Drag wreck, he walks away.....a miracle

[Postsedan]

This is what happens to an inexperienced driver and car, I wonder if this car even passed tech? Unbelievably he walked away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2tk8X8tZok

Dan.

[njsteve]

Looks like he was sitting in one of those ABS plastic racing seats. Not too safe. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif I have a pair of old seats just like the one in the video. The kids use them in the playroom to watch TV in. And I dont even think they're safe enough to do that with!

[Woj]

That leaves 8 lives.

What a lucky guy.

Phil Woj.

[markjohnson]

Everytime I made a pass in my Orange '55 Gasser with only a 4-point rollbar and it's flimsy fiberglass doors I thought about this video. I've been pretty fast in some serious Drag Radial Shootout cars, but the 11-second time slips in that '55 were definitely the scariest. I did not like going fast in that particular car. I'll tell 'ya what's scarey about this particualr video is that's a 12.30 car and it's not even to the 1/8 mile yet which means that crash happens probably at no more than 80 MPH. Maybe even slower and look at how that car falls apart.

[Smokey]

Makes one wonder how much of a rusty thing it was.

[SUSQ]

My recommendation to him: Give up racing and start buying lottery tickets!

[Tracker1]

Yeesh. Where's Milner's '32?

[Nova Jed]

Bought a book a few years ago from Borders or Barnes and Nobles about car wrecks. I used to think that these cars were tanks. That book made me think twice about how "safe" I thought these cars were. It was pretty scary to see a 55 Bel-Air kissing it's hind end after an encounter with a pole at est. 100 MPH. That video reminded me of that.

[1970Bluel78]

That video has been bouncing around the net for awhile. The car looked very unstable right from the begining. He should have lifted

[king_midas]

Here's a tip: Buy tires that actually fit on your wheels.

Seriously, WTF is wrong with people, and how in the world did that mega-turd pass tech?

[1969z280]

Maybe, it's proof that God loves Chevrolet owners? Even the idiots! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burnout.gif

[markjohnson]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe, it's proof that God loves Chevrolet owners? Even the idiots! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burnout.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
It was an unfortunate accident that could have turned out much worse but please help me understand while he's an idiot. He's a fellow racer out there giving it Hell on a proper Dragstrip on a Sunday afternoon instead of sitting in a lawn chair for 6 hours at car show in a church parking lot. I bet you wouldn't have approached him in the pits immediately after the accident and called him an idiot. Another example of "keyboard courage".

[king_midas]

Are you kidding me?

He's an idiot because he doesn't value his life, and by that, I mean going to PepBoys and buying a set of front tires that actually fit on the front wheels. That would set one back, what, less than $100? So he's pegging a life value of LT $100. Also, if he went to the ER after that, which he certainly did, you and I paid for it, regardless if he's insured or not.

Based on that alone, he's an idiot.

I could keep going as to why he's an idiot, including serious low-speed stability issues (most likely caused by the tires), but by looking at that thing, who knows what else, and he keeps going at it.

Idiot.

[sYc]

What if he had been killed, which, by being ejected, could have easily happened, you tell his widow, children, etc..."at least he was giving it Hell..."?

No one enjoys seeing the old iron on the track more then me, but there has to be a common sense approach, both by drivers and tech people, which I saw neither in this video.

Hi guys. This video has been around for quite a while. The car crashed at Baylands (Fremont), which, if my memory serves me correctly, closed in 1988 or so. If you look closely there are several mid to late eighties vehicles in the video background. There's also another video out there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3WD0yw8ns0) that shows a walk-around of the car following the crash. It clearly shows the aftermarket seat belts (competition style) still in the car. What I think happened during the crash sequence was the seat mounts broke. It was common back then to use plastic bucket seats. They often had four threaded inserts molded into the base. You just bolted them in that way. If my memory is still clear (which might not always be the case <g>) the rules never said much about the way they were mounted. Installing the seats with bolts or studs directly into threaded inserts was likely acceptable. Today, there are regulations laying out exactly how seats should be installed. If you look closely at the car there's a 12:30 dial in on the windshield. Even then, that wasn't a real fast car. As a result, it probably didn't get too much scrutiny during tech, particularly if the track was really busy.

The other point is this: With 55-56-57 Chevys it's not hard to get a bunch of suspension travel. And if they wheelstand, it's really tough on pieces like ball joints. They also move around a lot because of the travel. Couple that with the fact the car had one of those small diameter foam rimmed three spoke steering wheels that were so common, I suspect the car either got away from him (the driver’s name is Don Refrow) or something broke. Even though the car wasn't perhaps the best prepared in the world, I don't think he can take all of the blame. It could actually have been an accident. And Renfrow (who is obviously famous today) is a very fortunate man.

