Silverstone Accident
By John Thorne
Well, nearly 10 years in racing so it had to happen sometime, my first really big shunt – and I wasn’t even driving at the time!
While testing a new driver for next seasons CSL Cup, the combination of cold tyres and some oil down on the circuit meant we spun off at Abbey corner on Silverstone GP circuit. Unluckily enough we managed to avoid the tyre wall and slammed sideways into a concrete retaining wall at over 60mph, this was the result.  The car entered Abbey, and spun while putting the power down.
The driver was knocked unconscious and in the aftermath I looked over to see him slumped in the seat and thought “Oh God, he’s dead”, I put my hand on his chest to check his breathing and when he moaned I thought “Oh thank God, he’s alive." The marshalls were fantastic, they did their usual brilliant job, got me out, got the driver out and sent us down to the medical centre as quickly as they could.
Prognosis looked OK for me but Roger was incoherent and both of us were rushed to Northampton General Hospital. A few hours later and Roger is on his way home with a mild concussion but I’m in a bit of trouble. Turns out I’ve broken my ribs on the right hand side and I’m peeing blood – not good. One overnight stay later and a full chest ultrasound confirm I’ve done my best to re-arrange my internal organs with the result of some internal bruising but nothing long term, I’m let home with the NHS version of horse tranqulisers and told to ‘rest’. Ha.
I see the car for the first time a few days later (there’s only so much day time TV one can take before even pain forces you out) and I’m a little shocked, the impact was tremendous. The E46 chassis is strong in itself but we’ve managed to narrow the whole car by nearly a foot. Even the transmission tunnel and floor are buckled to the extent that they are folded over one another, it really is pretty shocking to see.
We spend a long time developing our cages for all of our race cars and the same overall design is used on the Cup cars and the Vauxhalls and I have to say I’m glad we put so much effort into them, the passenger compartment is nearly unaffected, even the pedal area suffers almost zero intrusion and Roger and my injuries are purely due to the shock force itself. We triple brace the front suspension towers and brace these into a special dash bar which runs across the width of the car and even this has been compressed together by the impact – concrete walls don’t give much.
I can think of better ways to market a cage but no better way of testing one. The car’s shell is destroyed but we can strip most of what is there and build a new car so its a testimony to the E46 shell as well. Tough cars these E46 M3’s. Our safety was also ensured by our using top quality safety equipment. Recaro race seats and Schroth 6 point harness supplied by MSAR Safety kept us alive. Thanks guys.
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