(Editor’s note: Looking back at the stuff we posted in 2014, this is by far the more terrifying video we showed you. It bears watching again, even if you have already seen it. Watching a AA/FA flip and come back at the starting line with header flames and smoking tires is scary as all get out. The driver was OK and disaster was averted…somehow)
(Video by Jason Brunelle) – Those header flames you see in the lead photo are being spewed from the engine of a AA/Fuel Altered that flipped, landed on its wheels, and came back up the strip the wrong way at full throttle. Through either the actions of the driver or a mechanical failure, a total catastrophe was avoided when the car exploded before powering back across the starting line to hit cars, people, buildings, or whatever else was to get in the way. This is the literal nightmare scenario, the one that every person who has spent time at the drags has considered and mentally played out. This is the first video evidence we have ever seen of a “comebacker” and it is proably 10x more scary than what you could conjure in your mind.
Jason Brunelle was on site and caught this action with his phone. His timing was perfect, and thankfully his video was not of a more tragic moment.
As you will see the car gets crossed up very early in the run, comes across the track about one hundred feet past the starting line, and rolls over. In the course of rolling over the car also contacts the wall which points it up the track and because that blower will keep feeding air and whatever else the engine needs at angles that even we can’t consider, the car stays running. When it lands, the thing goes into a full throttle, tire smoking charge toward the starting line and it looks like things are going to get tragic and then the BOOM happens and the car explodes in a literal blaze of glory. Did the driver chop the fuel, lean it out, and blow it up? Did the thing suck a valve after careening up to an RPM level where angles fear to tread? We’re so thankful that it happened. This is something that we pray we never see in person….it is very disturbing to watch even on video.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO WATCH A Fuel Altered Crash And Then Come Back Up The Drag Strip –
Alterds are still bat shit nuts when everything goes right.
Maybe this is a time where you look up in the sky and say “Thank you God”
I would love to know what the hell happened, mechanically. As soon as it rights itself, the engine goes from idle to floored. WTF?
When it hit the wall right before the car got upright, the wall jammed the throttle open, and knocked the injector hat loose from the blower.
Yeah, what a night. After coming out of the hole it started to go right. I lifted and then it was hard right like somebody blows through an intersection and hits you in the front end. One tire bit and the other spun, there are pictures of the track afterwards were you can see the one black track.When the car rolled it hit the wing and the hat. Hitting the hat held the butterflies open. So when the car right sided the pump was hit with fuel and she started singing. I killed the pump while toe hooking the pedal and grabbing a hand full of brake(even pushing like hell on the clutch pedal). It seemed like forever till the blower exploded. The engine DID NOT BLOW! There are some bent valves from blower pieces being caught between the valve and seat and the springs will be replaced. Every piece of safety gear was flawless. I came out of it with only a head ache. What a night