Viper Wheel Goes Flying off at High Speed into a Turn -- Video taped it all

[MannyC]

Well guys, I finally took the SVS Viper to the track... Button Willow to be exact. First time I have ever tracked a Viper, so I started off nice and slow, plus it was the 1st time I had ever run Button Willow in the configuration they had it in, so the track was new. I was running stock tires so I could see how it handled on them. Posted some mid 2 min runs, then slowly started knocking off time, getting faster and faster. I hit a lap of 2:19 and decide I am going to try to hit the low 2's like some of the big monster cars at the track do, on the very next lap. Speed is up, things are looking good. Oh no. This is when everything goes bad.

As I am coming out of a very fast turn, I hear a clunking sound, then the steering wheel tarts vibrating bad and the car no longer is steering out of the turn but instead is headed out into the weeds, no matter where I have the steering wheel pointed. We hit the dirt with a big thud, and my front splitter is slicing through the small bushes/weeds that they have out there like a **** wacker. As my passenger and myself are scraping, banging, hopping through the dirt at some good speed, I notice one of my wheels go flying by the car. It continues down the field bouncing high and going way out into nowhere, finally resting a few football fields away from where my car finally stops.

At this point I am pissed. I am thinking that the lug nuts weren't tightened right. Upon inspection, I see that the lugs were fine. What ended up happening is the wheel just ripped right off the car. Yep, I have a big hole in my front left wheel now. I'll post a photo of the rim tomorrow, as it's on the digital camera which I don't have with me at the moment. But here is a pic of the car and a short video.

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Short Video Clip of the wheel (Right click and SAVE it.)

Crazy thing is that I never heard or read that 96 wheels were bad for road racing when using stock tires. I know now, as I was told by about a dozen viper guys after it happened. The car was prepped by West Coast Viper for the event, so I called John Horton after I broke the wheel and he hadn't heard of the wheels coming apart with stock tires either, so he didn't mention it to me when I picked up the car to go track it.

Amazingly, it appears that the car suffered no major damage. The suspension is so stiff on this car that even with three wheels, it kept the brakes and everything else off the ground -- doesn't looked like it touched at all. I was shocked to see that the Carbon Fiber Front splitter was not only not destroyed, but it wasn't even cracked or chipped. It had about 40 pounds of dirt and rocks sitting up on top of it and inside the grills, along with 10 pounds of weeds.

Tomorrow I am going to wash the car and see how bad the paint damange is on the car, and will post phbtos if anybody wants to see.

I did have an onboard video camera, so I will see about posting that video early next week once I convert it all.

Manny

 

[Moundir]

holly crap that's insane Glad you didnt get hurt and the Viper didnt get mangled either. Btw what was the cause of the wheel coming off?? You are one lucky dude, Manny.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Dude, You are just having no luck. I hope it starts to get better for you. Good luck Manny,

Mike

 

[ViperJohn]

You have been having a run of bad luck lately. (Tahoe)Glad to hear everyone is okay, including the Viper.

If memory serves me, you normally have the 99-02 18's on the car, and put the 17's just for track purposes, correct?

I hope everything works out while fixing car.

Please post the onboard video when you get a chance.

 

[Vic]

Wow! Glad you're ok! Thank God we are discussing mechanical issues only, and not like "Where are we gonna find another arm for Manny?" Sorry to sound so blunt, but I see reason to be thankful you were not injured, and hey, your car looks like its in pretty good shape, considering.

I know those 96 rims can't take too much punishment, but I didn't realize you could break 'em with just streets on. Thats a new twist.

Now if you'll excuse me, do you know what kind of times Pmoney was running? How bout Dearing, or the Honey Bee?

 

[Viper Specialty]

Welcome to the Off-Road Racing chapter of the VCA. I joined it on 8/20/03 and I am proud to be a member! I hit a slick patch of concrete on an exit ramp (upon later examination, it was like glass! reflection and all!!!) and did a 180, while sliding off the road between two mile-markers sideways, followed by rolling backwards up a hill. It turned out that by an Act of God I missed the one marker by less than a foot with the back bumper, and did no other damage to the car other than a dime-sized scuff on the bottom of the driver side front bumper. Keep in mind, I somehow accomplished all this within the space of a 1-lane exit, with a concrete barrier on the left, and a row of mile markers and a slight ditch on the right.

I plan on resigning my position in the O.R. VCA ASAP. I suggest you do the same...lol.

 

[Vic]

Hey, Daniel, that was a neat trick! Betcha ya cant do it again!

Once I spun off the road, which was bordered by a deep drainage ditch, and when the dust settled, you could see where my tire tracks spun over a small driveway across the ditch, the ONLY driveway across the ditch, in either direction, for thousands of feet. I wouldn't have believed it even if I saw a stunt driver do it in a movie.

ps- I lived! Must not have been my time.