Just my two cents.

Wayne Scraba

[Berger RS Copo]

Sadly, I've seen much worse stuff pass tech. Go to 3 tracks and you will get 3 differant tech inspections. Most of them are not too tough to get thru, which has always surprised me. I guess the form you sign must keep the track free of any lawsuits from unsafe cars.
That being said, the driver of that car had at least 2 or 3 times that he should have lifted. It even sounds like he got back on the gas when the car was sideways and about to roll.

I totally agree on your points. But I was just trying to put into perspective this accident happened a long time ago, and what was acceptable then might not be today.

Take care...

Wayne Scraba

[Jonesy]

After the wreck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3WD0yw8ns0

[markjohnson]

Well, my approach has always been to never type or post something that I wouldn't say in person to another human being. The old rule that our mothers preached to us still applies........if you don't have anything nice to say about another person, then don't say anything at all. The guy was not on the steet somewhere but on a proper, safe dragstrip and nobody, including himself were seriously injured. Now, I don't know this '55's driver but he's a fellow racer and racers share a common bond. I'm always baffled and just don't understand the personal attacks and name-calling here that people can make towards another human being from the safety of their home computer and a phoney screen name that they think is witty. I'm not much of a church person, but I've always liked that particular verse of: "Let him who be without sin, cast the first stone." Enough with the name-calling already. That only says more about you.

[JIM]

Well said Mark so true of Many of the Car sites !!!!!!!!!

Jim

[markjohnson]

Why thank you very much Jim!

[RichSchmidt]

I dont see where the front tires didnt fit the rims.I see a set of properly fittig bias ply tires,nothing out of the ordinary.I have driven some old iron.For starters the car wasn't even close to hooking,and the guy got back on the throttle after the car changed lanes.Second,that car could have done that at highway speeds.It may have said 12.30 on the window,but I doubt that car was going more then about 45 mph when it crashed.I wonder when the last time that car was on the alignment rack.Did anybody see if something failed in the rear end that had the car moving around like that?

I spent many years racing cars that went 12.0 and slower.Most of my first cars were very safe and that led us to have some cars that ended up being far from safe.The first car we ever ran in the 12's out of our shop was an 80 Malibu that my friend bought from some guys who were tying to build a super light weight stree tace car.They cut the floor out from toe boards to tail light panel,notched the rear rails for more tire room,and put in a 6 point roll bar all with a hardware store stick welder.We were only 18 back then,and got the car with no floor,just wheel tubs welded right to the 1/4 panels.Our shop was right across the street from a hardware store and alongside the towing/impound yard that my friend worked for.We tinned the car in with a bunch of 3'x3' tin squares and roof flashing we bought from the hardware store and used pop rivets and window caulk to hold it together.We had one seat from some kind of late model convertable in the impound lot bolted directly to this cheasy tin work using large flat washers.When I sat in the car the seat would sink 1/2 and inch from the metal flexing.We used one of seat belts fom the same car the seat came from.One end bolted to the rocker,but the other was bolted to{you guess right} the tin work! The gas tank was a 5 gallon red boat tank held down by 2 big ratchet straps runing thru holes in the tin work.The fuel line was 15 feet of 3/8 copper tube.We couldn't get the car to not squat down on the slicks that were sitting out of the wheel wells so we found a set of old bolt on ladder bars,stick welded them to the rear end housing,drilled the front mounting eyes out and screwed rubber snubbers into them.Then we screwed blocks of wood to to the bottom of the tin work for the bars to hit against.

This POS passed tech and we even told the tech guy it should run low 12's.He did tell us to not bring it back again until it had real seat belts in it just because all cars with a roll bar must have them.

This wasnt at some hole in the wall track,it was at Englishtown on a points racing day!

We raced there with our usual 15 second cars many times before,and we were always right to the letter safe with all the right stuff and then some,so the tech inspector didnt even look at our cars.I dont doubt that I cold have walked up to the inspector with the the card in my hand and if didnt tell him I wasnt running my usual car he would have just scribbled his intials on my card no questions asked.It still happens at almost every track I go to 'til this day.

Thats how rickety turds get onto the track.

And the ironic part was that we had a friendly competition with the guys ho originally sold my friend the car.When I said we were going to run 12's with it,the previous owner replied "If that car eve went 12 anything the driver would spill out ontothe track" lttle did he know how close he was to being right.