Volvo Crash from DooWop Rally

Hi everyone,

I'm Jason Grahn, codriver for many, including but not limited to Per in Project Saab. This past weekend was the DooWop Rally in Aberdeen, Washington. I was codriving for John Lane in his Volvo. He and the Volvo were in spiriting form, and the weather was doing it's best to put the freeze on fun.

A bit about the car: it's a Volvo 262 with the PRV V6 mated to a T04E turbo putting down some ungodly amount of power and somewhere near 600lbft of torque.

As some may know, the event wasn't without it's troubles. I'll let our in-car video speak for itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4COfIwsQ9p0

The camera didn't capture any worthwhile sound, so beware.

Cool

everyone ok?

don't worry it'll buff right out.

I am unused to non-tarmac performance driving, but there looked to be alot of yaw changes on relatively straight sections.

at least it looked like a relatively gentle rollover, I assume you and the driver walked away?

hopefully the car is fixable, got before and after pics of it?

whats the whole story on the troubles? was it just the surface conditions (wet and snow mud?)

Apexcarver wrote: I am unused to non-tarmac performance driving, but there looked to be alot of yaw changes on relatively straight sections.

He was doing just fine given conditions and a 600ft-lb rwd car.. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've seen that car in action (in person)...looks like a real handful. Fast and finishes great if you can keep it on the track, but that seems to be a fine line! I hope you guys were alright.

Bryce

What happened, did you guys hit a ditch or something? I just saw you get sideways, nose into the back a little, then roll. Maybe you hit harder that it looked? Either, hope you guys emerged unscathed.

Wow, that looked more like the car got on its nose rather than rolling over. Glad y'all are OK.

Is it just me or does the car pull left the entire video and yaw a lot on straights? Did something suspension/steering break to cause the crash? It didn't look like driver error...

P71 wrote: Is it just me or does the car pull left the entire video and yaw a lot on straights? Did something suspension/steering break to cause the crash? It didn't look like driver error...

The car has a very powerful turbo Volvo V6 (PRV). It doesn't have enough traction to go straight on dirt!!!

P71 wrote: Is it just me or does the car pull left the entire video and yaw a lot on straights? Did something suspension/steering break to cause the crash? It didn't look like driver error...

A good deal of rally roads can be heavily crowned.. Especially in Rain/snow territory like WA. It could explain some of that.

I've attended the rallies up here as a spectator multiple times and while they are incredibly tough I've never seen any car wallow all over the place like that, even near-WRC spec US Rally cars (Block, Pastrana, etc have all been through here).

Mike, most of those have AWD and a not inconsiderable amount of money invested in suspension and tires. Amateur rally people don't enjoy the perks of big name sponsors. If you bolted a big blower on and drove your P71 on a snow rally you'd probably "wallow" around a bit.

WRC spec cars have a HP limit, I'm not sure what it is any more but it used to be 300hp and they are AWD, not easy to compare to a RWD with 600 ft lbs on a wet slippery and rough surface

P71 wrote: Is it just me or does the car pull left the entire video and yaw a lot on straights? Did something suspension/steering break to cause the crash? It didn't look like driver error...

Its the angle of the video I believe. Since its not a wide angle lense, it really messes with everything. I was incredibly frustrated the whole time watching the video, it was very "disorientating"

Yowch. Hope all involved are well, and the car isn't a write off. My fave pics of said beast and operators:

fiat22turbo wrote: Mike, most of those have AWD and a not inconsiderable amount of money invested in suspension and tires. Amateur rally people don't enjoy the perks of big name sponsors. If you bolted a big blower on and drove your P71 on a snow rally you'd probably "wallow" around a bit.

P71.. If you did this.. You'd be my hero.

ValuePack wrote: Yowch. Hope all involved are well, and the car isn't a write off. My fave pics of said beast and operators:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8LJx71_9o <-- Not sweden but close.. James May goes rallying in Finland.

Hey Jason, cool video of a not-so-cool off. How'd that R3 work out for you?

Some of you hit the nail on the head. The camera is a sealed one-piece unit from Oregon Scientific that cost me $100 at REI. Yes, it's a narrow angle lens, but the video quality is great. To get any sort of sensation of speed with a narrow angle, you have to cock it to a side.

The important part: Yes we are both unharmed by the crash. The car is built well, after getting pulled out of the ditch, we drove out the stage on our own power. Would have continued the event too, had the window not been so smashed.. Though, this is the 5th or 6th roll for the car, so, yeah, probably time for a new shell.

Other bits: the torque output estimate is something about right. Having that much on tap makes the car great when conditions are optimum, but whoa-boy, intense when they're not. John knows how to dance the car, but this time around the back end of the car caught some snow/ice/mud with the rear end going around the left, which brought the tail into the ditch at an alarming rate, you know what happens after that. :)

And yes, two are two of my three favorite shots of the car. A shot from the past weekend is probably my new favorite:

Check out the suspension movement! YEAH!

Per Schroeder wrote: Hey Jason, cool video of a not-so-cool off. How'd that R3 work out for you?

Interestingly enough, this time around I wasn't wearing one. I feel okay though. I'll chalk that up to the yoga classes. :)

We can rebuild it. We can make it stronger, better, faster. We have the technology.

Something tells me that some boost control might be in order if it's not already....I can't imagine you guys were actually putting down more than a couple hundred horsepower at any point in that stage.

Bryce

ignorant wrote:

ValuePack wrote: Yowch. Hope all involved are well, and the car isn't a write off. My fave pics of said beast and operators:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8LJx71_9o <-- Not sweden but close.. James May goes rallying in Finland.

One of the best TG segments of all time.

Nashco wrote: Something tells me that some boost control might be in order if it's not already....I can't imagine you guys were actually putting down more than a couple hundred horsepower at any point in that stage. Bryce

oooo, it's got boost control. We turned it down that morning when we saw it snowing. We're not new.

Even if we pulled the turbo off, the car still has gobs of power. It's a built PRV.

PS: yes, i like calling the motor a "perv".

oh wow, I didn't realize your rally car was that generation of volvo, thats awesome

That's a downer! I'm surprised... there were a couple places near the end I thought he was going to lose it and piloted through them fine then the end it looks like it just spun and flipped for no good reason...

But get the camera straight next time :p at the beginning it looks like the car just wants to turn left sooo bad