Sgt.Gator

Sorry if this has already been posted, I did a search and did not find it.
Does anyone know more about what happened here? In the comments the driver simply says heat, which I think means he had on stock brake pads?

Road Atl, Turn 10 A, Corvette C6 Z06, Brake Failure.

taken19

That's gotta make your butt pucker!

stevensa

Epic!

rithsleeper

Yea that looks intense. I dont know if he paniced or what but cutting the wheel is the last thing I would do. I would have gone off track and just aimed for barely missing the wall in front of me. Looks like one tire was not gripping the same as other and started the wobble during barking.

Pumba

I watched the video several times.

I think he dropped his right-side wheels into the grass as he was applying the brakes coming into the curve, and as he pulled left that spun the car out.

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drivinhard

If you ever notice in 10a, there tends to be more rubber built up on the brake zone a few feet off the white line, than right on it. So if you are really hugging the white line, the car tends to be a bit unsettled right when you get on the brakes (back up the hill a bit). It will tend to get a little dancy on you. It tends to be more stable if you cheat in off the track edge just a little bit more.

But yes he overcorrected once he put 2 off and it sent him to the other side when it all hooked back up.

Jatterbu

Doesn't really seem like brake failure as the car initially slowed down until he put right side wheels in the grass. Once you do that, you are along for the ride if you can't keep the car straight.

rmackintosh

Boomshakalaka!!!

froggy47

I imagine he was braking hard on that rumble strip & then when he got back on track the car was all "crossed up" balance/suspension wise.

Lucky guy.

Sgt.Gator

Unfortunately LSX-TV wrote it up as a Z06 Brake Failure.
From: http://www.lsxtv.com/news/video-z06-...all-at-160-mph

Imagine, if you will, that you are behind the wheel of a powerful and poised C6 Z06 Corvette on one of the premiere road courses in the nation. The 8-cylinder concerto coming from the LS7 swells as you put the pedal to the floor, and the harder you push the car, the more it gives you. You’ve got all the confidence you need to push the ragged edge of the car’s limits . As you top a small hill you can see your next turn come into view ahead; a hard left hander. You position the car on the right side of the tarmac, and prepare for the braking zone.

When it’s time to brake, to hit the middle pedal and expect the Z06’s massive 6-piston front calipers to bite hard on the 14” cross drilled rotors, and help you shed all the speed you need to rip through the corner safely. Instead, you get nothing. The brakes don’t respond, and by now it’s too late. The car is going too fast, and starts to slide out of control. The car darts straight for the wall, and you clench your teeth and brace for the impact. In an instant, the nose of the car whiffs within mere inches of the wall and you slide back across the surface, and hard into the sand. You and your Z06 live to race another day.

Jeff Hendricks, doesn’t have to imagine this scenario – he’s already lived it. Hendricks was competing in a recent NASA event at Road Atlanta, when he experienced brake failure in his Z06 as the car was about to enter turn 10A, and thanks to the video above we get to ride along during this hair-raising moment. The car slides within inches of the wall at over 160 MPH, and hits the sand pit hard. Beyond the obvious luck of not hitting the wall, it’s fortunate that the brakes let go on a section of the track where a sand pit was there to catch the Corvette, instead of another concrete wall.

UstaB-GS549

So what was the brake failure? Burst hose? Fractured rotor?

seebobgo

User malfunction or a momentary lack of focus and not brake failure. What ever, he was a lucky M****R* F****R

fcarga

If you go to the 29 sec portion of the tape, he appears stable and straight then the car starts to go right and it doesn't appear to be steering input and the car is still on the track then it goes further right and then the nose starts left--assuming the rear is pushing it around. I'm not sure that the front right brake didn't grab and then the left rear brake locked causing the spin. ABS can do some weird things. I've gone off the track in that area-actually forced off-though not at that speed and come back onto the track with little problem. Just a thought...too bad we don't have following car video.

BryanPendleton

I am not sure I buy into the brake failure either. Looks like it got a bit squirrely while threshold braking, and once he dabbed the tires off, between braking and steering correction it was enough to upset the car balance and send him into a spin. Not saying I could have handled the situation any better, but he probably should have breathed the brakes some, stayed his off-course path to maintain vehicle direction and control, and taken the car off the turn 10 run-off.

986_C6

We are very fortunate to be able to play this over and over again to analyze. I would think that a catastrophic brake failure would be just that, very "where the hell did that come from" catastrophic. Everything in this vid seemed to happen pretty gradually (especially at 160 mph).

Don't get me wrong, we have all made mistakes, and I would have been peeing in my pants. That is one lucky *** SOB!!!!!

c5_4_me

Hey I wasn't driving and I wasn't even in the passenger seat, but after watching the video several times, it looks more like Driver Failure to me than brake failure.

But what a lucky miss of the wall! I'm glad he didn't contact it.

Crepitus

IMHO pretty hard to brake straight with the right sides off the track.

waddisme

Don't know about brake failure, but this is what driver failure at Rd Atl looks like(skip to 1:39):



Thought I was a goner. Curb at #3 knock my ABS/TC off and tried to reset set it going into #6 but thought I wouldn't need it for just 2 more laps.

BryanPendleton

Exactly!

BryanPendleton

Looks like you did the right thing though, opening up the steering wheel to run straight off. Had you maintained steering angle that would have like put you into a spin and into he wall.