Behold The Awesome Destructive Power Of Nitro
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2022
- A hydraulic explosion when cranking over a nitromethane powered engine is rare, but it does happen. Last week, Nasty Dave Benjamin had such an occurrence at a match race in Boise Idaho. The results left many peppered with shrapnel and one of his crew in the hospital with some pretty extensive injuries.
Sometimes the safest place is INSIDE the car!
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My racing hero was Wild Willie Borsch .. LOL, I mean the guy was sitting on top of an engine that could have blown up and disemboweled him in a split second, but he would race with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the doortop of his fuel altered not a care in the world I loved it
Two things about Wild Willie. First, he was a narcoleptic. He would often actually fall asleep in the staging lanes, and they would wait till the last second to wake him.
Second, the car that you're thinking of was both the first and third generation of the Winged Express. Originally built in 1960, retired in 1971 and replaced with a car that was crashed after a few races, and then refurbished and run again in 1972. The reason for the arm on the body was to keep himself steadied in the seat. The rollcage was built too large for him and he tended to get thrown around when the car got out of shape.
The arm became a trademark, and so when Willie decided to go Funny Car racing in 1973 (with a Chevy powered Dodge Charger) a dummy arm was attached to the body to keep the tradition going.
The Funny Car thing lasted just one season. His sponsor, Revell cancelled the contract when Willie refused to put a shirt on for the photo shoot that was used for the model car box art.
As a side note, I myself turned down several paying offers with teams that required me to wear a uniform shirt.
I did so in order to honor and align the spirit of Willie, who was always one of my greatest heros.
He walked away from the corporate fiasco Drag Racing had become, and was working in a Florida exhaust shop when he passed several years ago.
Yeah I have read a lot about Wild Willy but I didn't know that, that's really cool man
@@UncleTonysGarage Hey!!! I bought the Revell model of Wild Willie's funny car & built it as a kid!!! ......with the arm and the whole deal, lol. I was 11 yrs old at the time. I did a really neat job on building that model, as I always did. It was one of my favorite funny car/dragster type models I ever assembled. If I remember correctly, his funny car was yellow, or a yellowish orange.......wasn't it? And you're right Tony, he only hung his arm on the door of his earlier cars, but used the fake arm for the funny car. Man, I forgot all about that until you guys brought it up. Thanks for the long-forgotten memories!
He was one of mine too! Please read my response here, to Uncle Tony's reply to you for more details. This really brought back some long-lost memories......thanks to you both!!!
@Chuck.U.Farley Yeah he must be a reall "hardass tuff man" Sounds like the typical wanna be tuff guy idiot.
From a chemistry point of view, NitroMethane is a self oxygenated fuel. As to say, it doesn't need air to burn, which is why NitroMethane cars run as close to hydraulic as possible.
As the fuel burns, the Nitro part splits from the Methane, releasing Oxygen and Nitrogen. The Oxygen supplies the combustible part of the equation, and the Nitrogen expands. All this gives rise to the immense cylinder pressures, temperatures and sounds that contribute to making +10,000hp.
The only thing that I can compare to that kind of destruction is seeing a Detroit Diesel DD15 engine on display at a shop that I use. According to the shop boss, the truck driver tried to downshift on a steep grade but couldn't find a gear. He finally managed to jam it into about 5th gear while rolling about 70mph. When he did, it severely over reved the engine and sent shrapnel, including one whole side of the block, all over the highway. Luckily, he was almost down the hill and managed to get the truck stopped at the bottom without killing anyone.
Love the old pictures and stories Tony.
Godspeed to Steve on his recovery!
I've seen a Cummins pulling truck blow the head off the engine and take the deck of the block with it. The headstuds held but the block just ripped in half horizontally! Another crazy one was a diesel pickup at the same pulling event, I kid you not, lost a piston ring and shot it glowing red and mangled out the hoodstack with what was left of the exhaust turbine.
