If there is something more terrifying than losing your brakes at high speed on a race track, feel free to let us know. The mere thought of it makes shivers run down our collective spines around here. This racer experienced it up close and personal during a ten second pass at Michiagn’s Ubly Dragway. The 1964 Rambler American has been built into a drag machine and this video was documenting the second pass ever on the car. You’ll see the driver complete his burnout, stage, and launch cleanly off the line. Everything is going according to plan, the car is pulling strongly, and it even clips the rev limiter way early in the run. Despite that, the driver keeps the hammer down and crosses the finish line. Here’s where things get bad.
It doesn’t take long for the guy to whack the brake pedal, figure out that there is no functioning brake pedal and go into self preservation mode. Left with virtually no options, he starts downshifting the automatic transmission in the car. This works good for about two seconds. After that, the car gets upset, sideways, and at that point, the driver becomes nothing more than a glorified passenger with a steering wheel to hang onto. Amazingly, the car spins, slides off the track, slides a long way on the grass beside the strip, and then comes to a rest fully intact.
Had this track been equipped with a pair of guard walls past the finish line, the Rambler would have been mangled. Had there been a racer in the other lane, both cars would have been severely messed up, and had one of the wheels dug into the pavement or the ground when the car was sliding sideways, it would have been sticky side UP when safety people arrived. BUT, none of those things happened and all ended up well.
You’ve gotta see this video. It really is nuts!
SKIP TO 1:30 IN THE VIDEO TO PICK UP THE ACTION WITH THE GUY BURNING OUT AND STAGING —– AGAIN SKIP TO 1:30 TO MISS THE BORING STUFF –
I would suspect that new drawers were in order after that, due to the first pair getting torn while being clenched by a rapidly puckering sphincter.
Wonder what happened? Had brakes coming out of the water box, 15 seconds later none?
Hope he didn’t have the original single master cyl setup on the car!
At least he was able to save the car.
Yes, the big clitch-very lucky
Good driving….
Had a 63 plymouth that I drove to work on day with a 413 I put in it. A woman in front of me went for her brakes about 100 ft before she had too.and when I went for mine I blew the lines out and went skidding sideways thru a gas stations back lot and got it straightened out and pulled back out at the intersection. A change of underwear were in order.
Little of both….
Luck, but it appears he has a transbrake at the beginning of the run… If you have a transbrake you have a backup brake system… Downshift and pulse the transbrake will get you slowed down and stopped.
sure if you wanna destroy the trans…….
A new trans has a price tag. A life doesn’t.. I’ll opt for destroying a transmission. At a guardrail track, or a slightly different chain of events that could have been real ugly for man and machine.
man that is one reserved guy… i would’ve been a bit more animated after that save! (but what’s up with staying on the limiter for a good 3 seconds going through the stripe? i’d say time for a milder set of gears in the back)