[Mahler9th]

Yikes.

We could not tell if the hub failed first or the stub axle failed first. When ours broke, the right rear wheel and tired took off for turn 3. They knocked off the oil suction hose before they left, and a bunch of oil left the tank and hit the headers.

The oil caught fire on the headers.

The right rear caliper broke and the rotor was disintegrated.

The right rear quarter panel was ripped in half, as was the bumper.

Both were FRP parts.

Luckily my wife shut the engine down pretty fast and the fire went out by itself.

This was at about 11 am on a Friday am in early June. After the car was towed in, we could not load it into the trailer easily.

As I tried to figure out what I was going to do, a track worker brought over the wheel/tire from turn 3.

Then, in early June at Thunderhill... it started raining.

Thankfully it was more of a cloud burst.

I knew a friend was headed down from the Tahoe area for activities the next day, and I knew he might just have a hub and stub axle.

So I called him. He was able to bring the parts down.

So that enabled me to load the car on Saturday morning.

The friend that brought me the parts actually built my car and had a lot of experience. He had seen a few failures back in his IMSA/SCCA racing days.

My wife's accident got some attention and folks in my little racing circle were extra careful to ensure their stub axle nuts were torqued properly.

I had just a couple of weeks to get the car back together for a race.

I went to Partsheaven and bought a bunch of spares.

My friend Hayden (WEVO; RIP) suggested a place for crack testing, so I had all my spares fluxed.

Could have been a lot worse.

So all of this reminds me... to the extent you get around a lot of other Cup/Spec 911 drivers... please remind them to keep an eye on rear wheel bearings, and consider changing out hubs and stub axles if they believe their accumulated use (street/track/race) has been high.


I'd take a hard look at aftermarket parts these days... remember my accident was in 2009. The 70's and 80's used parts are a lot older now, and it was probably easier to hand pick low mileage used parts like I was able to do at Partsheaven.