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A couple weeks ago I attended the Car Craft Nationals, held here at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. They had a chassis dyno set up so guys could show off how much horsepower their hot rods make. Unfortunately for one guy, in the middle of his run the tiedown straps broke and he Just About drove right off the end of the dyno into the crowd. It was pretty wild to watch. :~

Someone's finally posted a video of it here:
http://www.integraonline.com/~stratcat/Dyno%20Break.wmv

Wow. He was right on the edge of that ramp. Good thing for everyone that he managed to stop it. Did they do a rerun? What kind of power did it make?

IMO, the guy operating the Rod caused the straps to break. What I see is a very gradual pull and then the guy just hammers it. Definately NOT what you should be doing during a dyno run.

Rich

I didn't hang around long enough to see if they got things pulled back together to do more runs (it was about a million degrees in the shade that day so I faded fast) but I was talking to someone there who told me that car was putting out something like 1200 hp. ~0

edited to add: I went over to the Car Craft forums to see if there was any more information. Someone there said the tiedown strap was up against the exhaust pipe and melted; I'd take that with a grain of salt myself.

[Edit by stuart in mn on [TIME]1122946844[/TIME]]

At the first turbo dyno day, Sweeney's car tried to make a break for it. The techs had attached the tie downs and routed one about a foot or two away from the muffler tip. The twin turbo exhaust was enough to melt the strap, which then snapped and caused a slightly unsettling experience as the car rose up on the rollers. The second strap held and the car was quickly brought down, but it was still scary. I can't imagine what kind of safety lapses you'd have to have to make a car come off the rollers entirely.

Jeremy

[QUOTE="Rich Euro M5"]IMO, the guy operating the Rod caused the straps to break. What I see is a very gradual pull and then the guy just hammers it. Definately NOT what you should be doing during a dyno run.[/QUOTE]
Well, every time I've seen an inertial dyno used, the car is gradually run through the gears until "x" speed and "y" gear, then is floored. From the video, nothing tells me he did the run incorrectly.

[QUOTE="Jeremy"]At the first turbo dyno day, Sweeney's car tried to make a break for it. The techs had attached the tie downs and routed one about a foot or two away from the muffler tip. The twin turbo exhaust was enough to melt the strap, which then snapped and caused a slightly unsettling experience as the car rose up on the rollers. The second strap held and the car was quickly brought down, but it was still scary. I can't imagine what kind of safety lapses you'd have to have to make a car come off the rollers entirely.

Jeremy[/QUOTE]

I saw this video somewhere else and it was the same situation as Jeremy said. The straps were close to or touching the exhaust and that is what caused the truck to break free.

[QUOTE="Rich Euro M5"]IMO, the guy operating the Rod caused the straps to break. What I see is a very gradual pull and then the guy just hammers it. Definately NOT what you should be doing during a dyno run.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE="Shawn D."]Well, every time I've seen an inertial dyno used, the car is gradually run through the gears until "x" speed and "y" gear, then is floored. From the video, nothing tells me he did the run incorrectly.[/QUOTE]

I know the process and most pulls are done in something like 3rd or 4th gear. How many cars have you seen in a dyno pull come on like that rod did ?? I've never seen one, but then I've never seen a car with the equivilent of a Fuelie engine running slicks do a pull either.

Rich

My only personal dyno experience was to have the motor wide open from ~1500rpm in 3rd gear, but it was done by a new shop who really wasn't that experienced. I've seen it done both ways. I also have a pretty awesome video of a twin-turbo big block Grand National being dynoed starting from probably ~2500-3000rpm... doing a burnout on the rollers, it still put down over 1000hp! ~0

yikes ~0