Anyone else every jumped a 911 before?

[78targa]

Well, Targa Newfoundland 2005 didn't go the way we wanted it to. Unfortunately the car met a rapid demise and I am now left with the pieces.

Rather than sitting on it, I might as well share the results. After all, who has ever jumped clear across an intersection in a 911 before?

I estimate we traveled 30 feet and got 3 or 4 feet in the air. The amazing thing is that this was done while driving uphill. We were going at least 140kph..I, just not sure if we were in 3rd or 4th gear.

The Subaru in the backround is being driven by rallyist John Buffum.

Oh, the end of this jump was not pretty BTW. Within 5 seconds the car spun and hit a rock wall. No permanent injury to the passengers, but the car was ripped apart.

So anyone else have cool jumping pictures? These are the cool ones I have. The rest are greusome reminders of motorsports off-road results. I wanted to post the fun ones before I got to the carnage.

Photos provided by Rhys Hayes

[JRMock]

That last picture is just... really... amazing!

JM

[Jack Olsen]

Really sorry to hear about the car -- although I'm hapy to see that the passengers were all right. I've never gotten four wheels off, to my knowledge. But I can appreciate the value of the 'last picture of it looking beautiful.' My avatar is a picture snapped about four minutes before I totaled my 1973 911 at Laguna Seca.

[widebody911]

No pix, but here in Sacramento, I used to get my '72T airborne on 16th street, going over the old B street tracks.

[78targa]

I've got video too. Also expect this to be on the Targa Speed Channel special. The camera crew caught it all on tape.

A tough way to make the Continental Tire car memorable, but I guess they got the coverage they were hoping for.

Funny how the last pictures of the car are the most important.

[Jon Merck]

Casey,
I've been airborne once...no pics, no damage, and I never want to experience that again.
Glad you and Bob are ok. Could have ended badly.
Beautiful car.
Don't know if I'm ready to see the aftermath.
Jon

[bigbrotherjohn]

Does you know when to expect the speed channel special to be? I checked their website and didnt see anything about it.

[obrut]

here's some of mine. i try to avoid it where possible as if one little things breaks/disconnects etc and you drop a stage then position-wise your whole rally is effectively over

casey - did you know how big the jump was? were you using road books or pace notes. i've done 2 rallies with books and 6 with notes and would ONLY now ever compete with notes - much safer even though you go quicker

[78targa]

Ryan,

Targa Newfoundland supplies route books so that everyone uses common information for the event. You are not alowed to pre-run the course to make your own notes.

The big unfortunate of this is that the navigator didn't realize untill we were 1 km into the stage that the pages for that stage were missing. I was driving it blind.

For the first half, it was ok because I was chasing down Buffum and could see what he was doing (ever see a WRX rotate in the air as it makes small jumps around turns?). That was absolutely awesome! As neat as he looked going through the course...I stayed right behind him. It was a good car.

Just as we got up to the Double Caution Buffum gave me the signal to pass. Visually the road looked like it continued uphill with only a slight shift to the left. It was incredibly deceptive.

Noah,

I'm sure Buffum didn't finish all that high. He was driving the camera car and would loose at least a minute a stage to allow for the car behind him to catch up and then pass so they could get good video.

I know he felt really bad about what happened to my car. I'm still not sure why I got the pass so close to a high caution, but then again, I'm not sure what information he was getting either. He didn't do anything wrong, the timing just absolutely sucked.

Unfortunately the camera car said that their cameras stopped working as soon as I caught up to them on that stage so there is no video of me following him and then making the pass. Hmmm.

[osidak]

Casey I am sorry to hear you crunched the car but glad you and Bob made it out ok.

Any after pictures you care to post.

[78targa]

This is what a 911 looks like when it tries to stand on only 3 legs.

[78targa]

here are the pictures...



I am hoping to have my article about the event in this month's Tobacco roads. Not sure if I made the deadline or not. The whole thing should be about 8 pages, including the photographs.

Photos courtesy of Gordon Sleigh and Darryl Deagle

[obrut]

casey,

once again, i offer my condolences. i blew a motor day 1,last stage of a 4 day rally last year - i know how much work it takes to get to an event and how much it sucks to sit on the sideline.

if you compete next year you should pressure them to allow pacenoting or to appoint a pro to write (and sell) full pacenotes. we use bought pacenotes and the constant flow of info make a huge difference to safety.

[addictionMS]

damn, sure hope you can salvage a lot. I know the sick feeling you get when that happens. I put our RX7 into a wall, not nearly the expense to fix the RX7 but I can guess the feelings are similar.

It still is a pretty car.

Jim

[82Euro]

Casey man, sorry to hear about your misfortune. I'll be looking in the next couple months for the write-up in Tobacco Roads.

edit: as a side note I have gotten my old 944 airborne at an Auto-X up in Clemson. It was a student organized event that utilized 2 parking lots connected by a drive between. I flew from the upper lot to the lower lot completely airborne. That was for the first run only, I scraped alot of expensive stuff but everything came out alright luckily. Little touch up paint on the urethane front end and the rest were beauty marks on sway bars etc...

[78targa]

Yeah, it really sucks trashing a car. Particularly one that I and many others put so much time and effort into.

I wrote an aritcle about the event and have attached pictures if anyone is interested. I haven't gotten my web site together so I can't post it myself. the article is 4 megs. I also have some video...6 meg clip of the car jumping and a 40 meg clip showing the car loaded onto the flat bed.

I will have more, hopefully soon, of the car intact and on the course. I can send some of this to you if anyone is interested.


Ted...you da man!!! I have never heard of anyone getting airborne in an autocross!!! WOW! Congrats on the feat, although as most people here will agree it usually isn't the best for the car.

Well, I will start to cut the car up tomorrow. Time to try to rebuild it. I don't think I'll have too much in the way of takeoffs but there will be some fiberglass pieces (driver's side) and some misc stuff. My goal is to re-tub the car. Call me nuts, but I love this stuff too much.

Hey, wasn't the hatchback part pretty cool? Dave at TRE Motorsports designed it!

[ErVikingo]

Yikes, glad to hear you and your navigator made it out ok of that one...

I guess I'm scratching the Targa off from my list of to do's................

[78targa]

Oh, I definately wouldn't remove this event from your "amazing things to do" list!

There were a few simple things that could have been done to have prevented this outcome. Preparation is everything.

I will most likely try to go back next year if I can get things put together properly.

If you have any questions about the event, feel free to write me at jholzman@carolina.rr.com or you can call at 704-242-2863. I helped get 2 other cars up this year and they both had a blast.

The intensity is amazing and the appreciatiion the people show is unmatched (in North America).

I would recommend any of the Targa events globally. The key is to pick the one that is most affordable to you.

[obrut]

"I guess I'm scratching the Targa off from my list of to do's................"

if you do you'll be missing out on one of the most fantastic driving experiences on offer. i've done 8 with no significant damage.

watch a few targa tasmania DVD's - you'll be keen again by the end

[911teo]

Casey my friend WOW. Glad you guys are OK. Aaron at Eurowerks told me abt it. The pictures are scary and at the same time incredible.

Good luck for next year...

PS
I had nearly convinced my wife abt doing it "for fun" next year... she's not so sure now....