I don't know how that's even possible to get it in 5th at 70, it prob just got away from him in whatever gear it was in going down hill. It's hard to get it out of gear when it starts happening and you allow it to get close to rpm limit. you usually have to clutch to pull it out and upshift. float shifting won't do it as you can't give it enough throttle to take pressure off the gears as you are close to the rev limiter. Your first instinct if you float shift is to give it throttle to get it out of gear. As soon as you touch the throttle engine brake is disabled which expedites rpm climbing. You probably could reef it out of gear but that's probably not good for it either.
@@juliogonzo2718 In this case, I only have what the shop foreman told me to go by.
However, in my own experience, my tractor, with an ISX15 Cummins (2100 rpm setting), 13 speed and 3.73 rears is running about 1800 rpm at 70 mph in high gear. It won't get anywhere close to 70 in 5th gear and I've never seen a big truck that will.
@@MikeBrown-ii3pt yeah I think he's blowing smoke about 70 in 5th, maybe not about an overspeed grenade
@@juliogonzo2718 OH yeah, definitely a grenade! I've been around big diesel engines in trucks and tractors my entire 54 years. I grew up on a farm and have been an OTR driver since 1993 and I've never seen that kind of destruction before or since. All of the rods were just hanging there and the whole left side of the block was blown out.
You have lived more than any 10 other men Tony.
you must not know very many real Men, oldie, how bout soldiers who fought, some died in battle,. what a wimp.
10 tonys
Dang, that was well put. Utg almost doesn't seem old enough to have lived through those times. Some of it seems like it is light-years past.
Prayers for Dave and his crew 🙏💕
We were supposed to be at this race with our NTF car, but the bossman wasn’t cleared from surgery yet so we’re waiting on Tulsa. Hated to hear about this accident and we all had another long talk about the safety of the car and commitment that we follow our shutdown/backdown procedure no matter what.
Dave and I have been friends since the 70’s. I worked for him building stuff. He taught me a lot. Chased the same girls. 😀😀😃😃😀
That’s so kool sharing your personal story’s. Thanks UTG being following you.
Dave Benjamin is a master machinist. He built his own 3 valve cylinder head for the late model hemi. NHRA has since banned his cylinder head
Tony. I have much respect for you and the og fuel guys. One of the best stories I've read is about the surfer boys in socal back in the early days when the average guy could put up a fight in top fuel. I miss those days. My dad use to take me to some great top fuel and funny car shootouts in the early 70's at ocir in the early 70's. Just missed the aa/fa's.
Great to see you bust out the photo album Tony. It definitely put a smile on your face. What a "Badass" car.
I enjoyed the photos and the stories behind them. I would love to see more of that I would call it Uncle Tony's memories in the fast lane.
Love the stories. Had no clue that was even possible. This hobby definitely has varying degrees of sickness. Gotta love it.
Looks like it was an aluminum hemi engine that came apart...
try pineapple 🍍frag grenading the hole block ( and flying it a city block/ 1/8-mile ish away ) ( and taking the bell housing and parts of the transmission/axle with it ) some guy's used to or still try spiking the nitro-fuel with hydrazine 😲you're 🤓🤪
bet UTC has tried a 1-drop or 2-drops per-tank
16-25 year old me would have thought 💭it was ok to tryout and or GDI ( hydrazine or the diesel version of rocket accelerant ) into the cylinder per-need/tune/load-ect ( my thoughts were maybe mixing it in the tank is a terrible idea as 60's cars found but maybe the ECU can make it work safe/reliable, but im not so sure now in my 30's/up and to me i wrote it off in the same category as man/countrys with nuclear-powered/nukes/H-bomb's it's just a bad idea ) but in my 30's no! what was i thinking 🤔, thankfully I got to learn about the 60's/men who did it, it's just to powerful and hard to control reliably/safety from what i understand
Similar to C-4. We'd take a small piece and light it to heat our rations. Just couldn't find a volunteer to stamp it out! Steve, hope you're better soon.
