mx5cartalk.com

Interesting story here.

Good to see TQ recovering, looks like it will be a long slow journey though. When I read the list of his injuries, I thought - 'WTF, how do you get that hurt, in a tintop, with today's safety gear?', it was scary stuff.

Seems like the explanation might be (at least partly) in the last couple of sentences, where he said that he wished he had (further?) tightened his belts, as he believes had he, his injuries would not have been so severe.

One of my habits is, when holding in the marshalling area, to pull down on the shoulder strap adjusters literally as hard as I am able. That doesn't do a lot for the lap belts, so I start with the RHS lap adjuster with the door open, the other is pretty well trapped between the seat and the tunnel, then do the shoulder straps. Fortunately I have never had a really high speed shunt, so have never put it to the test - and long may that continue!

wow serious list of injuries

Your point about the difficulty of accessing lap belts is an interesting one. I've always preferred "pull-down" lap belts in the MX for that reason, but they don't seem to be very popular. I use a Schroth model that can be configured in pull-up or pull-down.

... and don't drive with a loose seat! loose seat - big accident.

It shouldn't have to be said, but how could anyone drive a car like that?

yea Ive just had 3 anchor points re welded

The (literally) old MX5 rusting out and/or cracking the anchor points.

I stole that vid from a thread in MT.net where a poster had taken photos of a wrecked racecar (Mustang) where the seat mount bolts had pulled through the metal . The vid was posted later in the thread, and there is a discussion about sloppy race seat sliders allowing movement of the seat, and/or inadequately secured bolts for the mount/slider/seat. As can be seen in the vid, there was plenty of movement in the seat prior to the accident, and it beats me why the driver(s) did not pull the pin as soon as they felt that movement.

There was no suggestion that the car was structurally weak at all, to the contrary the photos clearly show the mounts with the seat bolts ripped out, and the mount still securely bolted to the car. The suggestion is that washers/reinforcing plates be used rather than relying on just the head of the bolt to hold in the face of the forces in a big shunt. Especially if the hole is not a snug fit for the shaft of the bolt.

Mt.net thread.

TQ campaigning for competitors to tighten their belts

The link to the above article has been inserted in the original story, this links to a separate and more detailed story in which, amongst other things, TQ says the in-car video clearly shows his belts were only 'old man tight' ...