It's a very short and hard brake zone. No time for any of that jazz.

I once had a hydraulic failure on Summit main heading toward turn 1, but that is a long brake zone with gobs of runoff. I had time to downshift and gently use the ebrake then.

It literally looks like the brake line pulled right out. Why, I don't know.

Warren

 

I had my brakes fail on my old 84' civic and almost got killed going through an intersection.
When the brake light lights up on the dash, be sure to check it right away, not in 5 minutes
because the brake fluid might have leaked out.
b

 

I'm sorry to hear about your car. But I am glad that both of you are ok.

I have a guy at work who keeps on trying to get me to open track my car. There's no way I'll ever do it. You never know what is going to happen, and I have too much to lose. I had a friend with a 1995 Talon who had one of his front ball joints collapse on the way into a turn. He was lucky to have survived. He ended up staying in the hospital for a night or two since he blacked out.

 

Sorry to hear that you're letting a small thing like disfigurement stand between you and the most fun you'll have in a car with your pants on.

I do anywhere between 12-18 track days a year and it's all about preparation. There's a reason why race cars cost so much money, it's all in the prep. Taking a street car out there, you should at the very least be doing SS lines, all fluids, alignment, make sure all suspension components are within spec, make sure you have high octane gas in the tank if you have a hot setup and have plenty of rest. You should also bring enough tools and spares to get you at least limping home.

My philosophy is that you have to pay to play and for me, the cost to benefit ratio isn't that high compared to the amount of fun you'll have out there. Both failures mentioned in this thread (brake line & control arm) may have been able to be prevented. A barely noticeable clunk from a worn control arm bushing will get ugly quick around lap 15 if you're really cooking.

I'll be up at Watkins Glen this Sunday if anyone needs me. I'll be the guy in the black Evo with the bronze wheels and the goofy grin on his face.

 

I have a 2 year old son at home. There are more important things than having fun while driving a car.

 

Noted and agreed.

Kids rule.

 

Essentially he did because the master cylinder is split into two reservoirs, one for the front and one for the back. As soon as the front brake line split it emptied the front reservoir and all he had left was rear brakes.

Mark

 

wow unless the line was removed when changing brake fluids, it is very surprising that it happened! Glad to hear everyone was safe though

 

I'm pretty sure that the Evo uses an "X" type split of the two redundant braking systems -- the RF and LR wheels are on one side of the master cylinder, and the LF and RR wheels are on the other side.

So a catastrophic failure of the RF brake line would leave the LF and RR brakes functional, but only with great pedal effort.

 

Thought I posted it last night. The reservoir is split in half so that the single reservoir can be used for both the brakes and the clutch hydraulics. Half is for the brakes, half for the clutch.

 

Any chance track debris (tire pickup) could have instigated the situation?

no unusual sounds right before the mishap?

sorry it happened man.. puts a damper on the fun. Glad everyone was ok.

 

Yeah, they don't really keep that track clean. I had to take a screw out of a tire last year because that track is a mess. Luckily, I heard it in time and took it out before it went too deep. Car was brand spankin new at that point, so plenty of tread on the Advans to save my ***.

Nothing like a good track event to break in the motor nice.