Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Shocking pics & story here
http://www.lotus-central.com/index.php/ ... sters.html

Person in the Safety Car said the driver was OK, but was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs.

Niall

Lucky to get away with only broken ribs I'd say. The roll bar obviously did it's job. And also the Marshals being quick on the scene with the extinguisher.

Oh that looked very very scary

In the Sun today - full page
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... uises.html

That was harsh - first time i can remember seeing a photo montage of a elan yard sale in progress. The number and speed at which the marshals arrived is amazing - no short cuts by the organizers - makes me wonder about what we get away with here.

Anyone needing justification for the safety devices cage should look at these photos -
Anyone thinking they can skip the arm restraints in a elan just because it has a roof over your head, look at the photos....

G

cabc26b wrote:
Anyone needing justification for the safety devices cage should look at these photos -
Anyone thinking they can skip the arm restraints in a elan just because it has a roof over your head, look at the photos....

G

I don't think that many of us can put ourselves in quite the same catagory as far as risks are concerned.
I've been to several "Masters" race meetings & IMHO the way those guys race is, to say the least "gutsy". (15/10th's)
It's no holds barred racing & to hell with the expense; "If I break it I'll buy another one" seems to be the motto!
Yes even the F1 cars!!
Get to one of the events if you can, 100% entertainment

Errm, almost forgot; TTR roll bar fitted in my S4
John

A safety net on the driver's window and a HANS device would also be advised.

Looking at the pictures, a driver in a roadster or DHC is subjected to more possibilities for injury than a FHC.

As Phil says, if the car is run with windows down, there should be a safety net.

Until you get in a crash, you don't realize the amount of flailing about that happens. In addition to the arms and legs, the tongue sticks out (and you can bite it), eyeballs bulge, etc. Keep the seat belts cinched as tight as you can stand. You want to decellerate at the speed of the car, not have a brief second to take up the tension in the belts.

The Elan gives you a better chance to survive, since the fiberglass fails incrementally, minimizing the maximum decelleration Gs. A metal body fails in incremental steps, with a spikey G decelleration curve.

Just hope you don't get into one of these!

David
1968 36/7988

Ouch!

Only had a rear roll hoop I notice. If I was racing a full cage and door bars would by my minimum. The Kelvden (sp?) cage is supposed to be the best complete with floor bars to mount the seat to.

As always our greatest thanks to the marshals, they do a fantastic job.

Gents,

JP has just joined a club I am already a member of - AKA the holly rollers

A safety net on the driver's window .

arm restraints , sorry , but that's the ticket. these are tied into the harness that are tied into the roll cage. the window net in this instance would have parted way with the roof and door. In his configuration there was noting solid to tie the net to - worse, if he had the cage , I am not convinced that the drivers side door tethered by a net on a bar that ties the front and rear hoops together would not have provided the opportunity for the door to spear the driver ....

G

Don't be fooled into thinking a FHC is much safer than a DHC. With windows removed, the FHC roof is extremely flimsy.

Also, a friend of mine was killed in a rollover of an S2 Elan, at quite low speed, nothing like this accident.

These two item prompted the fitting of a bar to my car. A bar would certainly have saved my friend's life.

I'm noticing more vintage racers wearing HANS devices this year as a result of more orgs requiring them.
Aggressive driving and 4 wheels off will get you banned from most vintage races here.

If you go into a sand trap you have to try to go straight in and not turn or spin otherwise you risk getting tripped up like in the photo.

In Australia they have changed the traps to have bigger loose stones in them rather than sand - apparently you dig in less so less risk of rolling but they still slow you down.

I do my best to stay out of them totally - historic cars are not crashworthy regardless of what you do compared to a modern touring car or f1

cheers
Rohan

rgh0 wrote:If you go into a sand trap you have to try to go straight in and not turn or spin otherwise you risk getting tripped up like in the photo.

In Australia they have changed the traps to have bigger loose stones in them rather than sand - apparently you dig in less so less risk of rolling but they still slow you down.

I do my best to stay out of them totally - historic cars are not crashworthy regardless of what you do compared to a modern touring car or f1

cheers
Rohan

A few years ago I watched a Dutch driver in his Elan go "off" at the end of the start/finish straight at the N?rburgring.
The skinny tyres just ploughed into the gravel which flipped the car several times. At the 3rd flip it wasn't a car anymore.
No fire thank goodness & the driver was unhurt (full TTR roll cage) but the car was a bag of bits.
Those gravel traps may work on modern wide tyres but as you say for historic racers they are a major problem.

Cheers
John