 

[Viper Specialty]

VIC- I was in shock (mental breakdown), so now I am kicking myself for not taking a picture! My initial thought was that I had just totaled my car, I actually got out and started to call AAA before I realized that there wasnt any damage. (I actually entertained the idea of going back there and putting my car back in position and snapping one...LOL) It was durring Rush-Hour, so I am sure I entertained many people that afternoon... Surprisingly, it hasnt gotten back to me yet. I little re-adjustment (more like un-bending...) of the core support brackets for the rad support, and I am good as new. Put it on the alignment machine too, and the only wheel that was off was one that had nothing to do with what happened... and even it was only off by a hair.

 

[MannyC]

holly crap that's insane Glad you didnt get hurt and the Viper didnt get mangled either. Btw what was the cause of the wheel coming off?? You are one lucky dude, Manny.

Well the wheel didn't come off, it broke off. If you look at the video, you can see where the center part of the wheel is still bolted to my car. I was told that 96 wheels were welded and not forged, so they have the possibilty of breaking under heavy stress, like running them with slicks on a road course. Thing is I was running stock tires. Perhaps there was a fracture of some kind from the previous owner of the wheels who perhaps ran them with slicks. Who knows.

Was scary as hell as had it happened just 5 seconds earlier, I would have went off nose first over the steepest part of the track, due to the road being banked. Might have rolled the car there. It's the worst feeling when you have no control of the car.

Up until that point, the car was awesome -- drove perfect, even the 4 hour drive from San Diego. Heck, the car drove back home perfect. I borrowed an 18 inch wheel for the front that had a toasted hoosier tire on it. It got me home though. Thanks Bernard! Photos tomorrow.

 

[Bad_Byte]

I've attended several Viper Days events and Skip Thomas always talks about the 96 rims breaking with Hoosiers. Knowing how safety concious Viper Days is that will probably change. I think everyone believed that the added grip of the Hoosisers is what caused the rim(s) to fail, guess again. It sure looks like weak rims to me.

Dude, now you have a good excuse to get some Purner's!

 

[MannyC]

Yeah, I was told to get purners by no less than 3 or 4 guys, including West Coast who had the new versions on their flame car. They look nice. I had HRE 547's on my last car and these look similar to those. However, I really like the way the stock 96 wheels (chromed) look for every day driving.

As for the Purner wheels, the new ones that look like the 547's, are those trackable? They are 19" wheels -- are people tracking with wheels that large?

Manny

 

[Brad04Mamba]

Vic

I left early on Saturday so don't know the best times but as of 1:00 Saturday, Lance's best was 2:03, Mumford was driving his spec racer so didnt see his time (he qualified 5th for the race), Dearing wasn't there, Joeb was in his Comp Coup and I think he was running 2:00.

Manny,

Nice meeting you yesturday, glad everything is OK

Brad

 

[SoCal Rebell]

Manny glad to hear you made it home, what's it like driving on a space-saver, our thanks to Socal Craig for loaning Manny his spare. Skip at VD always made it a point to say those weld wheels were no good for road racing.

I was there and saw the incident from about 200 yards away, all you saw was the dirt fly up in the "Riverside" sweeper and then a wheel dart out from it and kept going. Where's the incar video?????

 

[MannyC]

Manny glad to hear you made it home, what's it like driving on a space-saver, our thanks to Socal Craig for loaning Manny his spare. Skip at VD always made it a point to say those weld wheels were no good for road racing.

I was there and saw the incident from about 200 yards away, all you saw was the dirt fly up in the "Riverside" sweeper and then a wheel dart out from it and kept going. Where's the incar video?????

I have the video on camera, but it doesn't catch the wheel flying off the car, as the car started to spin around due to lack of friction on one side. You do hear me cursing though... I think I say something like, "Oh my Gawd, there goes my freakin' wheel! Jesus." My friend that was watching the race happened to turn his camera to me just after I hit the dirt, so he has a faw away shot of the wheel shooting past the car. I will splice these two together on Weds and upload them for you to see.

I actually didn't use the space saver spare. Bernard (I didn't catch his last name) let me borrow one of his race wheels. It had a Hoosier slick on it that was wore down to nothing, but we all felt it would make it back to San Diego. Just in case, I asked Craig if I could bring the spare with me. Thanks to both of you Bernard and Craig, and all the rest of you who helped me out at the track to get my car out of the dirt. On the way home, I didn't use the spare because I didn't feel like driving 55 MPH for 200 miles on a freeway where the speed limit is as high as 70MPH and where everybody was driving 85+ MPH. Besides that, the spare is only rated for a distance of 50 miles, and I was going 4X that distance. Needless to say, I made it here with no problems. On Monday I drive it down to West Coast Viper to have them inspect the vehicle, finally get it dyno'd with and without the NOS, order a new wheel and perhaps some of those new 19" Purners.

Question: I have a set of the 4 original 1994 wheels that came with Jon's car (Redsled) when I bought it (the 3 spoke.) Are those any good for road racing? They are sitting doing nothing, so if they are good, I can use them for that instead of going out and buying another set of wheels just for the track. If those wheels are horrible, then I will sell them and pick up some Purners. I ask because I have four of them sitting at West Coast Viper, doing nothing.

