I just want to go on record and say that..........

Thursday?
 

Uhhh, Thursday has now done come and gone....:rolleyes:

The guy doesn't owe an explanation to anyone. In fact, it's probably wise that he not make any comments about the situation until he's fully healed and his insurance claim is 100% resolved.

And you don't think Panavia's post saying "he will check in on him Thursday" doesn't at least warrant a follow up post by him on whether or not he did just that?

Send Steve (PANAVIA) a PM or email. Steve will always respond. I'm not waiting on pins an needles to hear the specifics. I wish the guy a speedy recovery and resolution with his wrecked car.

Doug, you're not the least bit curious as to how this guy could blow by a couple of kids (as claimed, at least) and then crash off the side of a straight road? I won't even ask you whether or not you think there may be an underlying duty to society to at least answer as to "what happened" when something as unusual and disturbing as that occurs.

Maybe he owns a Prius accelerator pedal... ;-)

:LOL::LOL::LOL: Or maybe he's Doug's brother-in-law....:cool:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around ot hear it, does it make a sound?

Your moment of Zen. ;)

Uh-huh. I'm just reminded of how refreshing it was when Undy was absolutely candid over his little "mishap." No BS is always a treat; and increasingly rare. ;)

The crash in Mountain View and Undy's mishap, while titillating, is really none of our business. That is what I meant by "my moment of Zen."

I would let the thread die.

Greetings, -- I had coffee with our friend today, he is back at work and still recovering.

First of all, thanks them for the concern and well-wishes they have offered.
He is a young Silicon Valley Exec, smart and intelligent, reminds me of many people we all know in the bay area. He is a level headed guy.

I asked him what he wanted to share, and I think I have encompassed it in this note. =

The accident was pretty horrible by any measure. He does not truly remember what happened , he remembers the night before , and then a week later, --- --- --- --waking up ... in Stanford ICU.


Bottom Line; Somehow the car got out of control and hit the tree - and totaled his backdraft. When he crashed , good luck just so happens to have provided a fire chief was in traffic 30 seconds behind him and was basically the first on the scene, with first responders onsite in record time.

In this process , he was injured very seriously, with several significant compressive fractures in his face, and surrounding areas. They gave him a tracheotomy tube on the way to the hospital, during the process he swallowed 1 liter of his own blood and lost 2 more liters. ( he admits he is still a "quart-low", but he is a young guy, so he should be OK --the doctors have told him this many times)

In seeing him today, -All I can say is Stanford Hospital did an absolute remarkable job. He does have a road to recovery that is paved with some dental and plastic surgeries ahead of him. He now has several structural titanium plates in his face today and they had to reconstruct him significantly , but again ,' Stanford works wonders. He was banged up elsewhere, however - The burn on his leg from the side-pipes still requires a bandage on a daily basis. I am in general awe of what Stanford was able to do (from his description of the process ) - they worked on him for a solid 8 hours- on day 1.

In the MVV story , the kids referenced were officially investigated by MVPD, turns out they are actually gang types who apparently are in the habit of "flipping people off who have nice cars " - ( IMHO those kids need a new hobby) who thought he was going to swing around, and run them over. (no--- I dont get it ether )

So how fast was he going >? -- Nobody knows, The interesting part is that the traffic /skid computer they use for figuring out how fast you are going doesn't have a formula for cobras ,-- the car was too light with too much power for it to calculate properly.

There is one thing that happened during the accident that is cause for our cumulative significant review.

In the accident, the drivers side seat-belt "eye" bolt , holding the seat belt to the frame - broke -

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/wescoperformance_2126_681279

I don't know who supplied (supplies) this on a backdraft. This made me think about all the different components on these cars , and there are some vendors out there who sell the lowest price part without regard to quality, or suitability of purpose. It made me stop and think about some of the stuff that is used and sold on the chosen cars of our hobby.

I asked him to get me in touch with his insurance carrier and if I could review one of the eye-bolts so we can see what they are , if they are of substandard quality or ? . I don't really know what backdraft supplies , and what the builder supplies in this case.

The takeaway is these are 2400lb motorcycles with 400-500-600 horsepower and can really hurt you badly if something happens.

I would treat our friends accident as a wake up call. Make sure you have *steel* seat bucket frames, not fibreglass, Make sure that the SEATS are actually bolted to the METAL frame, etc. make sure your seatbelts and hardware are DOT or SFI approved. - make sure you have good brakes, - dont under-transmission the car.

He had a roll-bar, -it never came into play. Bottom line ; its a 500HP, 2400LB motorcycle.

I am going to let this thread close and not comment any further, I will post the seat-belt-bolts article in the "All-Cobra" area and follow up from there.

Steve

Steve, that's a very sobering story you tell there. As a Superformance owner, I didn't build my car and have no idea what seat belt anchoring system they use. As you're an SPF dealer, please tell me what does our setup look like? Does it pass muster? My car is SP01336. Thanks.

Mountain View
One more town I've scratched off my lists of places to live or visit!
Don't think I would like the people!

Steve: Thanks for following up with some closure on this story. Hope the guy fully recovers.

DD

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb
 

Steve's pretty diplomatic. Look, I don't want to tee off on a guy that's all smashed up, but if it is as it seems to sound (guy gets flipped off by kids and in a rage tries to whip a hi-speed U-turn only to make it half way through the turn) then it was a very costly lesson. We have fatal "road rage" incidents in my area, it seems like, every couple of months. And confronting people by the side of the road that flip you off is just plain stupid (and in DC, it would most likely be fatal). Aside from the fact that you never know who has a pistol in his pocket, some of those wimpy, puss-type guys turn out to be ex-Navy Seals.;)

SunDude,

I have very close ties to the SPF factory , I am following up on that within the next few days. I know SPF is very good about having the correct grades of hardware in places. I have a couple of SPF chassis in house of various vintages and will review with the mother-ship.

Patrickt, I really dont think he was intentionally trying to do a u-turn. -- confronted in that situation, I think he would smile and wave back.

-- I think something went wrong, and it wound up in a worst case outcome.

I tell all my clients that in newer machines ( like say a Z06 or a AMG ) there are many computers, and there are thousands of engineering hours in that software to keep you on the road safely.

In a Cobra -you are the software. ----It is only as sophisticated as your interaction and control of it.

As for gun control, who is carrying and who isn't , I cant speak to that.
I do know that Santa Clara County is decidedly Anti-CCW. so if someone is has one odss are they are govt' or a bad guy.

Steve

patrickt: You from Mountain View, or what? ;)

Somebody needs to repost the youtube of Sargent Schultz...

DD

Dandy Don Meredith once said:

"If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?"

If there were any more hearsay, then this would be a tabloid magazine.

There are 2 sides to every story.........
and if 1 side cant remember his side of it then
it becomes a 1 sided story again....who do you
believe ???
the guy lost his car and nearley lost his life...
i say the story is over...