Like drag racing, land speed racing is a highly underestimated form of automotive competition. In my time around the East Coast Timing Association, I have learned to heartily respect the sport, the machines, and the people who show up to compete at every event. We’re not saying that the driver of this Porsche didn’t understand or respect what he was going to deal with but stuff sure got weird for him at over 170mph when the car decided that the back end would be the better part of the car to be leading the charge down the track.
We’re not sure if this was an issue of the car spinning the tires at that speed when the boost came up or if the aero of the thing got bad and it just swapped ends. We tend to believe that this was a traction issue because a Porsche like the one in the video can probably travel faster than 170mph in stock form and be somewhat stable where this one clearly was not.
Of the cars we have seen spin at speed, virtually all of them were swapping ends due to spinning the tires at high speeds. We have seen cars at the Ohio Mile come through the timing traps completely sideways with the tires blazing at 200+ mph. Land speed racing is very serious business and like drag racing, if you have a car with any sort of horsepower, it is a lot more than “floor it and go straight”. We will say that this driver did a pretty amazing job of keeping the car on the concrete runway while it was sliding sideways and backwards at 170+ mph. The car hit a couple of cones and flat spotted the tires to death but other than that, it was relatively unscathed.
Can you imagine what it feels like when the car comes out from under you at 170? We can’t and don’t want it!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A HOT RODDED PORSCHE SWAP ENDS AT MORE THAN 170 MPH!
Looks like a tire let go.
The guys at BBI said on Instagram it was a tire that blew at speed. Scary stuff for sure!