wrecked SPF on eBay

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by Ven_M_us

Well, .....I must say that it's a small world! I've had two different people contact me today about this listing on eBay. I was the original owner of the car and had to "give" it to my divorce attorney to satisfy my "final" payment.....it's long story with a happy ending, .....but I was able to keep the Viper! Anyway, he sold the car to a guy in Phoenix and I've kept in touch with him. I must say that he too was surprised to get a call from me today when I wanted to find out what happened.
He said that he was driving the car (approximately 40 mph) and suddenly the car went sideways off the road and into a tree. He doesn't remember much about the crash.
There were no skid marks on the road and he wasn't "hot rodding" the car. The insurance investigator determined that the bolts or bolt on the driver's side rear control arm broke. When this happened, it the turned the car sideways and launched him into the tree.
He received 180 stitches to the head, had a skin graft on his leg and was in the hospital for 5 days. He's okay now. (So....that very well may be blood on the rear quarter!)
Guys, if you have a Superformance.....check or replace the suspension bolts. I understand there have been some recent issues with this. I also heard there is a suspension modification to "beef up" a bracket to avoid these issues.
Bob Q.

Bob,

Thanks for providing us with some background regarding the car. Sound like the guy had some serious injuries and I'm happy to hear he's recovered.

Do you happen to know if the rear shock mounts were upgraded on the car? There was a Technical Service Bulletin (080718-TSB) issued where they recommended that the bracket be replaced on cars up to chassis number 1670.

http://superformance.org/bulletins/S...-080718tsb.pdf

I was curious when you described the accident, as the shock mount might have failed.

[puppster]

Wow! This is the 3rd thread about SPF in the last couple of weeks that points at some serious saftey issues.

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by puppster

Wow! This is the 3rd thread about SPF in the last couple of weeks that points at some serious saftey issues.

Nice. What are the other two threads.

[Blas]

The shock tower bracket looks perfectly intact...and it's still in place in the photos. There appears to be an issue with the lower control arm bolts to the hub carrier, but the photos are not clear enough to determine anything about them without it being pure speculation. The geometry of the lower control arm as it attaches to the chassis also looks ok. I do note from the photos there don't appear to be shoulder harnesses installed in the car, tough to be absolutly sure from the photos but it would explain the steering wheel. Could be just a maintenance issue...?
FYI: The suspension modification to "beef-up the bracket" referred to had nothing to do with these bolts...

[Got the Bug]

Originally Posted by Blas

The shock tower bracket looks perfectly intact...and it's still in place in the photos. There appears to be an issue with the lower control arm bolts to the hub carrier, but the photos are not clear enough to determine anything about them without it being pure speculation. The geometry of the lower control arm as it attaches to the chassis also looks ok. I do note from the photos there don't appear to be shoulder harnesses installed in the car, tough to be absolutly sure from the photos but it would explain the steering wheel.

Thanks Blas. I guess it would have helped if I looked through all of the pics. It's possible that the lower control arm damage was a result of the impact vs. a failure.

[*13*]

Seriously scary! Maybe someone should post a bulletin on this site to inform those owners who aren't reading this. I'd want to know if this "could" happen to my car.