I can't say that I've ever seen anything like this. I've been to the 24 hours of Daytona and seen a team or two lose a wheel on the first lap. I've seen Austrailian touring cars lose a wheel here and there. I've not seen a car lose all four of them at once on an autocross course. It almost makes me wonder if it wasn't faked somehow, but after viewing it a few times, I'm guessing it's just a case of really bad luck and possibly short studs. Either way, it is a reminder to torque your lug nuts.

http://www.teamjamoto.com/dixeregionpage.htm#v8301600

"We've replaced Bob's lug nuts with Folger's Instant Crystals™. Let's see if he notices." *

I know people who were there -- it's real. Apparantly he did torque the lug nuts but they may not have been the right thread for the studs. Something about the stock lug nuts not being able to fit his new wheels, he went to a tire store and that's what they gave him.

Pat

* Blatantly stolen from another forum.

The wrong nuts might explain it. I just couldn't imagine that you'd have all of them back off at once (if they were just hand tight and just spun off), but if they were the wrong thread and "stripped" under load....that makes sense. It's still pretty unreal to see it.

The driver looked ok, any word on the car? I saw a wrinkled fender, but was there anything more signifigant damaged? Those cars are known to be fragile.

That was crazy

Man, you'd think they wouldn't even torque, unless they are torquing to like 45 ft-lbs.

Wow... I'm sure that ruined everyone's day.

....that's gonna leave a mark!.......

It was autocross ... move the cones and keep running!

That is nuts!
looks to me like the lugnut bolts sheared off. I didn't see any bolts on the divers rear, thought i saw a lug nut still in the wheel on the drivers front, and the studs on the passenger rear were very short. Maybe they over torqued the lugnuts and had weak/stock studs?

We were at Cal Speedway in March, waiting by the hotpit wall for Chris to come in for pressures and temps. A first gen rx-7 came down the hotpits with a wobbly driver rear wheel. About 50 feet from us it broke free of its mooring and came bouncing towards us, opposite sode of the wall. We decided we'd better go past him closer to the track exit, so that Chris could quickly get to us. I felt bad walking past the guy, but you know, what were we gonna do? Fortunately it didn't happen at speed on the oval.

Jason

The guy is local to me. Don't know personally but the rumor is the nuts were a little too large but they threaded on. Who knows how they torqued down enough to allow that.

While that's bad I have to point out the WORST incident I've heard of autocrossing. Hopefully no one can top that....

After having a STi launch a broken wheel literally into the trees at a local event, the Houston region bought a set of these: http://www.tireskate.com/.

The next use, the same season was to cart a regular's 1st Gen FP RX7 off the course. They are now affectionately known as 'Mazda Dollies'.