While we respect and admire racers that run in classes where wheelie bars are outlawed, there are lots of cars that really need them. Among those cars that need wheelie bars to keep from becoming low flying aircraft are fuel altereds. As you will see in this video from England’s Santa Pod Raceway, without a functional wheelie bar, stuff goes bad in less than a heartbeat.

The video shows the launch in real time and then backs up to show it again in slow motion. From the slow-mo we cannot tell if the bar broke or if the crew did not pin it down, allowing it to pivot up as the car climbs up onto the rear tires. What is amazing to us is how the car literally takes flight for a pretty impressive length of time. It has to cover about 50 feet as an airplane before landing and and completely destroying the front end. The driver’s ass must have been sore for a week after that spine compressing touch down. Luckily, no one was in the other lane, because with no steering the car crosses the center line and nerfs the right side wall.

Knock wheelie bars all you want, but we wouldn’t climb into a hot rod like the one in the video is there wasn’t a bar hanging off the back of it (and it was pinned into position).