GD crash 2009 maart

De vraag die ik regelmatig krijg is "Veiligheid, hoe zit het daarmee"

Bijgaand een verslag van een een incident met een GD427, welke met hoge snelheid tegen een brugballustrade is gereden. Verder een artikel uit een Cobra magazine

Driver seriously hurt in Knowle smash
Mar 4 2009 David Irwin

A DRIVER was badly hurt when his high performance AC Cobra sports car crashed into a bridge in Knowle. The collision took place near to the Heron’s Nest pub, in Warwick Road, just after 1.20pm on Sunday.
West Midlands Ambulance Service dispatched an ambulance, a senior paramedic officer and the County Air Ambulance to the scene.
The man was then airlifted to hospital for treatment.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “On arrival at the scene, crews found a sports car that had been in a significant collision with a bridge.
“The driver of the car, a man believed to be in his 40’s, was treated at the scene for serious head injuries. “His condition was stabilised before being airlifted to Selly Oak Major Trauma Unit for further assessment and treatment. The hospital had been pre alerted to the man’s arrival.”
A second man, who had been a passenger in the car, was checked by the ambulance crews at the scene but did not require hospital treatment

Nadere informatie van een ingewijde

Passenger is fine
Driver cut his head and sustained bruising to chest from harnesses, but after being stitched up he is now home. he was not seriously injured, though paramedics at scene would have treated any head injury and neck injury as a serious potentialimpact to the car was "rather heavy", head on to a brick parapet at speed.



Artikel uit een Cobra magazine met als titel "Tried and Tested"

I've always admired the Gardner Douglas 427. The car has some features which distinguish it from other replicas of the same type and this shows original thinking on the part of Andy Burrows, the man behind the project.

For instance, the chassis is a spaceframe backbone, which although by no means unique in concept, is far different from the run-of-the-mill ladderframe or multitube. It is available in two forms which are essentially the same. One is bracketed to accept Jaguar suspension components (GDJAG), including the independent rear suspension system which, interestingly, uses the Jag. Drive shafts unmodified. The other is made for GD's own manufacture wishbones, alloy uprights, special drive shafts, Cosworth hubs, bearings and brakes; and the option of Jaguar or Cosworth differential.

Another interesting feature about the car is the way the bodyshell is mounted on the chassis. Rather than being solidly bolted down, as is the case in most kitcars, the GD shell is fixed to the chassis via a number of flexible rubber couplings. Not so flexible that the body wobbles like a jelly but compliant enough to damp out any vibration which might come from the road or suspension. The result is a ride which is both smooth and quiet.

The bodyshell itself is also quite special. Because the backbone design of the chassis offers little in the way of side protection in the event of an accident, the construction of the shell has to incorporate this safety feature. This is achieved by using a sandwich construction for the main sill members and scuttle area where the cavity is filled with high-density foam. The floor is also a composite sandwich, with the front and rear bulkheads and footwells being bonded-into the whole structure. Anti-intrusion beams in the doors and the very rigid box thus formed by the bodyshell is capable of withstanding a heavy side impact. I once inspected a car which was involved in just such a nearside smash and the damage was small considering the seriousness of the accident.

Still on the subject of safety, at the front of the chassis is a lightweight steel frame which carries the radiator. This combined with the moulded front nose section acts as a crumple zone for head-on protection. Consideration has also been given to the position of the fuel tank. It is situated within the body well away from the rear of the car and between the wheels, where it is protected from a side or rear impact.