I had autocross on Sunday. On Saturday, I picked up the Maverick from the shop and got 2 blocks and the rear wheel came off! It ate up the drivers rear quarter panel. A Mercedes was nice enough to stop the tire that was going about 25 mph with its front bumper. Well thats why I have insurance. So Saturday sucked. Sunday I got to autocross. That was awesome!!! I took 4th out of 16 cars. I was only 0.600 sec off of the winning run! It was a tricky course. The ground was cold so it was hard to get heat in the tires to get best grip. Here are the videos from the day. Heres the rear view compilation. Great for listening to that v8 sound! Heres the in car cam runs
I usually retorque my wheels at the track before I run. The previous weekend I took an autocross school and didnt retorque before that. So thats to big events on them with out retorqueing them. The extreem turning loosens the lug nuts. Shame on me for not torqueing them before and after each event. I am dedicating a old torque wrench and wheel lug socket to the maverick. It will always be with the car and I will now retorque before after every event. Also the car has stock length wheels studs. Im going to put long studs on and that will give me a lot of thread before the wheel can come off again. The car is at a body shop now. They will work with me on making sure the car is able to make the next autocrosses. It may have a bare metal quarter panel or in primer at one event.
wow!.. lucky you didn't do more damage than you did. Glad it's easily fixed. That seems odd that you need to retorque them so often to keep from losing wheels like that. I know tons of guys who race.. not to mention the ones who drive the rims off racing through traffic... and they never lose wheels like this. The longer studs will give you more margin but something surely seems wrong there and I'd certainly be replacing those lug nuts at the very least. Maybe even use some anti-seize on threads AND seat to ensure more consistent and accurate torque readings?
You got a shot across the bow. It could have come off at the drag strip when trapping 100+ and the results could have been catastrophic. Glad you are safe.
sucks to hear your car got jacked up but the good thing is no one got hurt and your car didnt get hurt too bad
Sucks on the wheel, it's a sickening feeling. What did you use to take the videos? Is that an app or something else?
Its an app called Harrys lap timer. Its really cool. I use my i phone 5, a gopro hero 3, and a external high speed gps receiver.
