Saw a 7 roll at Castle Combe today...
Discussion
Bet he's glad he went for the full cage, or is that mandatory nowadays? When I did it (2002) many people went with the basic FIA bar.
In fact, the cage in the pics is a different design, the top looks more like the old R400 cage.
Glad he's OK. From the first pic - mis-matched wings - he'd already knocked a wing off!! Easy does it...
In fact, the cage in the pics is a different design, the top looks more like the old R400 cage.
Glad he's OK. From the first pic - mis-matched wings - he'd already knocked a wing off!! Easy does it...
Not sure about that James. I've seen the results of a 7 with the FIA roll bar that went end over end into a field at about 60mph. Both driver and passenger walked away.
Looking at the pics in this thread, the bonnet line looks to have held up pretty well. The principle of the FIA bar is that it provides a solid point above the driver's head. If the driver's helmet breaks the line drawn from the leading edge of the bonnet to the top of the bar then there is trouble, otherwise it should be OK.
Looking at the pics in this thread, the bonnet line looks to have held up pretty well. The principle of the FIA bar is that it provides a solid point above the driver's head. If the driver's helmet breaks the line drawn from the leading edge of the bonnet to the top of the bar then there is trouble, otherwise it should be OK.
Probably not too expensive. For the races it's advisable to take out insurance. From what I was told at Caterham Midlands, it's around £250 a race and will cover you for up to £12,000 of damage which is apparently a near write off. From what I've read elsewhere though, the excess is pretty steap though, so you're probably looking in the region of a grand for that I think. It probably looks a hell of a lot worse than it was.
I saw JPs car (the black one) in the garage fixed incidently
Looked as good as new 
I saw JPs car (the black one) in the garage fixed incidently
Looked as good as new The car that rolled at Silverstone earlier this year cost less that 2k to fix. Caterham quoted repair costs are much more than if you do some of the work yourself, buy some second hand parts or get a cheaper garage to fix it. Don't get me wrong, crashing is expensive, but in the graduates series I dont know anyone that has spent anything near 12k getting a crashed car repaired. Incidently I dont know of anyone who insures their car in this series!
from our experience so far this season the repair costs you are indicating are somewhat optimistic. Long fronts are coming in closer to £3,000 or £4,000 and a big smash can cost nearer £8,000. All this assumes you just hand the car back to Caterham and get them to do the preparation for Arch. Do this yourself and you'd save a good chunk, obviously. As far as insurance, the excess is closer to £3,000 and a race costs about £280 to cover. This means you have to do £5,000 of damage every 7 races or so to benefit. So far, in six races (Academy groups 1 & 2) we have had two long fronts costing around £12,000 to fix (one was the big smash above) and we had another long front on a track day at Mallory.
On a purely statistical basis I'd say insurance is difficult to justify. If you happen to be the one who has just stuck his car into the Armco at 70 mph this is not much comfort.
As was said earlier most don't insure.
On a purely statistical basis I'd say insurance is difficult to justify. If you happen to be the one who has just stuck his car into the Armco at 70 mph this is not much comfort.
As was said earlier most don't insure.
Indeed if you give it to caterham thats what it will cost, but I crashed mine at combe, full long front, plus a load of spares, did all the labour myself, bought parts of blatchat, other racers etc. even had set up and check over with race prep team, total bill £1800. I know someone last year in the academy, who did a short front, handed the car to CML, and came back £4500 lighter. The money is there to be saved, but you have to work at it. For 12k repairs, you are better off buying a second hand super and using the crash car for spares only (I appreicate this isnt possible in the academy). Its easy to lose a lot of money racing, but you dont have to.
Talk to some of the other racers, and you will find similar stories, for similar costs.
Talk to some of the other racers, and you will find similar stories, for similar costs.
987cay said:
Yes it was a westfield my bad.
yes, and the little git had run over my foot on the start line. he'd been lined up, and i have chocked his wheels to keep em on the line, when he flopped it into reverse and sped back, going over the chock and my foot in the process (thankgoodness for steel toes!) he nearly took out the other marshal and the next car coming to line...
he was also very lucky as he hadnt put his visor down
Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff