OK guys after a postmortem on my stage car i have found some serious chassis damage that was partly to blame for my accident (or at least i'm sticking to that theory lol)

any motors running with more than std power may have this problem and it is not easy to spot. anyway a pic speaks a thousand words so here are some of what i have found..

The ns is worse due the the impact with a building at high speed but the os was untouched by the accident and i guess running 170bhp thru the stdish chassis by be a contributing factor .. oh and i have heard folk saying the origional ball joints will pull out , mine has snapped thru where it is relieved for the bolt in the hub rather than the joint pull apart

ns

os with w'bome still attached to show location

os with w'bone removed

someone told me it could be repairable :no:

so guys just whip the wishbones off and have a good poke around next time you are under the car, i wish i had :peek:

cheers for the heads-up on that jimbo, i know mine isn't like that becuase i've had the subframe off a couple of times..., personally i would call that crack in yours terminal rather than repairable :wonder:

yea so would i especially as the chassis rail is 2 inches shorter than it should be

in fairness it is a very difficult place to strengthen without altering the wishbone mounting height and is the reason the works kit cars ran a tube from the cage to pick up on the mounting points for the wishbones i guess. live and learn tho. i also suspect the extra torque didn't help as i had to weld the washers to the wishbone mounting to stop the bolts working loose even with loctite and 80lbf on them the engine kept pulling the wishbones forward and then back under braking

mine is only about 125bhp and the new track control arm bushes are shot already

That does indeed look terminal, Jim. My old car (ten years a rally car from new) had similar cracks to your last but one picture, which I had welded up.

The ball joint failure you described is exactly what happened to mine on a stage once - broke on the indent where the pinch bolt goes.

Do you have a idea how much of the damage is cause, and how much is effect?

Cheers

James