Very Scary… 1,500 Horsepower XDR Pontiac Firebird Crashes, Burns On The Strip

- in Cars

The drag racing wreck that refuses to end!!!

When’s the last time you watched a wreck that took nearly two minutes to conclude?
So you go to a drag race expecting to see, well, the drag race.
And when it’s a professional event, as opposed to the amateur street race, one would likely expect for there to be plenty of professional drivers who can handle that increased power under the hood. But still, mistakes can and do happen.

In the case of this Pontiac Firebird that’s been converted for drag race duties, the driver quickly lost control and crashed the Firebird into the wall.
–
When the “Christmas tree” start lamps go green, the driver Eric Peterson slam the throttle, but his XDR Pontiac Firebird lost its grip just after the start. You can see what happens after that in the video after the jump. All that happened in less than a couple of seconds.

According to people in attendance, both tires on the car’s driver’s side were torn off, and the impact ripped the master cylinder from the firewall. The throttle cable was attached to the cylinder, so when the cylinder fell, the throttle controlling a 1,500-plus-horsepower engine got stuck wide open for more than a minute.

The second hand reports from the driver was when he realized the throttle wasn’t going to lift he started reaching for the ignition kill switch when the smacked the wall and was knocked unconscious. Then you get what you see there.

The end result had the car pinned at full throttle, disintegrating the slicks in the back and didn’t stop going until the flames caused the engines to seize.