Hello everybody, after the recent and rather lengthy thread regarding Marks broke de-dion and the Debate about about the merits/shortcomings of its design i wanted to share this with you.
A customer of GTS who has a 230bhp duratec w7de was having a very enteryaining day at Lyddon last weekend when he had a bit of an OFF!!!
Basically he pushed it a little hard, spun out, slid over the grass verge and dropped it 6 foot down a ditch at speed. All the load went onto the front and rear nearside wheels causing the front lower wishbone to buckle and the de-dion to bend at one end taking the nearside two trailing arms with it.
The point that i wanted to make was that despite the huge levels of energy absorbed by the de-dion as is evident by the picture, you will note that the weld in the middle suffered no problems whatsoever.
I will now try and put up pictures.
Rescued attachment 27-07-07_0759.jpg

another
Rescued attachment 26-07-07_1148.jpg

another
Rescued attachment 26-07-07_1053.jpg

another
Rescued attachment 26-07-07_1054.jpg

Very impressive and as it should be. Bear in mind that IMHO Calvinx's axle had a bit or 2 bits that were welded in (and dressed back to look like it was one piece) with little or no weld penetration. IMHO it was downright dangerous from day one and I know he went to all lengths to make sure everyone was told/notified of the problem he had (including thinking long and hard before posting on here).
Hope no one was hurt in this latest accident. How did the chassis stand up??

i agree with all you say, Marks de-dion was a bodge job, i know that darren is furious about it.
Others started slating the design of the axle when all this came to light but i think this clearly demonstrate that it is more than adequate for its intended purpose.
The driver needed nothing more than a new pair of undercrackers and the chassis is absolutely fine, even the bodywork mostly survived, a few scatches on the nearside rear wing.

wow i would have bet the hub carrier would be the first to bend, not the main axle tube!

The hub carrier was bent as well so it may well have gone first, hard to say looking at it.

i had first hand knowlegde of this as he came hurtling up the inside of me on the long curve and span right in front of me..

Iwas on my quickest lap aswell:

assume that is Ian's car Scotty.
Makes my "off" at Brands look positively amature.
Glad to hear he is OK
Was it Ian driving or his son?

It was his son but he's fine.
ian now wants Darren to prep it for racing, i think he's got the bug.