The other day I had a long conversation with a highly respected friend about the proliferation of drag racing around the world and just how many drag strips there are dotting the far corners of this globe. Fact is, a “drag strip” can be ready made just about anywhere. It doesn’t need to be zMax Raceway, Pomona, or some other place that we have become accustomed to watching the big name NHRA guys. Around the world, resourceful hot rodders have used air strips, road course straight aways, and even straight country roads, like shown in this video. There are advantages and disadvantages to each and every kind of setup and the disadvantages of the country road deal are show here in pretty stark terms.
As you will see, a highly modified Karmann Ghia makes a solo run down this strip and at the top end gets way loose, flying into a field before rolling a couple of times. The safety crew is on the scene almost immediately and there is a fire truck and multiple guys assisting the driver. While we do not see him get out of the car, we’ve pounded Google like made trying to find a news story that tells us this guy was not OK. We’ve been unable to find anything that says this dude was seriously hurt.
We think that the car is turbocharged because you can hear the motor really wind up as it gets to the top of each gear. It appears the surface was not treated with any sort of traction compound or anything and the little Ghia doesn’t make a whole lot of downforce in the rear, so when it spun the tires up top, the driver was along for the ride. Tough deal and we hope the nasty little car can be saved.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THE VIDEO OF THIS KARMANN GHIA WRECKING BADLY ON A STRIP IN THE (WE THINK) GERMAN COUNTRYSIDE!
This looks like a sprint meeting not drag racing .These meetings are held all over the place, including a sea front promenade in Brighton England . If things go wrong there is usually no kind of safety walls to prevent the sort of nasty stuff in the video .
Whenever there’s an accident at our strip and our only ambulance and its crew has to take off for the hospital with the hurt driver inside, I’ve complained about the need for an ambulance crew, once again, to be on hand before we’re allowed to race. After viewing this clip, I won’t complain anymore.
This must have happened in Austria, the posts at the side of the Road look different in Germany and it’s an southern dialect. It’s an 4WD Turbo that made an 8,56sec run earlier that Day.
Love how the dude running up to help had to stop and pull up his pants! lol
I would think that that guy is okay judging by the post date of that video (April 9) and the fact that his last post on cal-look.no/lounge was on April 10!
I don’t think the car is 4WD but a rear-engine rear-wheel drive VW with a NA motor juiced with some nitrous. You can read about his engine here: http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,20436.0.html
A hairy ride nonetheless!
Hi
My name is MeXX and yes it was me and my car in this video.
This was more than less a test and tune than a real race, but it ended up with a total destroyed car and a broken neck and a broken finger.
But it gave me the chance to make a good car even better and exact one year or 1500 hours of work later I was possible to start at the UEM Championchip in Kunmadaras (can U spell it ??).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ODLX6WXuc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Tv44bkIbw&feature=player_embedded
MeXX
It sounds normally aspirated to me, and it sounds like he never lifted off the throttle, even after it got loose.
I hope the driver wasn’t injured, and after all those nasty roll overs, that car is a total, too bad.