Yup.. Old photo albums are full of ghosts. It's wild how fast it all goes.
Mechanical failures like that are so horrible, I watch where I stand at the dragstrip, I got into small pulling tractors back in the 90"s had a coworker whose dad was into them, I was supposed to meet him at the county fair at the pulls to purchase a Kohler engine from him for pulling, something came up and I didn't make it, he lost his life that night when a flywheel came apart on a pulling tractor, several other spectators were injured also, pieces of flywheel and bell housing were found in the parking lot behind the grandstand and across the road, lucky only one life was lost. The class the tractor was in didn't require a blanket, I'm still saddened that it didn't have one. Glad no life's were lost in this incident! Prayers for a speedy recovery for Dave!
Great video I’m 71 years old love that nostalgia
Thank you for introducing Kiwi to the community. I am taking my 1967 Fadtback Mustang to him for torque box reinforcement and custom subframe connectors welded in next summer. Very excited. Happy Saturday and keep on kicking! I was just listening to INXS Kick...
The older we get the less friends we have left, if we are lucky our family grows and fills in those gaps. Thank you for sharing these experiences, memories and knowledge Tony, Sometimes it feel great to speak about things we lived through and learned and sometimes it makes us sad. When it feels great don't stop the stories, when it feels sad just down shift the conversation and hold it to the floor until it comes around on you to go the direction your mind needs it to...just do not stop, it makes it hurt more while robbing others of your knowledge.
Ahh Man... That could ended a lost worst. Glad he's on the mend. Loved the old scrap book pictures. You & Uncle Kathy should do a whole episode just going through a bunch of them & telling the stories behind all the different one's. That would be EPIC!
Honestly...I'm still kicking. Me too tony. 64 and rocking down the freeway!🤣🤣
I had a Hydraulic Event on my CX500 Track Bike this last weekend. Ran two heat Races bike felt awesome. I got the jetting perfect for the conditions. Left cylinder carb needle and seat failed to seal when I shut it down. Filled the left cylinder and intake runner with 112 race fuel. Fired it for the final race blew the air cleaner and vacuum diaphragm off the carbs and blew the head gasket and ripped the threads out of one of the bolt holes for the cylinder head. What a way to end a day.
Never stay on the sides on an engine that is gonna get put through its paces. Guy in brazil took his car to an dyno and stood beside the car while an guy accelerated. He had an weight relieved flywheel that shattered and hit him in the head. Lights out.
I was at the Texas Motorplex back in the early nineties when this happened to a Top Fuel Funny Car. One of the biggest explosion I've seen in drag racing, split the block in half.
Thank you for sharing your pictures with us! Totally awesome, Tony!!
This is exactly why Nitro was banned in the 50s. While things have gotten a bit safer, accidents still happen. Hoping everyone involved has a speedy and full recovery. Awesome to see the old pictures Tony. Englishtown, rip....
Its always fun to look at where we have been, who we knew, and what we experienced and fortunately our minds tend to forget the bad times.
I totally understand what you’re saying, sometimes destruction and carnage can be beautiful!!
sending my best wishes for a speedy recover, Dave by far my favorite 'Drag racer,
builds everything even 3 valve heads, whats not to love, true genious
Ur life is nostalgic.. glad to have found this channel.. in a few generations.. most won’t even be able the fathom
It's been years now, but I remember going to the drags at Orange County in California probably 40 years ago, and was not too far from the starting line. There was a guy with a blown fuel car getting ready to run and hadn't started the engine yet. He had come up to the line and shut the motor off to do some adjustments. When he and his crew were all done, he went to fire the motor up again. What happened was that the whole top of the motor exploded, and the blower wound up in the timing tower, which was about 3 stories above the race track. Went right through the glass of the timing tower and everybody in the tower was ducking or running. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, but that was a real lesson for me. I'd never realized how touchy nitro was before that.
There was a nitro accident in Australian top fuel
Nitro is a whole different level. I started researching it wanting to be kinda dumb and try to run a miata on nitro for fun. Quickly realized it wasn’t something to do just for fun.
