We had a rollover in our region a few seasons back. A first geneneration Honda
Civic going thru a typical slalom, went left, right, then CRASH! just tumbling
onto its roof. The driver had good belts and a roll cage and only suffered in
the wallet and pride dept. I thought about the incident later and came to
realize the way the car was prepared was probably largely to blame. It was
being prepped for roadracing on a budget but was only partly completed. It had
the13" rims and tires (replacing stock 12") but the springs had not been
shortened or stiffened yet, net result: increase in CG and ride height. It had
a full roll cage installed, net result: 50 lbs. or more of metal added mostly
to the upper part of the car. And the bumpers and passenger seats had been
removed, net result: probably another 50 lbs. removed from down low in the
car. So inadvertantly, most everything that had been done to that point had
helped unbalance the car and set the stage for a flip. Well, that's my
rollover story. (The owner eventually got a replacement chassis and
successfully went road racing.)
-Scott Schleh
DSP X-1/9 #93
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