E30 Race Car wreck, time for major surgery

[Lance Racing]

The Orange Jagermeister shirts were made when the Jager shirts were made. Orange was an option that year. About a half dozen people ordered orange shirts. They are pretty rare. JR Nagy was wearing the orange shirt on Saturday.

[browntown]

when did you make that t-shirt in orange? or is that only for your pit-crew?

[Lance Racing]

Had a productive work party on Saturday at Auburn Foreign Car.

Here's the patient ready for pre-op


First order is to be peel off the sheet metal:


As the car comes apart, we find various things that will be saved for re-use, like the brake duct work. At something like $12 a foot, we don't want to junk this stuff:


The mangled bumper needs the BF crowbar:


The BF crowbar was popular:

[browntown]

Sincerely surprised that no r3v'r said: "dibs on rims, how much shipped to 28801, paypal ready"

or the more popular "It'll buff right out"

[redbull 325is]

Glad the car is going to be back to her normal shape...


Sincerely surprised that no r3v'r said: "dibs on rims, how much shipped to 28801, paypal ready"


-Julien

[whiltebeitel]

I also have to give you props for your control. I've seen people go off at over 100 mph, and it's not as easy as it may look. Great job counter steering it to keep the tail under control as much as possible. You really had no time to put the car in reverse and back it out of the way. With as much tire smoke created as that incident must've, it was nearly inevitable that someone would get tapped.

I wish you the best of luck!

[ldsbeaker]

Dude, that was soooo cool to watch!
Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm damn impressed with your driving, and your confidence.
I saw how close some of those cars were to you, and I guess I would be a bit gun shy about getting that close.. I'm sure it comes with time.
Big time commitment, there... (racing) monetarily, time-wise, and driving...

Good luck!

[PiercedE30]

nice...it's cool that you are able to save it. let us know how it goes and make sure we have lots of pics.

[Lance Racing]

Well, good news. The car is fixable. Both frame rails are bent, but the damage is confined to in front of the fire wall. Due to the cost of the chro-moly roll cage, the paint job on the back end of the car, etc. we are going to opt to fix this car, rather than junk it and transfer all of the race parts to a new chassis. Plus, we have a lot of sentimental value in this car, so we don't want to give up on it except if safety dictates it was too far gone to safely race it again.

It will take less time to just cut the front end off right behind the shock towers and graft a new front end on, rather than spend the time fixing the frame rails. This will also provide us with the same front end crash deformation protection that BMW designed into the E30.

You can see the break in one of the frame rails:



Luckily, the PRO-3 group never throw anything away, here's the donor front end already on the trailer for delivery to Haury's Collision, who will be performing the major surgery:

[Lance Racing]

I'm friends with every one of those guys I'm racing, including the fellow in #71. We're all reviewing the race, who did what, etc and everyone will learn from any mistakes made. I'm not going to blame one person, it was a series of events that led to my crash with Fred.

One reason I race in this series is we respect each other on the track. We race hard, but we do respect each other. If someone flat out T-boned me directly with a stupid move, then I'd be pissed off.

In general, the racing organizers have a Steward who is sort of the police for the weekend. Whenever there is contact, they get reports from the turnworkers, interview the drivers, review any video tape of the incident, then determine if there was anyone at fault. Fines can be monetary, DQ from the race, probation for x-amount of races, or suspension from the series. They keep a black book, and if someone continues to screw up, the fines get worse, and/or they get tossed from the series. The emphasis is on clean racing, but avoiding contact. For those familiar with the 13/13 rule, we don't run under that however.

For the direct contact between me and the green car, they steward ruled it was unavoidable contact. So our records are kept clear. The Steward might have a general talk with #71, but I don't know for sure.

[RL 325i]

Damm,

Glad you are ok. And you really did well of getting the car back in control.

How come you you never say a word about #71(in front of you)? Althought I never in a race track b/4, the way he drive..... no way he should be in the track or even in public road. It there some sort of rule in the track that people should follow at all?

I think this accident is 98.111% cause by #71. and you are a poor victim of it .
Same here, I like the way how you handle it(drive & attitude) You have earn my 100% respect:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

[White Nightmare]

That really stinks! Glad you are okay though Lance! Good to hear that the equipment worked as designed too.

x2 for a picnic viewing!

On a side note...

(Jeff?)

I just caught that :D

[jflip2002]

Thats shitty man. Such a cool vid though, seeing all the E30s around the track. Ive never been big on racing, but it makes you wanna go out there. Even alone and just tear it up. But at least you have the right outlook, its a risk you take everytime you go out there. Glad to see youre ok, and lookin forward to the new car, and new vid.

[Van Westervelt]

That really stinks! Glad you are okay though Lance! Good to hear that the equipment worked as designed too. 6 years is a good long run without incident! Great job! Heres to another 6! :drink:

x2 for a picnic viewing!

On a side note...

In all honestly ...

(Jeff?)

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

dibs on the trunk lid!