April 29, 2013 - So, what caused the accident?
Looks as if the rear hub failed, leaving only the brake rotor to hold the wheel in place. Obviously, that's not what it's designed to do so it simply ripped apart. This was an upgraded but used rear hub - taken from Elvis, remember - but I'm going to be taking a very close look at the bearing and specifications to see if it's possible to build something stronger.
This also reinforces my belief that I need to step up my maintenance. Talking to Emilio at 949Racing about his enduro experience, I'm learning more about the difference between a track day car and a racer. Yes, I only use this car for track days but it's highly stressed and those track days stack up. I'll start flushing and cleaning all the hydraulics on a regular schedule instead of just the brakes. Wheel bearings are going to start getting treated like consumables. Although I'm not sure I would have identified this one as a problem, as I had it off the car on Wednesday and it felt fine. The hub's previous history was as a street car that has seen a few track days, but at a much lower stress level than the Targa Miata runs.
tags: failure, hub |
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