Showtime Dragstrip in Florida certainly lives up to its nickname in this video where we see a drag racer in a very healthy sounding Vega suffer what is pretty much the most violent and spectacular transmission explosion that we have ever seen. To say that thing blows up would be the understatement of the decade. The driver stages the car, puts the car on the transbrake and as soon as he lets off the button things get bad…really bad.

You’ll see the car pull a little wheelie and then the revs go to the absolute moon followed by an explosion the likes of which you rarely ever see outside of a top fueler blowing a motor at the big end of the track. We are not sure if it was a flex plate or perhaps a converter that exploded but when it did, shrapnel went everywhere as did boiling hot transmission fluid that instantly ignited. The continuation of the fire we believe was caused by fuel lines being cut from flying debris. The caption on the video mentions that the driver sustained an injury to his foot which we’re guessing was from pieces of the transmission entering the cockpit. It obviously could have been way, way worse.

We’re not going to speculate on the presence of safety equipment. The driver was in a firesuit and there are situations when even the best laid safety plans and equipment can be defeated by forces they were not designed to contain. The spectacular nature of the fireball in this one just stopped us in our tracks. It should also be an eye opener for anyone who does not have an appreciation about what’s going on inside the transmission inches from your feet.

This is beyond wild.

Press play below to see a massive transmission explosion at Showtime Dragstrip –