Pfoofta Valves

(Pronounced ‘foofta” with a silent “p”)

Following Andrew and Tony’s major rally accident the other weekend, I remember Andrew saying something about him hearing the pfoofta valve on the navigators side of the car operating just before the rollover. This got me thinking, exactly what is a pfoofta valve and what bearing on a vehicle accident could it have?

I started my investigations with a quick call to Tony, which confirmed that his intercom has also picked up a valve flutter from the drivers side pfoofta valve just before the intercom went dead. This meant that possibly both valves had activated and may have played a part in the incident. Having seen and photographed the wreck, my untrained eye could not spot any evidence that may have still been remaining in the car, and a microscopic examination of the photos also revealed nothing. Could any or all of the evidence have been tampered with? . . . . . I searched a little deeper. 

Having spoken with Lada technical personnel from various places, opinion seems to be divided as to whether the apparent pfoofta valve triggering was a symptom or a cause of, the 140kph rollover. Their views were dependent upon if the valves were factory items or aftermarket units from another vehicle manufacturer. Andrew advised me that they were definitely Lada units. 

Confederation of Australian Motor Sports (CAMS – the sports governing body) advised that it was mandatory for all rally cars to be fitted with two pfoofta valves just before the start of each event, and had already had their scrutineers recheck the car and mark items such as harnesses and rollcage etc as “not to be used again”, however the pfoofta valves appeared to have been removed before their recheck. The scrutineers pointed me in the direction of the official incident report. 

This contained a post crash analyses written by an independent certified Laundromat, saying that they had found no evidence that either of the pfoofta valves had been activated either independently or in conjunction with one another, clearing the pfoofta valves from any blame. This begs the question, just what were the noses heard by both crewmembers just before the intercom died? . . . and just why had the pfoofta valves not triggered?

I posed these questions to a Lada technical executive. He answered that factory testing in Russia had shown that the fitment of genuine Lada pfoofta valves resulted in a very low triggering rate in standard cars involved in accidents, and since this vehicle was a highly modified and strengthened Samara, there was practically no chance of the valves operating as both the crew members knew they were in a Lada, and we all know that nothing comes harder than a Lada. As to the noises both crew heard through the intercom, his experts had checked the intercom unit and found a Japanese manufactured circuit board had been used in its construction, and it was this that both the crew had heard shitting itself. 

Steve
 

Photos of the team in action

Andrew in Action

Kingsley Smith in Action.