First, he is fine.
I will post some pics tommorow.

He hit a tree on the passenger door flipped it around and slid down a pretty steep hill to end up on the drivers side door.

Car is totalled, he broke the engine bar, tranny snapped right off, and he ripped it up pretty good.

I just cut into a tub I had been saving to make the teenster...I could reverse that, but if someone up in our area has a tub, it would be really helpful to get his mind on to fixing this instead of sliding into a really bad mood.

Rich

That sucks. Glad to hear only the car got hurt.

Bummer....

Damn, glad he's alright and sorry about the car.

Carnage shots

more

Woof....first dibs on parts....


PSS...glad there were NO injuries. BTW, that right rear looks bald...or is it the mud?

HATE to see another one biting the dust.

I think there are at least three good wheels left.

ouch

it will be back here soon, truck is on its way.
We just paid for it.

We will strip it down for any parts and then let it rest till he can bear to scrap the body.
You cant see it but the tranmission rear piece broke right off, and the engine bar is also broken in half.
Not sure if the motor can be saved till we pull it out from under the tub.

One person has already offered a decent tub so we will have him back in a 914 by spring probably...dont forget a good tub here means less welding, not zero welding...

We found a nice clean 240 volvo wagon down the street for a winter tank...his mother (swedish) will approve both in the car, and the pure safety of the 240 wagon...the tree would have lost in a 240...

Rich

Glad he's ok, sorry to see that the Teenster project is put on hold for a while.

How did the passenger door come in contact with a tree? Misjudge a left turn?

Yah think???

Just a slight mis judgement.

Rich

damn rich...thank god he's alright.

If I could exchange my early-aged driving misjudgements for cash, I'd be able to buy a pretty nice 914 right about now.

I hate to see pictures of these cars all wrecked up. Too easy to imagine my car looking like that.

Wow, that looks just like mine Glad he is OK.

I was just going to post that! Wow! Luck kid!

Holy cow that is some damage! Very glad to hear he is O.K.

Happy to hear he's OK!

BTW, there are some pretty helpful sites out there if you decide to move on that Volvo wagon (brickboard.com, turbobricks.com) . . . .

Was that an original Aubergine car?
Andy

Glad he's ok, Thats what matters most.

Glad nobody was hurt...

I know them well....wife is swedish...inlaws are next door.
At one time I was taking care of 7 volvos...down to 3 right now.

Rich

Green...look up Rocket's build thread.

Rich

Rich, Happy to hear that your Son is okay, and glad to hear you have a tub to take his mind off of the accident. Will still keep you in prayers though.

Glad he is OK. The car also looks a lot like my first 914 (similar accident, similar age, similar result).

Hi Rich,

I'll check on a hulk I got some parts from a couple of years ago and see if it's still available. It's in Waterford, CT near the Crystal Mall and just past the Waterford Speedbowl racetrack.
Last time I talked to Dave, he had a set of 4-lug turbine wheels, a pair of new steel rocker panels, and the unibody (with doors). I bought everything else he had that I could fit in the V70 wagon (2 trips). -Mike

VERY glad to hear your son is okay.

Tough to look at those pics. Very tough. But it's just a car, and it can be more or less replaced.

pete

Holy crap... not trying to be rude or anything or get him flamed, but how fast was he going? I only ask because I am going to save some of those pix for those that ask me "why did you put so much bar in the center section of your car?" and I suspect he was no where near 100mph, which is nothing for my car.

A couple rally car drivers were killed nearly back to back hitting trees in the driver's door right before I built my car, so I made darn sure that at racing speeds I shouldn't have any inanimate objects make it that far into the cockpit... that just assures me the extra 100lbs of bar I have is worth it.

my "floor"
Click to view attachment

I have 4 bars running across the width - two 2" beam front and rear and two 1-3/4" beams (one at the back of the seat, one at the front) and they are heavily triangulated to keep stuff "out".

Glad to hear he walked away! A co-worker here looked and said "man he's gotta have some broken ribs or something, right?" and we both agree it is amazing he walked away from that.

Glad your son is ok.

It's tough being a parent during these times.

