Some of you may know Brad Vincent from NMRA events...well, he put his Mustng on its top Saturday at our local track in Owensboro KY. He slipped the car into reverse somehow on the top end of the track and the rest is history...car is a total loss. Not even much of the drivetrain that will be salvageable. Roll cage never moved a bit though, and he is uninjured...just sore. This was a very nice car, which ran low 6's in the eighth mile....
that sucks! I hate to hear of any body having trouble......and not to sound like a Monday morning quarterback here, but that is good reasoning for a reverse valve body! Glad he is OK, car can be replaced.
Not to knock anyone, and no offense intended, but when a man crashes his car, obviously he nor any of his comrades (read: fellow racers) wants to hear "well he could have done this or that to prevent it". Gotta put yourself in the situation. If you (and I hope it never happens) put yours on the lid and someone gets on the board and says "well you could have/should have let off the gas...etc, it's a bit of a kick in the face. Glad the cage did it's job! That's why it's super important to put much effort into designing and building the cage because it's your last defense if something goes wrong. And obviously the car he was in had a good cage. Now get the good parts off of it and get another one together and get it back to the track!
I don't think that suggesting a reverse valve body is a fair comparison to suggesting changing a driving style ... I think it is much closer to suggesting that a race car have a roll cage or a fire suppression system... it is a safety item. Personally, I have stuffed mine in the wrong gear more than once, not hard to do, and my stuff hasn't been anywhere near as fast as that car. Glad the driver walked away. Looks like whoever built the cage did a great job. That car looked more like a Pinto than a Mustang after wadding it up like that.
no offense taken, but I was not kicking whoever this person is in the face. I am assuming he is not on this board. I was just stating for those reading this post that I reverse valve body could/would prevent accidentally shifting into reverse. I was only trying to help those that might not know. Appearantly you do not know me very well, I am not the kind of person that does that sort of thing. Merely trying to help the next guy. and yes, I have "almost" put mine on its lid
what this realy show is that .any one racing a car or truck should ALL WAYS build the car safety first cage and belts are more important then go fast parts . flipping at even 75 mph would put you in a world of hurt with out the right stuff . that is what we should all take from this thread he walked away,,,
This guy probably has a reverse manual valve body, but a lot of guys, including me, shift straight from 3rd to neutral after a run. If the shifter isn't set up right or fails there is a chance it can go to reverse. I never did feel 100% comfortable doing this and I might change my driving. Engine guys say to do it to save aluminum rods, but trans guys say don't do it for safety. I'm thinking maybe buying new rods each year is worth it after seeing something like this numerous times.
Although I have never been bucks-up enough to run an aluminum rod motor (the classes I ran in NHRA didn't allow them) I never shift into neutral on the big end......................I'm hard on the brakes and let the motor help bring the car down from 6500rpm. Just the way I have driven for some 35+ years...........................and have never experenced a motor failure because of it............now maybe if I could get the chute to work..............................IMHO
