The fuel engines diesel if the electrical is shut off and the fuel left on. As you shut off the fuel, yes, the engine leans out and the rpm's go up, but there's not much power there in that short term lean condition. Obviously, it would be impossible to make fail-safes for every situation. The funnycars would be the size of the space shuttle and of course not very much fun to watch. We may not see remote cutoffs anytime soon, but if I were driving a funny car and I was on fire, unconscious and heading for the end of the track, I certainly wouldn't mind my crew chief having a way to shut off the fuel and even deploy the chutes.
The remote shutoffs play an important role in monster truck events, but there's more time to react at the much slower speeds that the trucks travel, especially at indoor events. In actuality, the monster truck shutoffs are for the safety of the spectators more so than for the driver.
What the fuel cars need is an onboard impact type sensor. They're very quick and accurate. They can measure deceleration at any programmed rate.This would preclude settiing it off by driving into the chutes. We're talking about a much heavier rate of deceleration here. You wouldn't believe how much better the new airbag sensors are compared to just a few years ago. Airbags don't go off accidentally like they once did. It's the same type of technology needed to create a fuel shutoff.
As for the vibration problem, I think that there are people that are just now realizing the potential problems and someone will do something about it very soon. I'm looking forward to seeing how they approach it.
Sorry for rattling on. It's just a way for me to cope with what has happened.

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The Original "Proud American" Dragster

A tire doesn't go severely out of balance and cause "an extreme vibration beyond anything previously recorded in the sport" because it did what it was designed to do. It may not have come completely apart but that does NOT mean that it did not fail. A tire doesn't have to disintergrate for it to be a failure. The tire was responsible for the huge vibration, end of story.

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!

I'm sure Burke can tell us the name
::: Drag Racing Online ::: Columns - Agent 1320 - 3/30/2007

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!

I'm just an old footbrake racer and have no experience with nitro burning vehicles, but no where in that quote does it say WHEN the tire failed. It may have been after something else occurred.

I have no interest in making a determination by remote speculation. I really don't understand this Soap Opera style infighting. Is someone giving out points for the correct guess? Capps is way closer to the source of facts than any of us.

Why not just wait for the facts from the Force camp?

I think the big problem here is the use of the word "failure." Again, if the tire did what it was supposed to do, it did not "fail." If something cut it and it blew out, that's what it did. If something cut it, that something shouldn't have been there.

I think there's even a chance that someone at Goodyear may have mispoken and used the word "failure" when maybe they shouldn't have. From a liability standpoint, they'd be CRAZY to use that word right now.