Tom

F*CK!! glad your son is okay! That's all that matters! Looks like that coulda been really ugly, especially if he had a passenger!
Mark D.

That sucks Rich. Really glad he and the passenger are ok. Someone must have been watching out for them; that could have turned out really badly.

So maybe you could occupy his mind with some skid lessons on a track where the trees have been removed and there's a skilled instructor.

damn, thats a crazy crash. Glad he's ok

If there had been a passenger, might be a different story. My kids are nearing their mid 20s and I'm just starting to let them drive the Boxster. No way on the 914-6. The brain don't start to kick in until 25, so no reason to put them into a situation where logical thinking may not happy and someone may get hurt driving a car that may take some logic. My kids have asked me many a time about taking the cars out, they know the answer.

Wow this has been a bad week for teener folf. I am glad to hear your son is okay. Here is to hoping no more of this stuff happens soon.

DAMN, but a good testiment on what a lick these cars can take.

Glad your son is OK. Give him a hug and let him know that your glad he is still around.

T.C.

Glad your son is ok, my son damaged his jeep quite badly and I am still amazed that there were no apparent injuries, still pretty scary for the parents. I have an idea of how you might be feeling.

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

According to a cross-post there was a passenger who made out without any injuries.

Glad both the driver and passenger make it out OK..

Cars are replaceable... glad to hear your boy is okay.

Me too!

I'm really glad that your son is okay!

Zach

I flipped my old 914 a few years back I know he feels ........like shit anyways glad he is ok!

glad he is ok and without injury.
better to loose a car than a boy!

I have no issues with loosing the car. Its easy enough to replace.
the Boy, hes my baby...I never like these phone calls.

I have a line on three tubs now...damn we all save some rusty ass junk up here in the North East...just junk compared to what you guys cut up and throw out....

I know of one decent car that is hiding...gotta see if he has given up on his project yet...hmmm

Any more leads on rust buckets, let me know...

Oh well, its just time and metal...

Rich

Glad everyone was okay. Those pics are scary

that looks really scary. Glad your son is fine.

Glad everyone is okay!

Yes, and why it's important to be thankful to those who engineered the cars so well so long ago.

As to the bar-laden floor in the race car pictured above, it certainly looks like it will be harder for things to intrude into the cabin in the (let's hope VERY unlikely) event of an impact like the one seen in this thread.

However, one has to wonder if the energy absorbed by the 914 in this instance didn't play a part in preserving the lives of the two kids in the 914. Its "give" took a big chunk of the wallop out of what those kids would have experienced had there been rigid bars there, and the result (I suspect, but you'd have to do an extensive study to find out) was that their necks were subjected to a slightly lesser impact and their internals didn't have to slow down quite as quickly.

If the tree or pole had entered the cockpit a couple of feet back, it would have been a different story, of course. This demonstrates the erratic nature of car "accidents" and the difficulty (impossibility?) that faces engineers as they try to protect occupants. I think about the C-GT fatality in Fontana (having driven a C-GT there just before it happened...) and what killed those two was a side impact in which nothing intruded but the car simply came to a stop too quickly, too instantly. Their necks' didn't have much of a chance, if any. I sometimes wonder if they would have done better without helmets.

I've been thinking a lot about safety of late, and very unconventionally. Not so much because I think we should ditch helmets, HANS devices, etc., but because I think we should really be considering the lessons learned in production-car crash test engineering and how they might be adapted for race cars. Good seats are another key, and I agree with Patrick Long that we should modernize old race cars with modern seats, and wear HANS with helmets out there (extra weight of the helmet makes things tougher on your neck).

Problem is, all this is expensive, and I've seen very little discussion about how HANS or similar devices work without harnesses, i.e. with 3-point belts. Which then makes me wonder if those who autocross are actually less safe in modern street cars with a helmet on. Airbags and full-face helmets are just one thing that come to mind...

This is a hard subject, but there are good lessons for all of us to learn as we consider it.

The best news is we aren't studying it in tragedy with re: to Rocket. And for that, I am very, very thankful.

So let's learn from this near miss together...

pete

The tub, wheels, and rockers I mentioned earlier have since been sold. Glad to hear you have a line on another one nearby.

-Mike