Sheared Tow Hook
 

Wild time at TWS this past weekend. My first track session with new 4 point cage, seats and harnesses. Also had new external oil cooler and CSF radiator. Car ran great...driver got cocky and spun on turn 4 Sunday morning. Talk about a mud bath! Anyway, they sent the tractor to tow me back on track. He hooked up to my JDM front tow hook. And when he put tension on the tow strap, the tow hook sheared off at the shaft just below the hook itself. Does anyone know if there are stronger hooks on the market? I will add a short vid of my spin and the mud bath aftermath as soon as I figure it out. Also, new carbotech xp8 and 10s.....amazing!

use the stock tow hook?

Duh! I should have thought about that. It doesn't look as cool as a red JDM hook on my black Z, but it does look stronger than what sheared on me.

Trying two pics as attachments

I've heard many stories about those trendy aftermarket tow hooks shearing-off as the car is being towed. I was at Road Atlanta a couple of years ago and a guy spun his M3. Had to be towed (similar to you) and the after market hook sheared as they were pulling him up the car hauler. The car rolled back off the carrier and slammed into the barricades and damaged the entire rear of the car (no damage from the spin). After seeing this, I have never bought an aftermarket hook and always have used the OEM hook (I painted mine red).

Form follows function.

"JDM" hooks aren't strong, lol

You need a LOT of aluminum if you don't want it to shear

Thanks.....a very simple solution (unlike so many other problems we have to put up with at the track in our Z's). Love to get the OEM tow hook to look like the red wax top on a Makers Mark bottle!

Red plasti dip it. I black plasti dipped my stock tow hook.

Was the tow truck driver pulling in a "linear form" or better yet parallel or was the driver pulling at an angle? I know for a fact that many "hooking" points either in vehicles planes and boats are designed to withstand a great amount of force when the force is applied straight but it can lose about half the strength once the force is applied at angles.

You went farming. :icon14:

My jdm tow hook has been used a few times. My Nismo has been on the back of a flat 3 times now.

Stainless steel tow hook. Folding Race Hook, Screw Type, Porsche

My JDM tow hook has worked for me as well, but was not stuck in mud. I have seen the results of mud up at buttonwillow. I have seen people cry over their subies being towed out of mud.

Nice tow hooks. Do you know what the thread pitch is on those?

Nope but give them a ring, they make really cool stuff. Guy out of SD named Ira owns that shop. Extremely cool guy. I have approached him a few times about making us a sway bar solution for us but he's not interested lol. He mfgrs cockpit adjustable bladed sway bars and its pretty much the Porsche standard out here-all custom solutions and very expensive. He responds to emails quickly. he might be more interested in making us a good tow hook as I am sure the tooling etc is a lot less-especially if he knows there is a market.

The tractor driver was fairly straight. Not much of an angle. He said several tow hooks had broken over the weekend. Guess it was the thick mud. The Porsche hooks are decent. Assume the shaft is stainless also.
That's what sheared on mine, not the hook itself which was definitely aluminum. He ended up putting the strap through my left front wheel and dragging me back on the track. I drove my car back to the pits. I am getting my alignment checked this weeknd and having them look closely underneath the car. I saw no visible damage after I hosed off most of the mud. But not much of a good look without it on a lift.

Well at least it looks like you had fun and no serious damage.