Big Chief survived. The Crow did not.

I know opinions vary about the show but I enjoy it and I hate to hear about anyone getting hurt in motorsport.

Linky

Synopsis: he crashed Saturday night, totaled his Pontiac, crushed a couple of vertebra and broke his collarbone. Bad night.

It's a tube chassis car, it's never totaled. Glad everybody walked away.

I've seen pictures of this, but have no idea who or what it is. Reality TV, I presume? The one pic I saw looks like on a public road.

Street outlaws. Happened during filming.

Second car wrecked this year from the show that the seat and harness mounts broke off during the crash.

Kind of inevitable really. I don't really like drag racing, but the show is interesting because of the varying surfaces they run on and the cars they run (not as much of a push button race as a lot of drag racing).

Since they have been getting money from the show though, they have really been bumping up the performance of some of the cars. It's street racing, but there is nothing "street" about most of the cars ($50,000+ motors etc). They have even had full on pro-mod cars run. Most of the cars run parachutes, though they really don't show that.

The big potential issue, and what will likely kill it, is that they do run on closed off streets, and there are curbs (good for flipping), gully's, and most especially disturbing, light polls and maybe telephone poles (not sure I have seen one though). It's kind of inevitable that someone in one of these super fast cars will get into something a speed and do some serious damage to themselves or others.

I personally like the sleeper cars the one pair come up with (Bug and old truck with camper shell), which are street cars, but they are wildly outclassed by the specialty built ones.

They seem to run only cages around the driver seat in many of the cars. Is that typical for drag race stuff?

sachilles wrote: They seem to run only cages around the driver seat in many of the cars. Is that typical for drag race stuff?

Theres a normal full cage with that tied into it. The funny car style driver cage becomes a rerequirement to pass tech for certain Et and mph. Most of there cars are built per nhra 25.2 or 25.5 spec if i remember correctly off the top of my head.

i don't see any motorsport taking place. I don't know how these guys still have insurance on their cars and licenses. It's public knowledge who they are and there is massive amounts of film documenting what they do. You might not be able to bust them with the exact time and place, but there's enough to impound the cars if they aren't titled or insured, and to suspend licenses if that's the case. And if the vehicles are insured, there is more than enough evidence present to have their carries drop them even if they never file a claim.

In reply to captdownshift:

I've been under the impression that this is "reality" tv. As in the authorities close down small stretches of road for these to take place. I would be highly surprised if there was any real outlaw activity going on

Closed course anytime discovery is filming. Everthing caught on tape is 100% legal. Discovery isnt about to foot a lawsuit.

In reply to aircooled:

Some of them also run fancy electronic traction control....

The caption states the car was absolutely decimated. I'm no Pontiac expert but it's clear that WAY more than 10% of the car was destroyed.

No, that's about right. There was only about 20% Pontiac left in it.

aircooled wrote: No, that's about right. There was only about 20% Pontiac left in it.

It still has a Pontiac engine, which I thought was cool. I like the show, I know what it is and that's okay with me, still good entertainment and good car footage imo.

Cotton wrote:

aircooled wrote: No, that's about right. There was only about 20% Pontiac left in it.

It still has a Pontiac engine, which I thought was cool. I like the show, I know what it is and that's okay with me, still good entertainment and good car footage imo.

I ell the same way. Im well aware its fake, but they build some really cool cars. Big block+big turbos+nitrous+megasquirt=cool!

Pontiac engine eh? That is nice. Amazing what a LOT of boost will do.

I suspect though, the show will become a bit less interesting as they all go to fully prepped and setup drag cars (that new Goliath car clearly has all the boxes checked). I enjoy the more "grassroots" funkiness of the cheaper / cobbled together cars (e.g. seeing the El Camino try to twist itself in half on launch).

I am a bit curious though as to why none of them have gone with what seem to be the go to setup for top end dragsters, the blower. They all seem to be turbo or nitrous. I am guessing the turbo and nitrous are a bit easier to tune for different conditions? (drag strips are likely to be a lot more consistent) I know they tend to tune the blown dragsters a lot with the clutch, and that would be a wild pain for these cars.

Glad he is OK, but on what planet is that illegal street racing? Show up with a slick tired, wheelie bar car in a hauler and unload it on a track, errr..I mean straight stretch of road with good light and now a camera crew.

In the stupidity of my youth I did street racing. You showed up in it, you drove off in it and you didn't go back to where you started to settle up.

