Peter Brock dead?

more importantly, he just fitted a top box to my Suzi


I loved that Bimota.

 

What Suzi you got PP?

 

'06 GSX1400. Love it.

 

big bore thumper!

i crave a roadbike.....but the head always overpowers the heart

 

I have not seen it said anywhere yet but Peter Brock is supposed to have designed the Daytona Cobra.

To quote from a full advertisment on page 80 of the July 2006 edition of Classic & Sports Car;

"New Shelby Daytona Cobra , the latest series of these magnificent new 207 mph Peter Brock designed GT"S are now available etc"

Mind you in that article the motor fitted was the 6.6 litre Roush/Ford V8 with 520 BHP, 0-100 mph in 8.6 seconds and the standing 1/4 mile in 11.5 seconds so a powerful fast car.

I understand that the Cobra in the accident had a different brand engine fitted and, then again, maybe something in the car failed, only investigation will tell.

Information only in case you had not seen the advert.

My wife and I went to a Victorian Ferrari Club of Australia lunch about eight weeks ago at Zagames where Peter was the speaker and the loss is a big loss to all who love the sport and becomes a bit more personal after that lunch.

Tony

 

Isnt it another guy named 'Pete Brock' that designed the car? An Amercian guy? Im sure thats what I read in the Townsville Bulletin last night at work. Peter and Pete have been friends since the 60's im sure it said.

 

Wrong Brock, that's the American one.

The one Peter was killed in is built in Melbourne by Mke Borland (Spectrum FFOrd fame), was designed (mostly) by Ross Houlder and is the brainchild of Richard Bendall (Motec founder).

The locally built ones used a massaged LS1 Chevy.

 

Tony,

as noted in earlier posts, the Shelby Daytona was designed by an American, Pete Brock, in the early 60's. It was done to make Cobra's competitive with the Ferrari 250GTO, which dominated GT racing at the time. You can see how the shape mimics the GTO but manages to be pig ugly at the same time.

The car "our" Brock was driving is a replica, probably made in South Africa like the cars featured in that C & S article.

Its not a Cobra, its not a Daytona. They're replica's. They use Holden engines here to get through registration.

Ian

 

you have to question the integrity of what is basically a locally made kit car. it is not a replica of the original Daytona, it is a modern car with a modified lightweight shell over the chassis. the company has only made 6 or 8 of the things, and while they have experience in other vehicles, their test figures on the Daytona Coupe can only be hypothetical. having a massaged LS1 engine in something as light as a f/glass kit car is ridiculous. give me a properly engineered Porsche over any kitcar. cars like this and the Skelta must also come into question for this type of competition.

 

Indeed, much engineering has gone into side-impact resistance by manufacturers, to absorb and distribute the impact with as little intrusion as possible. Even the Lancia Stratos has a 3 layer sill, 12" wide, with interior spars like an aircraft wing. They moved the seats inboard too. No one died in a Stratos in WRC, despite some major accidents.

The Ferrari Daytona on the other hand, has an aluminium door, above a sill constructed from two lengths of 1" x 1/2" rectangular tube. This is not a car for going sideways into anything...

Of course, when you hit a tree, the car is going to tip up, so your head gets placed in the worst position possible. As Scott said, buy the best (full face) helmet possible.

 

Thank you for advising that it was a different Peter Brock who designed the Daytona Cobra.

It now makes more sense some of the articles about Brocky having to get used to the car.

Thanks again


Tony

 

i think the car never had side intrusion bars , the seats didn't have the extra protection on the sides to protect the head and he had an open face helmet . can't say it would of saved him but it could only of helped . i have placed extra side intrusion bars and extra cross bracing in the back , my seats have the side protection and i just bought 2 full face helmets . i'll kit the HANS device for next years rally tas and keep motoring
EDIT : and it's a porsche

 

sounds like this daytona/cobra/thing is more suited to nice safe race tracks with 300m runoff areas than forest rally :/

 

too late now

 

Hi guys

Just catching up with stuff after the Rally. We got thru OK and managed to beat almost all the Escorts I think. Waiting for final results with anypenalties etc, as the fastest Escort got dropped off it's jack in service which went through the sump and they lost 11 min fixing it...