It can be done on engines not specifically built for it but I strongly recommend a weak mix. That stuff is almost like if nitrous could be a fuel on its own. And be ready to change your oil a lot.
love these fuel car stories
I met Dave at the Edmonton raceway a couple weeks before the accident happened. It was my first funny car event and he already blew his engine by the time I got there, but listening to his stories was absolutely amazing and he gave me a completely new vision into the world of drag racing
I think Gene Snow also had an explosion sometime in the late '90s with his A/fuel car that launched parts into the pit next to them. The Hirata's also had a bad explosion years ago with their A/fuel dragster when an injector leaked.
Love the old pics you shared with us!!!
If this is the same incident that happened at Nightfire at Firebird Raceway a couple weeks ago the actual racetrack is located between Eagle and Emmett Idaho, Emmett is right over the hill. It didn't happen in Boise, our state's capital. Almost everyone from out of state only knows Boise, Idaho is a pretty low-key state (and we like it that way).
Firebird is my home track. Although I wasn't there at the time I heard from some people that were that it was a pretty spectacular explosion no one was expecting right as they fired the cars.
"I used to light my barbecue with the stuff." Amen.
Love the old pictures. More please.
do you have any stories of hydrazine?
Literally Rocket-Fuel for RaceCars,and Brings almost 90%of it's Own Oxygen... Bad Squeeze and BOOM 💥💥 🙏🙏🙏for the crew.
There was an Australian top fuel team several months ago that experienced the same thing. It did unbelievable damage, not just to the engine, but the chassis and several other things!!!!
I know you don’t like to do it often but love the trips through your past and appreciate you sharing it 👌🏼
Dave has always been an innovator! I have tons of Respect for him for all he's tried and done, and still does! Nitro takes no prisoners
Love tonys nitro stories
Those photos of your FA are awesome then it occurred to me I read a article about you in hot Rod magazine back when I was a kid. I believe it was titled hot rod from hell? So cool learning it’s you! I was at Boise when the explosion happened I was servicing a clutch on a fuel funny car it was a unreal sound
I forgot to mention Scott Weis had a nasty explosion several years ago when they went to fire his TF dragster. Jon O. lost some eyelashes when Doug Kalitta had a blowup in lanes too. Gary Densham got a piece of head gasket in his leg when it blew up when the starter was hit.
It is always a pleasure to watch your videos when you share some history with the old pictures and information - and share your knowledge - thanks Tony. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.
Your right lots of them gone .
Sadness in my hart .
These kind of accidents reminds me of why i eventually quit racing. Back in the day my dad (we were a father and son team) ran a 1964 Dodge Polara 330. He was in lane and had just done his burn out and i had noticed the rear wheels were juttering, ie instead of spinning they would start and stop, repeat. I was heading towards the car waving my arms to get him to shut it down when he gunned it and the torque converter exploded and shrapnel went up through the floor board and missed him by fractions of an inch. (he had multiple places where the shrapnel had "torn" his fire suit but never penetrated). Yeah a few years after that we quit. It was getting to expensive to keep up with safety equipment and you NEEDED to keep up with it.
Back in the day I was at Beeline drag strip. At the time they were using rollers to start the dragsters. The same thing happened only the left front of the engine was was blown out. As a kid I picked up a souvenir part of the cylinder wall. One of the crew or someone standing around made the statement now that's a blown head gasket. There wasn't anything left you can see the oil pan and the head nothing in the center.
I have limited experience with a 4000 h.p. nitro motor. We would always pull the plugs after the run and the car would sit with them out. Before the run it's not a bad idea to crank the engine over to make sure the cylinders are clear. Put in the plugs and then start it. We would start the car on methanol with a small separate tank and then wean it over to 90-100% nitro after the second magneto. We would usually overdrive the blower to make air with the 440 Donovan.
The car right there in my picture.
