C66 Racing

Gary, Chris,
Thanks!

GrantB

Any guesses on how much camber is lost due to bearing flex of the OEM vs. SKF?

varkwso

I would be surprised if it is measurable in either case. The bushings will flex long before.

kwhiteside

Wow, really glad to hear all are ok. sound like the things nightmares are made of.

I know because the vettes are so low and wide they don't roll easy, but I'm curious how Jake fended that off. Did the wheel just get wobly, or actually come off? Either way makes my knees weak thinking about that wheel digging into the offtrack area. How in the world did he slide smooth. Did Jake go Jackie Chan with the wheel, or feet in and hands off, hope for the best? Man oh man you guys got off easy on this one. So glad to hear it.

Khoi was out there going fast already? Really fast recovery, or overly addicted death wish?

varkwso

Ken,

Khoi was back out to as part of his rehabilitation plan. He also ran VIR for 2 days this last week and then ran Road Atlanta yesterday and today - think of him as Khoi the athelete.

The brake bracket and caliper kept the left wheel on - barely. When the left wheel departed "controlled flight" the right front locked up (I surmise from severe piston knockback on the left side). Yes it was a handful so I hear - Jake kept control of the wheel and encouraged it to go in a safe direction. In the soft sand of Roebling cars can easily dig in and flip.

C66 Racing

At a BMWCC DE way back when, saw a BMW 5xx spin coming out of 7, go sideways into the sand and barrel roll. Driver and instructor were fine, but the car had every piece of body work, every window damaged and all four tires came off the wheels (halfway I seem to remember). Ouch. And my wife was there to see how safe DEs were.

waddisme

varkwso

Just think how much fun that would be at Lowe's last Friday

Saw you there - did not have much time to chat.

waddisme

It crossed my mind as I was reading the thread and all I could think of was ! Glad it was no worse than it was.

ghoffman

I just measured the flange thickness on the new SKF bearings and it is .1 thicker than a stock bearing flange (.465 vrs .365). Better alloys, better machining, and thicker flanges really make the SKF considerably improved over the stock. The SKF flange is not welded, it is a CNC machined forging. I know it is hard to see, but notice that the studs are resessed on the back side of the flange.


As far as camber loss due to deflection, I really do not think that is measurable, but it certainly is when considering brake piston kickback. When coming off the track with hot brakes, I can hear the rotor when I turn the wheel in the paddock with stock bearings change its' tune. With the SKF, the radial and axial stiffness is much greater so you do not have any appreciable kickback.

drivinhard

yeah I kept having visions of that in NASCAR 3&4

imp zog

I broke the plate on two brand new Timken bearings within two events of each other, both of which fortunately just gave a bad vibration and noise rather than coming off completely. When I jacked up the car I could rock the front wheel with no force at all. Scary!! I returned them under warranty and ordered the SKFs.

drivinhard

are the timken pieces made in china these days? I know some of their stuff is now...

imp zog

Not sure where they are made, but the AC Delco parts are Timkens, so you aren't necessarily safe getting them from the dealer either.

yakisoba

that looks just like where my right front failed about 8 months ago. Same failure, lower speed though. Slowest part of the track, hard left hander, and the car just suddenly went straight. Luckily, it was clear that way, and I parked it... Then had a devil of a time getting it onto the flatbed without rolling it! Brought it home, changed the hub on the trailer. I now carry a set of spares with me. I figure, they lasted four years of track days, so they will last a bit longer. Also: I'd change out the one on the other side too, when you get round to it. More of a trust thing than anything else. If you trust the car, you go faster, IMO.

tankrust

I hate to bring this thread back from the dead, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I was the student in the passenger seat when this failure happened, and that Jake did a great job handling the situation.

It was near the end of the advanced session and I was riding along with Jake so he could show me the line, as he was my instructor in the novice group in my WRX. I was timing him on my stopwatch and he was doing around 1:24's consistently. I had just glanced over at the speedo and saw around 135 on the straight before the turn 1 braking area. When we turned in the first thing I noticed was the inside front locked up. Jake held his steering input where it was and we were still plowing off track, the car was understeering really badly. I thought a tie rod or ball joint had broken at that point. We had already established a pretty good turn angle when we got in the dirt, and Jake remained calm through the whole incident. I saw the dirt berm approaching and thought we were going to end up in it, but we were almost parallel to it and slowed to a stop a few feet short.

After making the obligatory signs of the cross we breathed a sigh of relief. I sat out the following session to check and see if I needed a change of pants. Thanks again to Jake for a great day that could have gone much worse.

varkwso

It is just as relevant now as then. So you still bringing the WRX to track events? Thanks for the kudos to Jake - I will pass them on.

Z06cool

Yeah, the faster England hasn't driven much or at all this year. I think he drove the Mustang once at Roebling. We are just stuck with the more "seasoned" England for now....

varkwso

I will also pass this on to Josh

tankrust

I have done 1 track event with the WRX since then. Jake signed me off after the day of the hub failure so I was in the solo group. I had a blast. I have been doing more autocrossing lately but will be heading out for some track days after I get back from Afghanistan in the spring. My wife also autocrosses and is interested in doing some HPDE's.

I signed up for the Corvette Forum because I have been considering a Z06 purchase.