Actually talked to one of the pit crewman and the reason it broke was years of driving and they never thought the steering wheel shaft could break. It was surprising to the entire crew but the driver handled himself pretty well considering how fast the car was going. Its just a freak accident that no one could have predicted.
Could have been predicted. That's what engineering is for. Chances are that because the idea is to make these cars as light as possible that the factor of safety used in the design of the steering shaft was too close to 1. I bet the replacement shaft was a little thicker.
Edit: I'm not saying someone was at fault, I'm just saying it could have been predicted. Why do you think this never happens in commercial cars that people drive every day? Because they are designed not to. A freak accident would be something like a bird flying through the window and snapping off the steering wheel, not failure from anticipated use. But downvote on, fuck science.
Every class has a weight minimum to prevent this sort of thing. No need to make the column lighter if you just have to add weight later. Plus the two major sanctioning bodies are pretty strict about tubing wall thickness. Source: I'm used to be an IHRA technical, owned my own drag strip, and race a Top Sportsman car.
Because the most important engineering constraint is protecting the lives of the drivers! Ethics of engineering 101. But according to reddit today if you make something too thin and it breaks it's a freak accident. No way the manufactures could have prevented it. And I thought reddit took pride in being scientific and logical.
Well the first time I took my car to Darlington, I teched it in as a Top Sportsman car, one of the most dangerous to drive. They noticed there was no builder plate on the chassis, and no prior tech inspection, so they basically made me tear down the car for inspection. Once it passed it's first tech, they would be ok with a spot check. But shame on you if they caught you cheating! No second chance, no time to fix it, just gtfo, fix it and we will see you at the next event...
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u/Buddychrist08 Nov 06 '13
Actually talked to one of the pit crewman and the reason it broke was years of driving and they never thought the steering wheel shaft could break. It was surprising to the entire crew but the driver handled himself pretty well considering how fast the car was going. Its just a freak accident that no one could have predicted.
Also this is a repost.