Pikes Peak Crashes - Evo IX

**Kracka** · 08-14-2012

Yup...I know the shop/car owner and the driver. Scary indeed...their cage welder deserves a pat on the back though!

**Tachyon** · 08-14-2012

That crash made my stomach churn. But also warms my heart to see how far safety equipment has gone.

FIA Appendex J cages were adopted for a reason: to keep you from being the meat in a car burrito, when your car decides to roll down a mountain.

**Tachyon** · 08-16-2012

Jesus Harold Christ!

Just read the build thread for the car over at evomn: What the fuck is the tech at PPIHC thinking!

I am not flaming the cage designer, he build a good cage (albeit to the baaaare minimum of a very shitty and obsolete rule book) to a clients specifications.

But who green lights a cage design like this for a rally, let alone high-speed hill-climb event?

I don't even know where to start... Convex NASCAR style ladder bars? No vertical A-pillar support? Let alone the missing diagonals for roof collapse, rear X bar biased towards the driver side, and lack gussets for side impact tube puncture. This was *at best* a single occupancy cage, meant for light door-to-door club racing.

After looking at the deformation photos the only reason the co-driver even survived was because he seal came unbolted (you heard it right, bolted in, not welded) and his helmet survived the battering that multiple rock intrusions applied to his his head.

PPIHC really needs to get their act together, and hopefully this will wake them up before their criminal negligence sets the sport back 10 years.

**Kracka** · 08-17-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kracka

...their cage welder deserves a pat on the back though!

Guess not...