In the nhra hall of fame and so is the man I knew who drove it. I think everyone on the team kind of drove it but Mike Bartlett was my good friend. Btw he hand assembled the Orca Viper motors that swept le mans decades ago. Team effort to build all the parts but he was the sole assembler. I have learned from so many great motor builders, fabricators, race car drivers.
Best of luck on recoveries.
Side notes:
The Donovan block has slide in cylinders for when you have problems.
Your flowing so much fuel I think we need to think wet flow not dry flow.
How hard does the car launch? With top fuel slicks and 4k h.p. the coupe needed more lift in the front two cylinders to get enough fuel..the plenums can be played with and final adjustments done mechanically.
I have stopped racing for 20 years or more, i'm missing racing and my son is now old enough for me to travel.
Maybe it's time to fill up the argon bottles
I miss it a lot.
It looked like you had serious Nam flashbacks when you asked about the one you saw at an IHRA race. I can't even imagine. . . . .
Wow. Steve got smoked! lost toes?? Broken bones??? Glad he's gonna be OK
Waaaay back in the day, I used to run AA/FAs, (only on occasion, we used to add a drop or two of "H" word). I figure that's what caused the two stacked 671s to vaporize halfway though a run...good times.
I'm still kicking too and I'll see you tomorrow!
So I think I just learned that I can't call myself a true hotrodder because I have never used Nitro to fire up a grill lol. But seriously I hope a speedy recovery for his cousin, and love hearing your stories!
Thanks for the video, Tony. I liked seeing the pictures of the nitro car and yourself and Kathy. Most men have that oh shit moment where they find out they've got a bald spot on the back of their head LOL. Respect for your friend Nasty Dave Benjamin who's still racing, and best wishes for recovery for his cousin.
A little off topic but where were you when AL from Married with Children needed help with his Dodge.
Al had Irv's house of junk! lol I'm pretty sure that's what it was called. That was sooo great after a day on the phone they knew who he was by name cuz of his sh%tbox. Classic
@@aspalovin and Kelly hung the phone up after he spent all day on the phone.
Great stuff Tony, enjoyed it
The story that went around our Facebook groups was during the warmup the intake rocker but backed off. It was replaced but the fuel wasn’t cleared out of the runner
Nothing like racing memories you have a lot of knowledge my friend thanks for sharing
Looove these old stories and the history lessons.
The world needs more people like you.
Love the photos tony! I'd love to see an episode all about your past in the nitro world!
It’s interesting the way he talks about nitro being about as flammable as lighter fluid for the grill, and how under compression makes it explosive. Not only that, but compressing the air fuel mix heats it up. Have you ever poured lighter fluid on hot coals but it didn’t ignite right away? When the lighter fluid is already that hot, all it takes is the spark from a lighter and it ignites explosively like gasoline. Even regular grill lighter fluid becomes explosive under the right conditions so it makes sense that nitromethane would too.
Awesome video explaining the nitro accident. I especially love the photo album of car racing memories… you guys all look so young, like we all did working on cars back then. 👍
Cool old photos for sure thanks for sharing Tony
Just got home from Brainerd drag strip. I do love to watch cars run, just at this point in life it’s somebody else’s fast car.
once upon a time a hunk of piston asked Unka Tony to carry him
away from the horrors of fuelies .
I think I understand even better now
why mercy raised a hand...
Great vid explaining a part of drag racing very few of us will ever experience first hand. Ever play with Hydrazine?
"When you're in the sickness" referring to the love of Nitro racing.
You....you been there...me...Voodoo man...Love your videos man and I learn alot from them.
This is the best you do, love the stories👍
At E town many years ago there was a nitro Harley bike that was starting up getting ready to make a pass and had a mishap like what you're talking about.
No one got hurt but it drove the piston straight out the bottom of the case. The guy sitting on it must have needed an "oil change" after that too.
I just remember the fairly recent video of the dude who literally had his pants blown off by the exhaust on one of those nitro funny cars. They're so insanely powerful.
