Update on the Shadow #101

racervette69

racervette69

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Information off the Shadow Facebook page. For any Shadow fans. Car #101. Crash at the Mitty yesterday.



This is second hand news, throttle hung under the bridge hit the wall straight on.


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"Today Craig Bennett had a racing accident while driving The Shadow. It was a serious in nature and Craig sustained numerous injuries. The most significant was to his spine. He was operated on at Northeast Medical Center in Gainesville. The surgery was successful and he is now being treated for the numerous fractures to his arms, legs and feet. We expect full recovery but his path back will be long. Thanks for the support and prayers. We will keep you updated on his progress"
 
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I always thought these cars were the next step after the Jim Hall cars.
So what was it: brake fail, missed a pedal, the VTEC engaged?

I looked and found little on the accident. Care to share a link?

Cheers - Jim
 
I hope the driver is able to recover completely. I was looking at a youtube video the other night of the Shadow cars, sans bodywork. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but the tub on those things just looked minimal in size and a bit fragile for my tastes.

I've had an interest in the Shadow cars for a while, particularly with the turbo Chevy big block. But for whatever reason, I can't seem to find much detail info on the engine setup. I would have liked to have seen a head to head matchup in the Can-Am series between the 917-30 and the turbo Shadow, but the Chevy engine guys just seemed to be a bit late for the turbo party. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think the turbo Chevy guys would have been able to match the durability of the Porsche engine at the time anyway.
 
Not much information coming out on the accident. They have asked people with pictures not to post them. Think when the driver recovers more, it will leak out. Latest on the driver. "At approximately 11:30 AM Craig was removed from the respirator. He is breathing on his own and is communicating with medical staff"



Did see pictures of the Cheeta accident. Think it broke his ankle.

Dinwiddie went off into the tires. Do have pictures. Most of the damage has already been repaired. Going to be testing later this month.

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69427 said:
I hope the driver is able to recover completely. I was looking at a youtube video the other night of the Shadow cars, sans bodywork. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but the tub on those things just looked minimal in size and a bit fragile for my tastes.

I've had an interest in the Shadow cars for a while, particularly with the turbo Chevy big block. But for whatever reason, I can't seem to find much detail info on the engine setup. I would have liked to have seen a head to head matchup in the Can-Am series between the 917-30 and the turbo Shadow, but the Chevy engine guys just seemed to be a bit late for the turbo party. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think the turbo Chevy guys would have been able to match the durability of the Porsche engine at the time anyway.
Click to expand...

Agree, a little to late. Not much protection for the drivers. Just that period of time. Remember Donahue's accident in the Porsche during testing. Think drivers' safety was an after thought. Then go back to F1 in the 50's and 60's. There is a BBC documentary, on the Killing years of F1. Really eye opening. It points it finger at Collin Chapman's' cars. Fast, light but fragile. Jackie Stewart had a lot in standing up to the builders, making tracks and cars safer. He finally refused to race a Nuringburg.
 
I got this one on F1 out of the blu-Ray discount bin featuring F1 legends: 1 the true story of the drivers who risked their lives and changed the sport forever.

Well worth the watch. Best quote was "when sex was safe and racing was dangerous." Or, something close to that.
 
racervette69 said:
69427 said:
I hope the driver is able to recover completely. I was looking at a youtube video the other night of the Shadow cars, sans bodywork. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but the tub on those things just looked minimal in size and a bit fragile for my tastes.

I've had an interest in the Shadow cars for a while, particularly with the turbo Chevy big block. But for whatever reason, I can't seem to find much detail info on the engine setup. I would have liked to have seen a head to head matchup in the Can-Am series between the 917-30 and the turbo Shadow, but the Chevy engine guys just seemed to be a bit late for the turbo party. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think the turbo Chevy guys would have been able to match the durability of the Porsche engine at the time anyway.
Click to expand...

Agree, a little to late. Not much protection for the drivers. Just that period of time. Remember Donahue's accident in the Porsche during testing. Think drivers' safety was an after thought. Then go back to F1 in the 50's and 60's. There is a BBC documentary, on the Killing years of F1. Really eye opening. It points it finger at Collin Chapman's' cars. Fast, light but fragile. Jackie Stewart had a lot in standing up to the builders, making tracks and cars safer. He finally refused to race a Nuringburg.
Click to expand...

Just going from memory here. Smokey Yunick (in his book) made a comment about Chapman (who apparently got one of those OBE things from the Queen), and after noticing the marginal safety of the construction of the Lotus cars, called him (IIRC) Sir Don't make 'em very strong (or something along those lines). Smokey wasn't impressed with how close Chapman cut things affecting the safety of his drivers.
 
phantomjock said:
VTEC -- the variable valve timing cam that the Hondas have - gets blamed by drivers with there foot iin the worng place and all other sorts of "woes." WIKI - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTEC

Cheers - Jim
Click to expand...

I'm familiar with what VTEC is, but I wasn't aware that it's also an inside joke to cover up driver mistakes.

I might just keep that in my back pocket for possible future use. ;)
 
phantomjock said:
VTEC -- the variable valve timing cam that the Hondas have - gets blamed by drivers with there foot iin the worng place and all other sorts of "woes." WIKI - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTEC

Cheers - Jim
Click to expand...

Things certainly have evolved. We used off set woodruff keys on the crank sprocket, to change the cam timing on the older BMW EP cars. It was was not legal to change your cam timing at that period. Is now.
 
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