View single post by Ron Earp
 Posted: 05-03-2007 06:12 pm
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Ron Earp



Joined: 03-12-2005
Location: Cary, North Carolina USA
Posts: 339
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pbahr wrote: Hi Ron,

Just getting to look at the various JH posts and saw the dreadful results of your day at VIR.  Sorry for your troubles.

For agressive driving of a JH, I recommend doing the things that I did when I put YELODOG together, to protect my hardware, legs and feet including:

1 - Driveshaft Safety Hoop.  All dragsters/race cars use them, so they are easy to get.  They control motion in all directions if the front universal lets go.  Saves my right thigh from the chain saw action on the tunnel that you experienced.  Your tunnel damage is not the first that I've seen on a JH.  Same thing happened to a guy in CT about 15 yrs ago.

2 - Clutch Scatter Shield.  A thick steel plate welded to the chassis, radially out from where the clutch is.  Good foot and ankle protection if the clutch blows up.

3 - Special design driveshaft with stronger universals, lighter and stronger tube.  All balanced to 7000 rpm.  I did this for both 4spd and 5spd tranny (one piece driveshaft for the 5spd).

4 - Automatic Fuel pump cutoff switch that shuts off the pump if there is severe shock to the chassis, such as tire wall, tree, armco iron, rollover etc.  Lots of production cars have these.  I got one that is stock in a Town Car.  Don't know if it would have activated with your failure. 

Fortunatly, I have had no failures to test these features, but they do give me lots of confidence during track events...............

From your analysis of the failure, if the tunnel damage was a result of the universal on the tranny, of course, the hoop would not have helped.

Good luck on the repairs,

Pete

 

 

Hey,

thanks for the wishes and suggestions. Unfortunately, under SCCA Improved Touring rules the best two would be illegal - driveshaft loops cannot be added and the driveshaft has to be stock. I have a feeling the driveshaft sheared based on what the end looked like.

We still don't know what actually caused the failure since I was frustrated and we parked the car.  I've been enjoying my 260Z since then and getting some race time in.  But, we'll get her back out late this year and have a look and maybe repair her to race.

R