It’s never an easy gig to be a top fuel engine, right? Even on the best days you are trying to contain and harness the impossible fury of 11,000 horsepower and fighting all of the strains and stresses that come along with it. As we’ll see in these videos below, it was a tough weekend to be a top fuel engine in Dallas. Cory Mac and Kebin Kinsley serve as the demonstrators. Kinsley’s is definitely the most spectacular of the two and in some ways the more old school of the two. Why? Hear us out.
Modern engine containment and NHRA rules certainly ended the explosions in nitro funny car and top fuel but they have done a great job and minimizing their mess. Often times we can see a fuel car explode and be on the track minutes later, no major cleanup involved. In the case of Kebin Kinsley’s car, it sure looks to us like the thing (among other issues) hucked a rod through the block and it was high enough that the escaping oil was igniting on the very hot headers. It also seemed like it burned the front or maybe fronts out of the cylinder heads as that green/white flame behind Kinsley’s head indicates that things were going pretty bad back there. We cannot say that one thing lead to another but we can say that the engine was thoroughly dead by the time it got off the track.
Cory Mac’s situation was slightly more traditional in the sense that the car was heading down the track and then dropped two holes at about the same time. One is bad and two is typically fatal. It was in this case as the engine beat itself up for a second and then exploded pretty hard. This was Cory’s return to NHRA drag racing which will last through Las Vegas and Pomona where he will formally retire from top fuel competition.
Nitro-ing ain’t easy, kids!
Lohnes, these would be five times more exciting if you were in the booth calling them.