I call bullE36 M3

Butler racing built the engine. One of my favorote things about the car was the fact it wasnt just another big block chevy based engine.

I prefer the small tire more stock appearing cars like boosteds mustang. I prefer stock suspension classes too.

Flight Service wrote: Glad he is OK, but on what planet is that illegal street racing? Show up with a slick tired, wheelie bar car in a hauler and unload it on a track, errr..I mean straight stretch of road with good light and now a camera crew. In the stupidity of my youth I did street racing. You showed up in it, you drove off in it and you didn't go back to where you started to settle up. I call bullE36 M3

People have been trailering cars to street racers for several years. Its just not usually 8 cars and a camera crew. Alot of the big money street guys will admit they cant drive there car anywere. Half are using filled blocks and running no cooling systems.

aircooled wrote: Pontiac engine eh? That is nice. Amazing what a LOT of boost will do. I suspect though, the show will become a bit less interesting as they all go to fully prepped and setup drag cars (that new Goliath car clearly has all the boxes checked). I enjoy the more "grassroots" funkiness of the cheaper / cobbled together cars (e.g. seeing the El Camino try to twist itself in half on launch). I am a bit curious though as to why none of them have gone with what seem to be the go to setup for top end dragsters, the blower. They all seem to be turbo or nitrous. I am guessing the turbo and nitrous are a bit easier to tune for different conditions? (drag strips are likely to be a lot more consistent) I know they tend to tune the blown dragsters a lot with the clutch, and that would be a wild pain for these cars.

Fuel cars run roots blowers because they have to. If they could, you'd see screw chargers, turbos, and/or nitrous.

dropstep wrote:

Flight Service wrote: Glad he is OK, but on what planet is that illegal street racing? Show up with a slick tired, wheelie bar car in a hauler and unload it on a track, errr..I mean straight stretch of road with good light and now a camera crew. In the stupidity of my youth I did street racing. You showed up in it, you drove off in it and you didn't go back to where you started to settle up. I call bullE36 M3

People have been trailering cars to street racers for several years. Its just not usually 8 cars and a camera crew. Alot of the big money street guys will admit they cant drive there car anywere. Half are using filled blocks and running no cooling systems.

Oh Ok so this isn't illegal street racing this is semi-pros (hey they get paid don't they) racing drag cars illegally on a street.

Yeah, if I was the Sheriff in that town, I would make my budget in one night....cars, haulers, trucks, tools the whole lot.

They just SAY they are illegally racing. All of what is on TV is legal (e.g. you can see an ambulance in the backgrounds sometimes)

They do trailer cars to real street races though from what I have seen, but I think they do try to keep them at least technically street legal. I suspect they try to get them off an on the trailers as fast as possible though since they could be easily ticketed while off. Generally though, these real races seem to be in very out of the way places (good warning when cops appear) or are in areas where shooting people with machine guns is more of a priority (South Central LA).

Appleseed wrote: Fuel cars run roots blowers because they have to. If they could, you'd see screw chargers, turbos, and/or nitrous.

Interesting. Is there a reason why? (rules? physics?)

Clearly it's not cost

Rules. They're trying to keep costs down. Top fuel and Funny Car classes in NHRA are essentially a traveling circus of cookie-cutter cars. Everyone's part of the show. I'd rather watch the Sportsman classes.

aircooled wrote: They just SAY they are illegally racing. All of what is on TV is legal (e.g. you can see an ambulance in the backgrounds sometimes) They do trailer cars to real street races though from what I have seen, but I think they do try to keep them at least technically street legal. I suspect they try to get them off an on the trailers as fast as possible though since they could be easily ticketed while off. Generally though, these real races seem to be in very out of the way places (good warning when cops appear) or are in areas where shooting people with machine guns is more of a priority (South Central LA).

Appleseed wrote: Fuel cars run roots blowers because they have to. If they could, you'd see screw chargers, turbos, and/or nitrous.

Interesting. Is there a reason why? (rules? physics?) Clearly it's not cost

Because the blower takes more power to provide boost than a street hemi made back in the day.

Also, they would absolutely not use nitrous, a fuel car would slow down with nitrous. They would absolutely use turbos, and you would see a lot of people die very quickly if they did, because the power difference is pretty significant.

Not to mention the incredible boost at the top end. By the way...the editor of that piece has the attention span of a flea.