What not to do

[elancoupe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboS43ch1Kg

[pharriso]

Good job the barrier was there...

[nigelrbfurness]

I'll say. On a positive note, just shows how good our cars are at absorbing impacts in a crash. They are a ready-made crumple zone. Other wise, a sad end to what looks like a really nice car. Hard to see from the angle of filming but I guess he hit a patch of bad road surface and it just ploughed straight on with no grip, rather than turning in. Anyone else got any thoughts on that?

Nigel F.

[rgh0]

Hi Nigel
In watching the video I also wondered why it happened as severe plough understeer like that is not normally an Elan problem. Its normally keeping the rear under control that's the problem. Unfortunately the car disappears behind a group of people and then a tree so hard to see exactly what goes wrong.

If the driver had lifted off the front should have regained grip and the back come around. He still may have hit the barrier but with a side on glancing blow rather than nose in. it looks like he kept his foot on the accelerator to long when it started to under steer and then he jumped on the brakes to quick so never regained any steering.

The road surface looks shiny in the video at the point where he lost it so it was maybe a low grip area for some reason

cheers
Rohan

[Howie97630]

Back in '76, my wife had a brake lock on a curve at 55 mph, pulled her into a rock, she went over a cliff in Yosemite, 60 feet down vertical, destroying my 67 S3's original body, yet she had only two black eyes from trying to break the stearing wheel with her face (apparently) as the car rolled. She adequately demonstrated the Elan's capacity at self sacrifice to protect the driver. I rebuilt the car with an S2 body, sold it to a friend who had the car until last January, when he passed away and willed the car back to me, and it's now in my garage. Hmm, after 45 years, still have the same car, and same spouse!

[CBUEB1771]

Wow, that was abrupt. I have visions of the front stub axle breaking on the left side.

[alexblack13]

I am sure he had the wheels locked up! Hence the understeer. If he had just driven the car round foot off the brakes he would have got it round the corner IMHO.

Watch the vid again.. The wheels are def' not turning.

Real shame. But it could have been a lot worse.

[elansprint]

Howie glad you explained how she got the black eyes ?
Ian

[elansprint71]

Am I the only one to notice a person waiving a red flag as the car approaches? My guess is there was something serious going on further round the corner, which caused Elan driver to brake heavily.

Start and stop the movie and you can almost watch in slo-mo.

[CBUEB1771]

Am I the only one to notice a person waiving a red flag as the car approaches?

Aha, good observation. If that was the first flag for a hazard then it was a recipe for more trouble.

[Pistacchio sprint 72]

"better hitting the rail than a crane...."
F1 proverb