On-track incident - Help with damage assessment

[KnifeySpoony]

I was involved in an incident at Sonoma yesterday, sustained some light damage to my left front wheel/wing. Video of incident and pics below. After the incident while driving back to the paddock, the steering wheel was turned slightly to the left (maybe 10 degrees?) to travel in a straight line. Looking at the front suspension after the incident, there was no play in the wheel/hub. Everything seemed tight. I don't see anything obviously bent. Steering arms looks straight, but there is a slightly shiny area on the front left arm (tried to photograph it). I don't know if this is just an irregular area in the casting, or if it is evidence of bent/stretched metal there. You can see from the video that the right front was hit as well, but only on the inside of the tire sidewall. Before driving home from the track, I adjusted the toe on the left front (just by feel, testing by driving up/down the paddock) until the car tracked straight. I had to turn the tie rod about 1.5 turns (pushing the steering arm outward (pushing the toe out on the left front, which I figured was necessary given the prior steering wheel position). Today I checked the toe with the steering wheel straight and there is 1/2" (12mm) of toe out. Previously the car was set for zero toe.

 

So I'm not sure what exactly was bent, or what I should replace. Should I just realign it and run as is? Or do I need to replace the steering arm(s)? Anything else that could've been damaged? The steering seems smooth but could the rack be damaged? There was a slight shimmy in the wheel at freeway speeds on the way home, speed dependent, felt like a tire slightly out of balance. The wheel itself is scuffed but looks straight though might not be. Or it could just be tires flat spotted.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by KnifeySpoony

[Croc]

Bummer - thats really annoying.   Feeling sorry for you and hoping you and your passenger were unscathed other than being shaken up.  I think you got away lucky - that could have been so much worse.   Particularly boneheaded by the BMW too - he was target fixated on the white shitbox and not track aware.  Assuming he was a racer (given that it was a race car) he should have been aware that you were behind and then alongside but I bet you were below his field of vision (window sill height) because of your low height.  That said, it is always the responsibility of the passing car to complete the pass on track safely.   This is a major reason I am cautious in a se7en around bigger cars on track - they don't always look, they cannot see and they are bigger than me so I will be beaten up worse.    I bet the conversation in the pits afterwards was interesting.   Who was the track day organizer? 

 

The safe answer is disassemble and reassemble that corner.  The damage could be hidden and you will not know until you pull it apart.  Something is obviously off for your alignment to be off.  I'd check the wheel balance too as you may have lost a wheel weight.  Check the steering rack has not moved/shifted.  Its really unlikely to have damaged the rack but its feasible its moved somehow.   My suspicion is a bent control arm - subtle so not obvious on the car or some bushing damage on a joint.  The alternative is assume its ok, realign and off you go out on track again only for it to break out there while at speed.  Frustrating I know but is it worth taking the risk when the driver in your car is the air bag (I mean that in the nicest way of course!).

[7Westfield]

I've seen those Spitfire steering arms bend under impact.

Pop the tie rod ends off and measure to something, like the brake rotor or tire

[MV8]

Ditto on a slightly shifted on the mounts yet undamaged rack. I don't think the toe link is bent but it could be slightly. I think one of the control arms are slightly bent and/or bushing damage, with the wheelbase slightly shorter on the left side. Looseness can be difficult to determine with the suspension loaded.

[Christopher smith]

Unfortunate incident. Perhaps some of the parts now deserve crack inspection with at least penetrant dye kit? Lucky that many 7 parts are from cars with almost 2x the weight so usually pretty sturdy. But still might be good to check as the parts were not designed for big impact loads. Having a front spindle snap on a street driven MGTC at 5 mph sold me on crack testing. The hidden crack looked to be over 50% of the cross section.

[empti]

16 hours ago, KnifeySpoony said:

I was involved in an incident at Sonoma yesterday, sustained some light damage to my left front wheel/wing. Video of incident and pics below. After the incident while driving back to the paddock, the steering wheel was turned slightly to the left (maybe 10 degrees?) to travel in a straight line. Looking at the front suspension after the incident, there was no play in the wheel/hub. Everything seemed tight. I don't see anything obviously bent. Steering arms looks straight, but there is a slightly shiny area on the front left arm (tried to photograph it). I don't know if this is just an irregular area in the casting, or if it is evidence of bent/stretched metal there. You can see from the video that the right front was hit as well, but only on the inside of the tire sidewall. Before driving home from the track, I adjusted the toe on the left front (just by feel, testing by driving up/down the paddock) until the car tracked straight. I had to turn the tie rod about 1.5 turns (pushing the steering arm outward (pushing the toe out on the left front, which I figured was necessary given the prior steering wheel position). Today I checked the toe with the steering wheel straight and there is 1/2" (12mm) of toe out. Previously the car was set for zero toe.

 

Thanks for showing me your 420R last weekend. It was such unfortunate that this happened.