We've all blown things up. Racing, by nature requires this. LOL What have you blown up, broken, shattered, bent, busted, wrapped, warped, smashed, or destroyed?
We've all blown things up. Racing, by nature requires this. LOL What have you blown up, broken, shattered, bent, busted, wrapped, warped, smashed, or destroyed?
Not my failure but my picture, I think the driver said the lug nuts failed, possibly due to improper tourque.
Sadly no pictures but I have a couple:
In my younger days I took my 85 CRX offroading in Indiana, Haspin acres for any locals. I had a generally good and dangerous time taking the car mudding and down trails Honda never intended the car to go on. On the way home I was driving down a country road at about 50mph when the front of the car took a nosedive. I stopped in time to see my driver's front wheel bounce past me and hit the side of a house. Guess I should have made sure the lug nuts were still torqued after all the hard hits. Luckily there was no severe damage so we just stole some lugs off the other wheels and went on our way.
My wife, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. She'd just bought a $400 Yugo in Cincinnati and was driving it up I75 to Dayton during rush hour. I was following in my beater 510 wagon so I had a front row seat as the driver's front wheel flew off and into traffic. Luckily no one got hit and the wheel ended up by the center divider. A local cop stopped and after making fun of the Yugo for a bit, was ballsy enough to retrieve the wheel for us. Damage done though, the hit took out the control arm.
Shown these a few times already around here:
BTW the first pic really doesn't do it justice. When I brought the car into pit like that it was at least five minutes before someone managed to dig out a camera. Was probably about twice as bright at first. Oops.
Somewhere around here I have a Starlet clutch disc with no lining on it.
It was new the week before.
Overspeeding a clutch sucks.
My busted stuff has all gone to the recycler's. Not the most spectacular but the most aggravating was the day the accelerator pedal in the Jensenator broke off. Damn, that pissed me off.
In reply to PubBurgers:
Awesome. You've got to be the only couple I know with his and hers "wheel fell of while driving" stories.
I have a photo somewhere of the wheel off an old counter IED (improvised explosive device) robot rolling down the middle of Highway 5 in Baghdad after the robot got blown up.
I no longer have my old gearbox case that came with my Mini. It's failure wasn't all that spectacular and I don't have a picture of it, but where the idler gear bearing was supposed to be was a lot larger than the idler gear bearing. And not very round.
I do have a pic at home of my magnetic oil drain plug with all sorts of swarf on it from the bearing and gearbox case. Not spectacular, but it was costly.
I worked at a high performance shop in Austin called Motion Dynamics. We mainly worked on Fords and specialized in the 2.3 Turbo from the SVO Mustang, T-Bird Turbo Coupe, and Merkur.
Although I never really blew anything up myself, save for a used turbo I got that destroyed itself a week after I put it on, the carnage and grenadation (yes, my word) I saw working there was awesome! Rods hanging out of blocks, pistons pulled out with ring lands missing with no fragmentation in the engine at all, superchargers and turbochargers grenading themselves and blowing schrapnel throughout an engine, melted valves, melted pistons, brand new clutches completely disintegrated and holes in the bellhousing and floor as a result, multiple cracked and shattered brake rotors at track days, etc. Automotive carnage at it's finest. Hehe. Wish I would have taken pix of all that stuff!
Thats my friend looking through his engine block. That particular engine just didn't enjoy 3 people drifting it on track in one day. It had a hard (irregular oil change kind) life before us. Then I blew it up on the tow dolly. 2 rods came out, big engine fire. Theres a video some where....
~Alex
Not mine, the story has been posted here before but here's the Cliff's notes:
Customer brings in Talon TSI for maintenance.
I recommend timing belt due to mileage.
Customer says I'm a crook 'cuz his car runs fine.
I try to 'splain to him what "interference engine" means and that his is one.
He leaves in a huff.
Car comes back on a hook. WO says "crank, no-start".
Compression test reveals there could be internal engine damage.
Customer won't look me in the eye when he comes to get things out of the car.
I feel very smug.
I've seen scored rotors before. I bought a Buick, guy said the brakes pulled to the left a little. Reason? Right pad had lost all backing, and had dug two grooves into the rotor about an inch or two deep. I kept it for years, just to prove it could be done.
Toolman: We have one of those out of a 2009 Mustang GT at the shop. Got a gearbox full of Neutral's. LOL I work at a Ford Dealership now, we get all kinds of Diesel carnage now.
Nearly new pressure plate failed while on track at Spring Mountain Motorsports park. The inside of the bell housing looked even worse.
The drain plug on my M5OD after driving it around with a failed slave cylinder for a month and a half:
And the ATF that came out of it:
No pictures. My bestest or most exciting was grenading an outboard in my face. The pieces went wizzing by my head, both sides, and nothing struck me. Happened so quickly took me a moment to figure out what had happened. It was a V4, and it punched both pistons and rods through the bottom of the case.
My most intriguing was having the top bit of a piston snap off around the top compression ring. Engine promptly quit working of course, but no damage. Weird failure. Was a Kohler engine. It did it while I was cranking the engine over.
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