Pikes Peak 240SX - Minor Setback...

[kenno470]

Sunday...

I come down with the flu and can't make it to Alamo to get the car on the dyno as planned. So, the Fatman comes up and loads the car and takes it down for me. Thanks for your help, Steve.

On the Dyno, the car only makes 375hp @ 17psi. Adding more boost doesn't help. We need a larger turbine housing (which we already have) and need to change the WG spring. No problem. Springs are on the way and we'll change out the turbine housing this week. The turbo guys belive these two changes will get us to our goal of 425hp at the same 17psi, with room to add more boost and hp as necessary.

Here's where the fun starts...

On the way back from Arlington an emergency situation presented itself which resulted in the car coming off the trailer. The car struck a concrete center divider head on and trashed the front frame to about an inch in front of the firewall. The radiator has minor damage, but is not leaking. The IC is pretty bent up, and a few electrical connetors are broken. But the front didn't get into the engine, and luckily, the carbon fiber hood wasn't on the car.

Here's a few pics:





Here you can see the new twist in the frame rail...







The Plan: There's a good chance that the frame is ok from the firewall rearward. So, this weekend we will strip the car down from the firewall forward and do a closer inspection and take some measurements. If everything looks square we'll graft a doner front clip onto the car. Then we just need to replace the other damaged parts and we're good to go.If it's not square...? We already have an empty shell located and we'll transfer everything over.

So there it is. After the issues we faced trying to get it on the hill last year, I should have figured it wasn't going to be a cake walk this year!

[breadbox]

AHHHH!! that sucks. Someone throw a zenki shell at Ken just in case.

I hope its okay.

[simmode1]

Oh God! This car has gone through more trails and tribulations than any other car I've ever heard of! I hope the repairs go smooth! We're all pulling for you!

[PEZi]

we're cheerin' for ya buddy! i'm sure this will only end up being just a minor setback as you said

[1sikS13]

save yourself the time, and swap to the new shell

[kenno470]

save yourself the time, and swap to the new shell

My initial reaction when I saw the car was the same as yours...but then thinking about everything we did to the car from the firewall back...wow: All the cutting and lightening in the trunk area, including the box for the fuel cell, battery mount, pump and filter mounts, the rear firewall so I can run a cell in the trunk, the rear wheel wells, drilling and mounting the lexan windows, Trans tunnel mods to put the driver seat closer to the middle of the car, Turbo mount behind the passenger seat, the cage, the pedal box, dash mounts...that's a ton of work. And swapping the cage to the new car (because bending up a new one from scratch will be way too expensive) means cutting off the roof. That's a long list.If we can just replace the front frame (from about an inch in front of the firewall forward) then all we have to do is jig it up and get it square, refab the front wheel wells (which we'll do out of Aluminum this time), and the front mini frame that holds the Oil cooler, IC and headlights.We were going to wait till next year to re-do the front bumper with a fiberglass unit and re-do the splitter and it's frame, but since the bumper is toast and the splitter frame is spaghetti, we'll take care of that this year.

So, we're looking for an IC (used, of course), and a fiberglass or frp front bumper, on the cheap. I can modify or fix, so if you have a line on something kinda tough, I'll still look at it.

Thanks for the well wishes. I appreciate it. We'll keep pushing here. We're committed to getting this going just as quickly as possible.

We really appreciate your support!

Ken

[mattblancarte]

The car came off the trailer?!

Hope you can make a quick recovery from this incident.

[kenno470]

For all further updates related to the Pikes Peak S14, see the original thread: "Pikes Peak S14 - Version 2010"

I've posted an update there tonight.

Thanks!!

[Philipio]

I am SO sorry to hear that. I hope you get everything worked out soon. I'll check your other thread now. Good luck.