Old Blue's demise
The death of Jack's TR-4 Rallye Car
As Triumph TR-3's and TR-4's have aged, the rear axles have proven to have problems in a racing environment. Typically, the axle will break, the rear wheel will leave the car and the car will roll over. In 1997, we had new axles developed with a similar design to the stock axles but made out of modern good steel, heat treated properly, and most of the "stress risers" removed. This turned out to not be strong enough. The results of that are below. We are working with a local establishment to modify Circle track stock car axles for use in the TR-4 Axle housing. This should solve the problem.
Anyway, here's what happens when you break an axle at speed:
In-car video (right click, "save target as", save to your PC and then play)
Real Media files (requires Real Player ver. 8)
28.8k Modem 56k Modem 256k Cable/DSL
Photos after the wreck
(click on thumbnails below for larger picture)