Thanks Tony
Yes. New UTG. World JRs hockey and Uncle Tony. I'm good.
Break out a sharpie and add captions to that album while you can still shake those memories loose.
Top fueler exploded on start up here in Australia earlier this year, put two of the crew in hospital...
A couple of those old pictures showed where Steve might have been standing? Best wishes for a full recovery, Steve!
Thank you Tony that was awesome
Ahhh . . . Brent Fanning . . . There's a name I miss hearing in the world of NHRA fuel racing. Those years are long past when you could expect to see the "Udder Car" attempting to qualify at an NHRA national event. And occasionally making the field! I don't "hate cars" for the most part. But I'm finding progress to be less and less impressive.
Loved the pictures good stuff
That was a great video Tony, I really hate it about your buddy getting hurt and hope he gets better soon but checking out those old pics were awesome, i bet I've seen you race before, I started going to the southern nats in 87 and went for 22 straight years and sadly they have just did away with the track to build a battery factory of all things to add insult to injury but let me know if you have a chance when you raced there, love y'alls channel and keep up the great shows 👍👍👍👍👍✅✅✅✅✅
Tony, l love it when you talk nitro. I ran front engine nostalgia cars and am still involved in that whole scene. Tell us more stories.
Thanks for sharing the pics.that car was COOL! You should do an 80s Street Machine build of your Roadrunner. I think that would be awesome! I think it would be cool to show your younger viewers what the average guy was running on the street back in the day.
I'll never forget the time I saw a bike do that when we were racing at Atco one time. The crew had the battery hooked up in the starting area behind the burnout traps, and as the rider went to turn over the motor all kinds of metal and fiberglass exited the left side of the bike like a shotgun and hit a concrete retaining wall about 20ft over as fast as you could blink. It sounded like a shotgun as well. It blew out the side of the #1 cylinder taking the piston and half the rod with it as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. Luckily nobody was in the way of it.
I hope that fella Steve will recover from his injuries.
Keep up the kickin'!!!
That is crazy. Nitro sure smells good when it burns though. I wish him the best of luck in the healing process
Keep kickin’ Unc. 👍🏻
Ahhh the coke drips! I can actually hear them, LOL!!!
You know.. it's funny, you put up pictures of yourself playing in the early nitros. I still have yet to see a pic of those that claim your only a magazine guy.. js
I did both simultaneously...killing two birds with one stone. And when I wasn't on the road writing or racing, I was running a small shop out of my house. The 80's and 90's were all about 7 day and night a week hustle for me...I covered A LOT of ground in those days.
Tony's mag articles were great. I have stacks of old car mags with some of Tony's writings.
Not a joke. The reality is, money is corrupt at times. Dude drops his past and pics.. haters that are after the money hunting for his misinformation... I enjoy your approach UT.. I'm legit just a dude that loves vehicles. People could call me on what I don't know anytime. What I do... I do... And I'm not afraid of it either. My kids and wife think we should start a CZcams. But I keep telling them just to listen to UT
Here I am stoked for the possibility of one of Tony's haters to join the chat... Lol tony and uncle Kat already replied. Next is the haters.. I'm not too scared. Because the reality is I use a lot of the same basic things he shows. So does most of us. And on occasion he shows us new things that are old tech. But usable.
@@Z_732 start a channel. I did and have been working on building it this year. Not really pushing it hard but I went from 110 subs to 750+ since May.
Scarey story! Thanks for sharing.
Used to be pretty common to get head gasket shrapnel in the shins on startup… I’ve seen nitro run into a blind bolt hole, death by impact wrench…
Awesome story !
🏁 UTG. 🏁
One of our drivers used to work for Jim Head his name was Jeff Mackey unfortunately he died of cancer 6 or 7 years ago. Good guy lived near Columbus Ohio
My uncle owned and drove the Magnificent 7 in the early ‘70’s. He ran an alcohol Hemi because that was the license that he had.