Jay Herbert
Enthusiast
I got this today from Bob Woodhouse. and figured I would pass it on (without the pics) We can add them later. - Jay
Friday I spoke with our racing associate Chris Barone. He has improved immensely after a couple hospital visits from his racing incident that rang his bell on the roll bar leaving him with something similar to a concussion. He explained that the cause of the accident was the failure of the knuckle arm that connects to the toe link ball joint. As Chris was explaining this it struck a familiar cord. Thus the reason for writing to all of you.
I have witnessed a number of failures, although not as catastrophic as Chris's. Three of our customers cars here at the dealership have required replacing rear knuckles due to this arm getting bent when they went off-road or had an accident. I replaced the knuckle assembly on my race car last January due to the kiss I received from Jimmy McCann at last years Viper Days Finals.
In Feb. we had a chance to visit the shop in Atlanta where the ALMS GTS-R Vipers were being maintained. My interest was peaked by an elaborate brace that was in place on the rear knuckle that supported the arm in question. I asked the tech crew what they could tell me about it and they said the arm on the stock knuckle would flex under extreme corner and acceleration loads. At that point I assumed they had installed it to keep the wheel alignment more precise. Boy, that got me thinking. If that arm breaks the rear wheel can pivot anywhere it likes and obviously it did for Chris.
I came home and decided to brace the one on my race car. I have run with this support now for a year and it is time to share it with you all. The GTS-R support bracket would have been expensive to build. It also required machining of the knuckle so we designed ours differently.
I contacted Kip Partridge in Denver and he came up with this very strong brace that you see in this photo. It attaches to existing hole locations, the aircraft quality hardware is supplied. There are no modifications necessary to any viper parts. When I explained it to Chris he said ship me four sets. Because of the reasonably low cost in relation to the safety, I expect many of the racing vipers will want to do this. They cost $285 for the pair but I thought if we were to order all at one time we could reduce the cost. If you want a set of these E-mail Nancy Shanno at [email protected] before Dec 15th. Based on your commitments we can ask Kip what he can do for us and I will have you a final price, something less than the $285 of course.
[email protected]
800 889 1893 www.woodhouse.com
Woodhouse ford chry dodge jeep
2546 So. Hwy 30, Blair, Ne.68008
Friday I spoke with our racing associate Chris Barone. He has improved immensely after a couple hospital visits from his racing incident that rang his bell on the roll bar leaving him with something similar to a concussion. He explained that the cause of the accident was the failure of the knuckle arm that connects to the toe link ball joint. As Chris was explaining this it struck a familiar cord. Thus the reason for writing to all of you.
I have witnessed a number of failures, although not as catastrophic as Chris's. Three of our customers cars here at the dealership have required replacing rear knuckles due to this arm getting bent when they went off-road or had an accident. I replaced the knuckle assembly on my race car last January due to the kiss I received from Jimmy McCann at last years Viper Days Finals.
In Feb. we had a chance to visit the shop in Atlanta where the ALMS GTS-R Vipers were being maintained. My interest was peaked by an elaborate brace that was in place on the rear knuckle that supported the arm in question. I asked the tech crew what they could tell me about it and they said the arm on the stock knuckle would flex under extreme corner and acceleration loads. At that point I assumed they had installed it to keep the wheel alignment more precise. Boy, that got me thinking. If that arm breaks the rear wheel can pivot anywhere it likes and obviously it did for Chris.
I came home and decided to brace the one on my race car. I have run with this support now for a year and it is time to share it with you all. The GTS-R support bracket would have been expensive to build. It also required machining of the knuckle so we designed ours differently.
I contacted Kip Partridge in Denver and he came up with this very strong brace that you see in this photo. It attaches to existing hole locations, the aircraft quality hardware is supplied. There are no modifications necessary to any viper parts. When I explained it to Chris he said ship me four sets. Because of the reasonably low cost in relation to the safety, I expect many of the racing vipers will want to do this. They cost $285 for the pair but I thought if we were to order all at one time we could reduce the cost. If you want a set of these E-mail Nancy Shanno at [email protected] before Dec 15th. Based on your commitments we can ask Kip what he can do for us and I will have you a final price, something less than the $285 of course.
[email protected]
800 889 1893 www.woodhouse.com
Woodhouse ford chry dodge jeep
2546 So. Hwy 30, Blair, Ne.68008
