Mustang Race Ends Badly
This Mustang Race Ends With the Car Going Through the Barrier
If you can pull a wheelie on your bike, congratulations — you’ve got excellent coordination and balance. If you can pull a wheelie in your car, congratulations — you’ve got huge… er, confidence. Just make sure there’s a fire extinguisher and parachute handy.
In this 1320video drag race clip, the 5.0 Mustang doesn’t make it far enough to deploy its ‘chute. Although there are certainly a few fire extinguishers present by the end of the show.
Wheelies and Walls
What starts off looking like a promising race for the driver of this Fox Body ends abruptly. The ‘Stang takes a hard right into the track barrier. Despite putting on quite the show, including a nitrous purge, the run ends after just a few hundred feet of tarmac.
Luckily, the only lasting impact is the driver’s bruised ego and some bodywork damage to the Mustang’s front valance. The pit crew rushes to aid the driver, and quickly assesses he is unharmed.
Damaged but Not Done
The car’s damage appears to be mostly cosmetic. It’s possible it will require a new radiator, fan, and other accessories. But the power plant itself is almost certainly intact, along with everything aft of the firewall. It’s a good thing, too, since this appears to be a fully-built race machine. He can get a new body kit for around $500 and fix the innards fairly cheaply. Just put on some new tires, and he’ll be good to go in no time.
A few race spectators actually chimed in on the comment section to add some details. For one, despite the car’s aggressive appearance, this was apparently a street-class race, which explains why the car didn’t have a wheelie bar.
Lessons for Future Races
Had the Mustang been equipped with a wheelie bar, it’s possible the driver could have corrected the car by pulling left before it got too late. The video clearly shows that when the front end catches, the driver loses control of the car entirely.
Throttle modulation would also be ideal. It can be difficult in a high-powered beast like this, but it is probably the best way to avoid this situation in the future. A wheelie might look cool, but it’s not the quickest way to leave the line. As an alternative, the owner could install a higher first gear or make some sort of change to his differential to change the way the car hooks up.
Wheelie popped. Lesson learned.
CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About Failed Run
