As you know by the semi-regular “Copar Cadavers” blog items we run around here, I enjoy traipsing through the virtual rows of cars at Copart junkyards all over the country to find stuff that is so badly mangled that it makes you stop and actually consider how it happened or why. In all of those hours of scanning I had never seen a race car before…until now. I discovered one of the most hammered drag cars I have ever seen in my life and then I kicked my Google-Fu into high gear and actually found video of the accident that left the car in this state. For starters, Copart says that this was a 1986 Thunderbird. I have no idea if it was or it wasn’t. In trying to do a frame by frame look at the video, it does appear to be Thunderbird-ish as it flies through the sky before rolling, flipping, and coming apart like a cheap suit during a crash that happened on the strip at Sacremento Raceway. This thing had to have been going well over 100 when it all went wrong. Note that the steel guardrails once again appear to have worked as a launch ramp for an out of control car. Yikes.
Being that the car was Ford bodied, the blue oval faithful already smarting over this loss will be even more perturbed to learn that the car was powered by a big block Chevy engine. We’ll give the chassis builder credit as the machine’s structural integrity was top shelf and the driver’s area was not compromised in the least. It held its shape just like you’d hope it would. The violence of a crash that can literally rip the front end completely off of a car like it was never there can’t even be explained in words. The video of the crash was taken by a guy and his kids on the top end with a cell phone. We lucked upon it after banging keys and yelling at YouTube for far too long.
It is weird that the car ended up in a wrecking yard. Not because it can be salvaged but because at leas some parts and pieces can be salvaged, particularly regarding the engine and maybe some other bits here and there. I have always joked of my admiration towards the bravery of guys who put for sale signs on their car as they are racing them due to incidents like this. See what’s on the rear quarter windows? Creepy!
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ALL OF THE PHOTOS AND THEN PRESS PLAY TO SEE THE VIDEO OF THE WRECK THAT DESTROYED THIS CAR –
CLICK THE LINK TO SEE THE COPART LISTING FOR THIS BANGED UP CAR
Its a damn shame that nearly every drag car I’ve personally seen wreck, was for sale at the time. I think it may be a curse!
that was an ugly crash
that Nova in the back ground certainly has some Caribbean flair to it 🙂
Who’s going to be the first to accuse the BBC under the hood for the reason it crashed?
I cant believe the motor is still in it, must have just been done with the car and everything associated with it
Love these postings. Hard to imagine the impact that could cause so much damage and not kill everything within a mile. That copart site has some wild stuff for sale, including burned to the ground rvs, boats that have slid for about a mile on the ground before hitting a wall, all good stuff.
That was a violent ride. Interested to see how the car ended up at Copart. Did they buy it as scrap or perhaps the owner had a key-on, on-track insurance policy on the T-Bird?
Dare I say the engine block might have come out of this intact?
I’m digging the shaved door handles on the nova..lol!
Check out the fuel cell.the top support backet tore right into it.Maybe he was lucky it skipped over the guard rail into the dirt.Less chance of the fuel catching fire.
Bob Glidden´s barrel rolls at Atlanta Dragway 1986 left his car in far worse shape than this one.
Even the roof peeled off.
Or the leftovers after the Bruce Allen Kenny Koretsky crash ?
This IS destroyed……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxWBIXwwO_A
If you want to see more crashed cars go to iaai.com and look under classic cars. Have seen outlaw 10.5 cars, street racers and hot rods. Lots of current cars and exotics too. I do work for IAA to be open and honest. But I love looking through all the cars too
I like in the listing they say it has an estimated retail value of $28,000….In what friggin’ world?
That was Steve Barber’s car… He wasn’t hurt too bad, just banged up. He is Dave Mezier’s brother-in-law…. Retired from racing now…. We will miss “the old man”
I was thinking about him the other day. Now I know. I’m glad he’s OK. It’s horrible to see his car this way.