Notice of Bereavement

[eastendr]

It is with much sadness that I must inform the list of the passing of a dear friend, known to many. John Sims front splitter. Unfortunately an incident that occurred whilst Beaky was being driven in to the very well attended 'Cars On the Green' event at Croxley Green last night led to the untimely demise of the said front splitter. An elderly marshall failed to indicate to John that beaky was about to ground-out during entry to the event and the inevitable swiftly followed. For those wishing to pay their last respects, Croxley Green is just outside Watford. The assembled 944 drivers have already said a few works and observed a respectful silence. A full service of rememberance will be held around the 944 register camp fire at the PCGB brands weekend where we will also be singing the RMS hymn. Still, never mind, eh !! Rick.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Looks like it split all right...







Sorry! Couldn't resist. []

I too, was a victim many years ago of a similar thing. The British GP at Brands Hatch one year saw the rubber air-dam ripped from my car as I was directed in to the farmers field they laughingly called a car park...[:'(]

 

[Diver944]

Don't throw it until I've had a chance to look at it John. I've got a welding machine coming in a few weeks that should be able to handle that (I admit that looks a bit extreme tho [])

Splitter by name - splitter by nautre []

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Diver944

Don't throw it until I've had a chance to look at it John. I've got a welding machine coming in a few weeks that should be able to handle that (I admit that looks a bit extreme tho [])

Splitter by name - splitter by nautre []

Damn, I wish I'd kept it now. Watching someone weld GRP has got to be good for a laugh, assuming you are standing well back. What sort of gas/wire combination works best?

Seriously though, it was well beyond sensible repair as the main mounting flange had shattered along the front seam. Although one could have rebuilt it structurally the front was such a mesh that it would have taken too much time to make good.

 

[Guest]

Commiserations John, youre not by any means the first, when my son and I were marshalling the Porsche carpark at Eynsham Hall we saw at least 3 cars a day seriously grounding, and in fairness the carpark was a ploughed field! A bit unfair when the drivers blamed us marshalls who were just volunteers for the day, the field at Brands is better, we even got a couple of tenner tips last year just for pointing out an empty space.

 

[Guest]

Driving these cars into ploughed fields?!!! You guys are crazy. I think I have 4.5" of clearance on my 88 951S with no lowering. A Porsche, even the Pepper, is no off road machine.


Sorry about the splitter, John. Too bad you can't get one in the stock material. That may get scrtached but won't crack. I know Porsche had them when they used to race as one of the team drivers showed me it. But that was a long time ago.

 

[Fen]

I have around 70mm from castor mount to ground. That's about 3" in old money...

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Fen

I have around 70mm from castor mount to ground. That's about 3" in old money...

That may be about right. I was just measuring how high the front nose belly pan was. Never looked at all the other low points as I knew I was screwed whatever they were if you got into deep snow, nuch less a field of tilled dirt.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: IceShark

.......... Too bad you can't get one in the stock material. That may get scrtached but won't crack. I know Porsche had them when they used to race as one of the team drivers showed me it. But that was a long time ago.

I'm not so sure. The one I had got grounded and scraped more times than I can remember and was still holding up well. The problem in this instance was that something was sticking up out of the ground. Even then it broke most of the fixings and the webs holding the lower PU lip. If anything else had held on stronger it would have smashed the nose completely.


Actual ground clearance isn't as much an issue as "angle of attack" (as noted in off roading terms) There are sundry things under our cars which are quite low to the ground, but relatively close to the wheels, so as the wheels go over bumps they lift the low things (eg caster mounts) out of danger. The trouble with my splitter was, although it had 3.75" of ground clearance it was quite a way in front of the wheels; so any inclines, or dips, needed to be less than 1:5 or I would hit it. At the end of the day it wasn't really practical for use on the road and was going to get broken one day, if I didn't wear through the bottom of it first.