richard_leeds wrote:The pointed object must be a rare/freak event. I'm not sure how you could protect the cockpit against that. A Kevlar sandwich in the bulkhead might absorb some of the energy, but I'm sure that barrier would would have still crumpled the cockpit because energy absorption requires defection.
The mechanism would be the object impacting the bulkhead, the Kevlar going into tension, the tension resisted by the roll cage, the roll cage crumpling to absorb the energy. Possibly a broken leg for the occupants?
An alternative would be to locate the Kevlar bulkhead at the front, but that would cause problems for the radiators, it would also fail to protect against an object from under the engine bay into the cockpit. I am presuming that a Kevlar solution would also be applied to the side & floor of the cockpit.
There must be precedent for these cars hitting lamp posts or trees, there are a lot of them along most rally routes! I guess the front crumple zone deals with head on impact, but what about hitting a tree side on? Are there instances of teh bulkhead being breached by engines or running gear?
We need a bit more evidence.
I have been lurking for a long time here, first post....
I agree that something must be learned from this horrific freak of an accident but it should be done with careful thought.
It is clear that the barrier that caused all the damage was the beginning of a new section. Whatever your feelings are on the rights and wrongs of those barriers, it is clear that there should not be a starting point on the outside of a corner - even for road use only. For a racing event, that should be avoided at all costs.
If it had not been for the barrier construction then this would have been a minor graze of an accident. Kubica would have probably scraped some paint and continued the stage without much thought to it.
However, coming onto the penetration of the driver cell, rally cars are VERY good at protecting the occupants in a tumbling or blunt object impact. But, I really think that there is nothing that can be done to prevent the Kubica incident happening again. When facing an impact onto a pointed object, there is enormous energy concentrated onto one point. The only way to prevent the penetration would involve multiple layers that can absorb this force. First, it would be enormously difficult and expensive to do, secondly it would probably cause the vehicle deceleration to be so severe that the occupants could die from whiplash (do they use the HANS restraint in rally?)
In summary, I think that more careful vetting of the rally course should be the way to proceed, rather than on car design.
And finally, I sincerely hope that Robert can feel all the support that is coming his way and he can use that energy to make a speedy recovery.
