Randy,
The only real thing which needs to be changed at this point is the rear tire (and Bill's shorts). There is a massive, tangible flat spot on it. The issue was with the steering column, which is a tube within a tube, and in which we have tension bolts to squeeze the tube which is steering against the tube in which it rides. The forward one either backed out (not likely as it was lock nutted) or there was a feature inside the tube which wore down and re-introduced slack in the system. The post-crash tear down revealed a bit of slack in the forward end of the column, allowing the bellcrank to slop around inside the end of the tube. With the quickness of the steering ratio I built into the system, the slop was enough for Bill to get behind in keeping up with the steering and not remain in control of it.
I can assure you that when we originally rectified the issue and put the bolts and lock nuts in, the car was absolutely rock solid and every bit as fast as the Mk I this year. At our previous test (after we had fixed it), we stuck a friend in the cockpit who had never been down the hill in any of the cars and he was super impressed with it and ran it comfortably to 49 mph. I think the design and layout has been validated (it's the same as the Mk I in many respects), but the loosening of the column was the issue.
Once life settles down, we will figure out what we're going to do about the front end- I want disks on it (on all the cars actually)- and then rebuild to suit. Active aero would be opening a can of worms and I see no overall benefit from it.
As per Jac's suggestion, I think any new front ends will be built with minimal static camber and I will reverse the ends of the heim joints to adjust the contact patch. Despite having a little nervousness about sliding off of the Learning Curve, I am thinking more and more about chasing that course record. It could give me something tangible to do in the off season.