Jeff Lutz’s 1957 Chevy is completely bad ass and gave ol’ Larry Larson a big run for his money during Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week last year. On one of Jeff’s best runs, a 7.11 second, 200mph blast, his parachutes failed to deploy. When that happened he did a masterful job of stopping his car without smashing into the sand trap or tearing the car up.
Video master Kyle Loftis at 1320Video had Jeff’s car camera’d up for the lap and got some killer footage from a rear facing camera of Jeff hauling the car down on the binders without the aid of the ‘chutes. There’s smoke a-plenty and flat spots to show just how hard he was on the bakes.
Drag racing is interesting because it is one of the few motorsports where true driving ability is exposed when the crap hits the fan. Yes, cutting a light and keeping a car in the groove are the signs of a good driver, but doing what Jeff did, keeping his cool, reacting appropriately without panic and with great skill exemplifies what it means to be a “driver”. Lots of guys would have either frozen with their foot jammed on the pedal and bashed the walls or waited too long and landed in the beach.
Check this out, it is a pretty great look at how to save a car from impending doom!
