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The construction differs between road racing rally. In road racing you have to be concerned about intrusion from another car, and absorbing that energy. The forces are typically applied at obtuse angles with room to dissipate such as sliding along the wall. Additionally there is 1 occupant so the cages can be strength biased towards a single focal point - above the driver's head.
In rally, you don't have the danger of another car plowing into you, but there are other extreme dangers, such as hitting immovable objects a right angles -and as you've now seen, sailing off cliffs. In addition equal protection needs to be provided to 2 occupants.
For FIA construction, the cage has evolved into similar to a geodesic dome or eggshell design:
This is designed to maintain shape while rolling down a mountain, and works quite well as illustrated in the last few years of the WRC.
Here's 2 photos of Latvala's off in Portugal 2009 - closest modern example that comes to mind. In this crash he flew off a cliff, rolled 17 times over a total distance of 450 feet.
Passenger's side:
Driver's side:
Notice how the cage still has the same unified shape and has not deformed. Furthermore, they protective sheet metal remained in tact and they were not bouncing their heads off rocks all the way down the hill.
Let contrast this to this a cage in question.
Flattened. Due to lack of multi-diagnoals. Think what happens to a square cardboard box if you apply side load while pressing down -it folds.
Dat intrusion.
But here's what really made my blood run cold this afternoon:
This was the co-driver's helmet. These guys were a few degrees from going home in body bags. The fact they survived was sheer luck.
What I really want to drive home here is that the governing body that is running the PPIHC need to unfuck their program and adopt today's safety protocols.
1. Don't let amateurs out in a 500HP unrestricted turbo car - the run is nearly 100% tarmac now and is very dangerous.
2. Require the correct safety gear for the application, before you get your ass litigated back to the 1970's.