Lambo caught fire again, but he was raving about the event. Got the car into 6th gear on Sat am stage...which is scary fast in something like that! It wasn't the fastest stage either. Longest one was 19+ km very quick. We did in bit over 10 min in the 2000GTV and I'm sure the Evos/911 Turbos were at least a min faster. That includes a 40 sec "restricted speed zone"...

Mick Hone came to the dinner on crutches last night and spoke for about 5 min. Very brave guy. He basically said it was 'driver error', but not in those words. Also spoke to Richard Bendall (spl?) who owns/builds the Daytona and he has seen the wreck. The rollcage over the top of the door was severly bent. It's bolted to the main hoop via a 10mm bolt through a 8mm plate and the bolt was pulled sideways through the plate

Basically the investigation is done, barring downloading the info from the datalogger, which will be done by tomorrow (Tuesday).

I can only agree with the comments that he probably should have had a day or two here first before starting the event. Even if he didn't feel tired, I'm sure he wasn't fully up to speed. He was quick through the first stage, which was quite short, but went off about 9.5km into the second stage, despite the corner being well marked. No one else missed it, but he was going much faster than prev. runners according to eye witnesses. Despite his experience and ability, racing drivers don't always make good rally drivers. Jim Richards has a much more conservative approach and it seems to pay off for him...

I'm sure the event will run next year as CAMS and the sponsors are very supportive still. Hopefully the police/political lobby don't come down on it.

 

andrew , did you get the feeling that some didn't push as hard for the other 2 days after the accident ?

 

i damn well hope it runs next year

cancelling it would be in the same vein as hunting sharks that have taken a swimmer/surfer....absolutely ridiculous

this notion of 'protecting ppl from themselves' annoys me....ppl make choices in life, dont take the option away from them

 

i heard this rumour that when Dale Earnhardt was killed and his number was 3 that every race from here on in there is no overtaking on lap 3 in respect to him and that a similar thing will happen in Aust on lap 5.

 

i don't see a call to cull stingrays....

 

unless GM put out a recall on corvettes

 

Hi Scud
Sorry - I can't get these quote things to work. Must study it sometime...

I think it was a 'wake up call' to everyone that they are all mortal and can make mistakes. There were a few spins and people going over kerbs etc over Sat & Sunday, but no big incidents after that, despite the speeds achieved. We always travel with a 'margin' anyway, so it didn't make much difference to us. The road surfaces, especially around the chicanes and junctions had lots of loose stuff on them, so I think people were more careful. My driver is going to install the full cage in the car now too. Just has the back half and the side intrusion bars fitted at the moment...Guys like Ross Dunkerton tend to drive to their limits anyway, which is why they feature up in the results all the time. Not much substitute for experience in these circumstances.

I hope they run O'Brien Road in some form next year and make us all go past the point - perhaps on a transit zone - just to remind everyone of the consequences of trying too hard

 

yeah seen some people on forums going blah blah they should make 5th lap of all races a parade lap etc.... as touching as it might be, people may get into motorsport to make their mark, but i'm sure nobody thinks they're important enough to change the sport for everybody else. not to speak for brocky, but i reckon he'd think it was a ridiculous gesture, go ahead and have a pre-race 5 lap dedication if you must, but racetracks are for racing on.

 

Agreed Ash. I was quoted slightly out of context in the media and on the ABC radio, but basically I said it's very sad it was Brock, but it would have been sad if it was any one of us and we didn't stop racing when Ayrton Senna crashed or any of the guys who were killed at Bathurst or Targa Tas or Classic Adelaide or anywhere else. We accept the risks and act accordingly.
Local race circuit will have a min silence at next meeting and keep the front row of the grid empty and cars will carry 05 stickers, but that's all.

 

i can see the populous saying we should rename the bathurst event to brock 1000, and name the skyline to him just like they did at adelaide with the senna chicane and some knuckleheads still go and put flowers there during the year especially in May, then some homeless sod goes and pisses on the flowers

 

nice ash