Manny

 

[Vic]

Vic

I left early on Saturday so don't know the best times but as of 1:00 Saturday, Lance's best was 2:03, Mumford was driving his spec racer so didnt see his time (he qualified 5th for the race), Dearing wasn't there, Joeb was in his Comp Coup and I think he was running 2:00.

Manny,

Nice meeting you yesturday, glad everything is OK

Brad

Thanks Brad.

 

[MannyC]

holly crap that's insane Glad you didnt get hurt and the Viper didnt get mangled either. You are one lucky dude, Manny.

Look, the wheel is still on...sort of...

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Here's a short video of the car after we managed to dig far enough under it to get a jack to lift it up and then we used the broken wheen to hold it up.

(right click and save) VIPER IN A BAD STATE VIDEO

And here is the car cleaned up at home with the loaned wheel. The hood doesn't want to stay open all that well, so something either got jarred loose or bent when the cars nose dug into the dirt.

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These images are what you see underneath upon closer inspection.

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This last image boggles my mind. As Hard as we hit and with all the plant life the front splitter took out along with the amount of dirt that was sitting on top of it when we cam to a stop, I expected it to be totalled. As you can tell, there are just scratched. That carbon fiber shiat is STRONG!

And here she is from a street view, from the opposite site -- looks pretty normal (doesn't look like the front end stopped the car at speed.)

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[Nadine UK GTS]

Glad you and Viper are OKish. What a scare. I was shocked to read what happened. I've seen a bystander at a UK racetrack killed when a wheel came off a car and went into the track side crowd. Is it just the 96 year that were welded? The later are cast, possibly forged? I have a set of the welded ones...I think I'll make them my wet weather road set...no, better still...coffee tables! Hope the damage is soon fixed, and you've new wheels.

 

[MannyC]

Glad you and Viper are OKish. What a scare. I was shocked to read what happened. I've seen a bystander at a UK racetrack killed when a wheel came off a car and went into the track side crowd. Is it just the 96 year that were welded? The later are cast, possibly forged? I have a set of the welded ones...I think I'll make them my wet weather road set...no, better still...coffee tables! Hope the damage is soon fixed, and you've new wheels.

Ha, funny you should mention the coffee table. I told my buddy (the passenger in the car when this all happened) that I wanted to take that wheel back with me so I could turn it into a lounge/coffee type table in my garage.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Congrats on tracking your Viper! Good to hear. Sorry about the wheel, most of us are aware of that issue, wish we could have warned you. But at least the damage is not bad at all.

Yes, get the Purner wheels. He has 18s you can track. They look great and are as good or better than the hi-dollar wheels for about 1/3 the price.

 

[FrankBarba]

your better offf using the old 3 spoke wheels instead of the 96 wheels. Do yourself a favor and pick up john's wheels if you plan of tracking.

 

[Ron]

All 1996 5 spoke wheel are cast and welded (bad). All 1997 & 1998 5 spoke are forged (good).

Easy to see the weld bead just behind the spokes around the perimeter of the rim.

 

[MannyC]

All 1996 5 spoke wheel are cast and welded (bad). All 1997 & 1998 5 spoke are forged (good).

Easy to see the weld bead just behind the spokes around the perimeter of the rim.

Yeah, I can see this now. I never even noticed a difference between the wheels. I thought from 96 wheels on they were the same.

 

[99 R/T 10]

your better offf using the old 3 spoke wheels instead of the 96 wheels. Do yourself a favor and pick up john's wheels if you plan of tracking.

Got a set for ya with new tires on them and they are powder coated black, Good luck with what ever you do!

 

[Jack B]

Early 97's were the same (cast)as the 96's. My guess is that a visual inspection would show stress risers or cracks prior to failure. If I had the subject wheels I would have them checked for stress risers. The process is easy on steel (magnaflux), perhaps, some of the serious racers know the process on aluminum.

 

[Ron]

Your right Jack, I had forgotten that some early 1997's had the 1996 wheels. Either way though, the weld bead is the tell tale giveaway, as easily seen below.... (The forged wheels are smooth where the cast wheel's weld bead is)

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[CHAD]

Glad to hear you are OK and that the car sustained so little damage.

I really like that front splitter. Can you tell me who makes it and if that is a different front fascia or does it fit stock?

Thanks,

Chad

 

[Ulysses]

I hear that chroming the wheels can also make them brittle, exascerbating an already iffy wheel.

 

[AviP]

Re: Viper Wheel Goes Flying off at High Speed into a Turn -- Video taped it

You should have a case against DC!

-Avi

 

[DEVILDOG]

Re: Viper Wheel Goes Flying off at High Speed into a Turn -- Video taped it

'98s were also cast unless you got the $500 optional forged, polished.

 

[MannyC]

Re: Viper Wheel Goes Flying off at High Speed into a Turn -- Video taped it

You should have a case against DC!

-Avi

I'd love to send the decision maker over there some photos of the wheel. As far as I can tell, I am the only person that has busted one of these wheels on stock tires. People have told me they have seen it with racing rubber, but not with stock tires.

Anybody have an email address where I can send a message and photo to DC ?

Manny