In racing, you need to have a “fuse”. That is the part of the power pathway between the engine and the tires that is going to give up first when the insane amount of forces being exerted on that entire system become too much to handle. The best “fuse” is the tires…if you spin the tires, the load is taken off of the rest of the system and you’re just out a little bit of rubber. And maybe some new shorts, depending on how that situation played out. One of the more common fuses, however, centers right around the driveline and U-joints. The U-joints take the brunt of the abuse and can easily pop if needed, but sometimes things get even worse. Bob Stover found just about every potential problem area on his Chevy 496-powered 1962 Pontiac Tempest gasser he calls the “Terrible Tempest”. During some preparation for the Meltdown Drags that included testing and licensing runs (upping his power levels made that necessary), Stover managed to lunch…oh, just about everything aft of the rear U-joint. And he did it pretty…the ladder bar brackets, the axle tube, the track bar and ladder bars themselves all saw major carnage. By comparison, popping a U-joint would’ve been a day in the park compared!
Stover intends to have the car back together, but whether or not he makes it to Meltdown after this kind of shrapnel show is to be seen. Either way, click play and be glad your purse strings aren’t attached to this Poncho!
Watch when he first hits the throttle in the water. Does the left rear get off the ground?
This is a cool car he doesn’t deserve the bad luck he’s had with it.
I think one side peeled off coming out of the water, the other at launch and happily before he got up to speed, that’s good luck. Looks like the damage was all local, shouldn’t be a problem to build another housing maybe this time w/ 360-degree-welded brackets.