Spectacular drag racing crash!

Larry Dixon went for a wild ride when his Top Fuel dragster broke in half during qualifying in Gainesville. He walked away.....

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0xVHPiKRec]Larry Dixon walks away from a spectacular crash in Gainesville #NHRA - YouTube[/ame]

 

Amazing we don't see this more often as with 5000+ HP those chassis twist and
flex under power incredibly.

Good to see Dixon not seriously injured. That would have been fatal just ten years ago.

BHW

 

How can such structurally unsafe vehicles be allowed to race?

It's beyond comprehension....

 

Depends - I saw Garlits end over at Englishtown, it's happened where some walked away.

Technology is better, but drag racing is still crude compared to other motorsports. I would love to see them dial back the nitro and get into better aero a la F1 (because I believe it would be safer than hanging a big giant wing off the back).

Still, I do love drag racing - was my first real auto racing love.

 

More like 10,000 HP these days. Tires that stick like 2 pieces of contact paper being slapped together. The chassis forms a hump or arch keeping the front wheels on the track with the help from a front wing . Yes the chassis is a type of spring but not supposed to break. Needs a driver capsule like the Hydro's. Still how do they get away with large pieces flying through the air at 300MPH. GTS Bruce

 

That must be the understatement of the year.

Drag racing is lethal !!

How they get insurance cover for the events is a mystery to me.

 

Correct. And that's why I am surprised the NHRA hasn't dialed down the Nitro mix % - that's driving the insane power gains, along with traction (the dawn of the slipper clutch and then direct drive made these things jump big).

Just as exciting to see one go 4.5 s in the 1/4 mile than 3.5 in 1,000 ft. Far too dangerous now with flexing tube chassis.

The Arivett brothers experimented with a Formula One inspired, ground effects chassis - never got past testing phase IIRC:

Race car designer Arivett dies

Lil' John Buttera built a monocoque in the 70's - ran once per the NHRA. I vaguely remember seeing this car in magazines or coloring books of the day:

The prettiest car to ever run only once

Would love to see more innovation and a slowing of the cars.

 

Glad he is ok..... Very terrible crash.

 

Respectfully disagree. NHRA makes every effort to make the cars safe. They will review this and make more changes. How soon we forget Eric Medlen.

 

They definitely make an effort to keep things safe. The biggest being the shortened distance of the nitro cars. However, I don't think their efforts are aggressive enough - biggest example being the nitro mix. Right now, the mix is limited to 90% nitro, 10% methanol. It should be dialed back to 85/15 or 80/20. No one will care if the cars don't go 330, so long as they are going 290 or so.

Even then - a car moving at that speed is still crazy dangerous. All tracks should have SAFER barriers instead of concrete walls. The tracks need the NHRA events, so they should invest.

There are other things they could do - I'm not convinced they are doing everything they can do. As a sport, they are hurting - the numbers are down. Moving to 4-wide drag racing or 1,000 ft. tracks is NOT the answer. As a drag fan, I can tell you a lot of fans were alienated by these changes, and it's more akin to NASCAR than it is F1 (meaning, the fans are generally less hyped by technology, more by tradition).

See my post above - aero is another problem. It's primary concern is putting downforce over the rear wheels, but when you have a rear-weight bias with a big honkin' wing over the rear, you get flips. It happens and it's something that should be addressed (again, lowering power helps, restricting aero helps).

Every other racing sport has been through this - NHRA seems to be lagging a little. It's a unique sport in that the cars are so freakin' fast, most of the "traditional" safety measures may not apply, but surely better choices could have been made.

 

How about rear wing no further back than rear edge lines up with rear wheel. As in down force directly over the wheels as opposed to being used as a lever behind the wheels. ALSO the car must start and run AFTER a run. Pull it around to in front of the stands and fire it up. No start/run equals disqualify. Surely that would be the end of the 4 second hand grenade motors if they actually had to fire and run at the end of a race.My guess is they would be running a whole lot slower if they had to start and run briefly at the end of a run.

 

Yep, these are great ideas. I would personally drop the wing height too. They are incredibly effective - Joe Amato / Tim Richards introduced the "taller" wing in 1984 (with input from Eldon Rasmussen, an Indy 500 competitor) - speeds records jumped, and the increases were almost exponential from there. With that added downforce, the wheelbase grew from 255 inches to 300 inches (which is where we are today, and that flex in the chassis is intentional).

Bring the wing forward and lower the height. Reduce the wheelbase. Lower the nitro mix - get these cars around 290, and you can return to 1/4 mile.

I do believe they NEED SAFER barriers on track side and at the runoff area. Using sand traps and nets is almost barbaric...very old school.