stitcherbob
Nitro Member
Ever see a TF car get beat by it's own motor? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter stitcherbob
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stitcherbob
Nitro Member
Eddie's crew chief told me that the two really big car-destroying boomers - not the one pictured in the video above - were caused by metallurgical defects in both of the two blocks - coupled by the fact that Eddie was really pushing them hard, determined to retire not only as drag racing's 'Four-Father', but to set a new national record and become NHRA's 'Four-Forty Father'. This was one of the runs in question:
Just Paul
Nitro Member
I was about 400 feet out when Herbert blew up. I never seen anything like it. The video does no justice for how big that explosion was. I had friends on both sides pretty close to the starting line, some dove for cover, and some froze becasue they could not believe what they saw.
I saw Betty Hoover in the pits after that run during the clean up, and she had a piece of Doug's blower land in front of their pit area. There was parts everywhere.
-On a side note, Mark Kinsella bought out Eddie Hill's operation and had a very similar explosion at Englishtown the next year. Total destruction.
I saw Betty Hoover in the pits after that run during the clean up, and she had a piece of Doug's blower land in front of their pit area. There was parts everywhere.
-On a side note, Mark Kinsella bought out Eddie Hill's operation and had a very similar explosion at Englishtown the next year. Total destruction.
The Counterfeiter
Nitro Member
Tom - there was one at Firebird with the McGee quad cam car - don't remember the year. Motor literally jumped out of the frame and was connected by fuel lines. When Steve Evans asked the driver when he knew he was in trouble, driver replied "When the motor passed me!" -
Famous picture. Happened at Tulsa at perhaps the PDA race. Larry Brown driving for Bob Dumont. There was a great write up and pictures in Natl Dragster a few years back.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
Paul, me and my Dad were at about 400ft as well, right on the fence (my Dad is a railbird). I will never forget the sound that car made when it went boom.
I heard a story in the pits later that night (probably apocryphal) that the barrel valve landed in the pits and a spectator sold it back to the team for $100 or $150. That image of the car going boom also made it into Sports Illustrated the following week.
If only there was some way of adequately describing in words what an NHRA race is like in terms of sounds and smells, print magazines like SI would get the NHRA even more exposure than the exposure it gets on the news when there is a wreck or engine explosion.
d'kid
Nitro Member
couldn't have had anything to do with Hydrazine......
Why, was there a Greek Running around.... if the flames are green.....
d'kid
.
Nitro Member
Too bad they didn't have HD and ultra-mo cameras at the races back then!
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
It used to be if the flames are green, the benzene is on the scene. Now it is, if the flames are green, you're burning your copper head gasket.
Here's a link to the story of the lost motor that passed him in the lights
http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/2008/04/23/28321/
http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/2008/04/23/28321/
Professional Fan
Nitro Member
A few years back Rick Stewart told me that the Herbert explosion cost him most of his hearing.
