When a reader sent a tip email to us yesterday with the first line containing several expletives regarding the coolness of this video, we knew it was going to be good. According to the description, this is never-before-released footage from the mid-1980s from the Garrett turbocharger company. In it, you’ll see a few turbos being over sped on purpose until they fail in catastrophic fashion. The point of the test is to make sure that the housing acts as a funnel for all the blown up parts and does not shatter like glass.

While there is certainly a movement of “cheap” turbo systems afoot, lots of people fail to realize that some danger that goes beyond wounding your engine with a failed turbo of unknown quality lurks. Imagine if that failed turbo exploded in a massive ball of shrapnel and metal shards. We have a feeling that a company willing to sell their unbranded, unnamed, quarter price stuff on eBay has not put their equipment through this level of testing.

Back to the footage. The super slow motion stuff is strangely beautiful to watch. Destructive testing is totally cool in the first place, but when it results in this type of amazing video clip it is that much better. We think it is neat that Garrett released this footage because it stands as a testament to a company testing their products to a very high level for performance and user safety.

Thanks to Roger Jones for the tip!