Devastating video for almost any car guy to see

[33 IMP]

Twice in my ‘68 wagon, I lost one end of the brakes... thank God for the dual master! That, the padded dash, and the side markers were federally mandated for January 1, 1968. One of the few times I don’t mind government overreach.

I've had three brake failures, one busted brake hose with a single pot, one with a failed hydroboost (I hate them) when the crank pulley busted off, and one with a four wheel disc car with a single pot, when a rear caliper blew out. Two I got lucky, third one destroyed the favorite car I've ever owned.
Edit: the hydro boost failed for me when the crank pulley failed (gm had redesigned it for more strength at least twice, but didn't tell me) but any time one loses a belt, for whatever reason (any seized idler or smog pump, or whatever), you lose steering and brakes at the same time. Not good......

 

[moparedtn]

It was last December. Could be they already settled.

I'd say they have or that video would not have been released...

Yeah, lots of folks have had brake failure episodes I reckon - and much like other potentially life-threatening scenarios,
human nature is such that one doesn't truly know how they're going to respond until it happens to them.

Y'all know about my VERY recent situation with my '04 Ram, where both front AND rear main lines blew out
simultaneously...but that was far from the first time for me, so the old "mental checkdown list" fired up automatically
and I went through the steps, which saved my carcass (and that of any non-humans, too).

Ed Mini-Story Time:
When I watched this video the other day, it reminded me of a much, much younger time with my first '68 Super Bee
back in the early 80's though - much stupidity occurred that night, most of it performed by yours truly.
An impromptu street race in a semi-urban area, 4 lanes through a suburb - and when we crested the blind hill, both
still hard at it, the unexpected heavy traffic backup directly in front of us caught us by surprise.

The Camaro I was running handled it with a lot of lockup; my 'Bee, all 4 drums worth, was also screeching down
next to him when I lost pedal (line blew out, I found out later) and any braking....and I still had a ton of steam
left.

As I surmised there was no way I was going to get it woahed in time to avoid the stopped cars in front of me, I
made the snap decision to throw the car into a slide, figuring I'd cause a rollover doing so - but at least, it would
just be me getting hurt that way.
I stomped the emergency brake pedal and gave the wheel hard left, all I could turn the manual steering at once.
The car and I then proceeded to do the prettiest 4 lane 180 degree slide you've ever seen in your life...
no rollover!
By the time the car came to rest, I had a death grip on the wheel, head down and eyes shut, totally concentrating
on the task at hand - and then when things got quiet, it occurred to me I hadn't felt any impact - with anything!
I poke my head up and look around and realize what has happened - after starting in the right lane of northbound
traffic, we've done a full 180 and are now resting against the far right lane curb of the southbound lanes!
Hell, the car didn't even stall out...naturally, I had buried the clutch pedal in all the commotion, too.

Next thing I realize is, I'm sitting out front of a well-known and rather rough biker bar - several patrons of which
had now come outside to see what all the commotion was about.
Some took great joy at the situation, others scoffed - but what appeared to be a "leader" stuck his head in my
passenger window and asked if I was ok.
When I nodded, he said "then get the fluck outta here, man! The cops are comin'!"
Which I did....because they were...
I took every back road I could think of going home and threw the cover on the car once there (no garage) without
further incident - and didn't sleep a wink all night afterwards.

Lessons were learned by young and dumb Ed that night, lessons that still apply to this day.
There were plenty of escapades and lead-footin' to come, but they were always where risks were assessed and
minimized - and brakes have been a "thing" for me ever since.
I was damn lucky I didn't hurt anyone that night. Blessed. Given a reprieve.
The way I see it....

 

[440 PHIXX]

I'd say they have or that video would not have been released...

Yeah, lots of folks have had brake failure episodes I reckon - and much like other potentially life-threatening scenarios,
human nature is such that one doesn't truly know how they're going to respond until it happens to them.

Y'all know about my VERY recent situation with my '04 Ram, where both front AND rear main lines blew out
simultaneously...but that was far from the first time for me, so the old "mental checkdown list" fired up automatically
and I went through the steps, which saved my carcass (and that of any non-humans, too).

Ed Mini-Story Time:
When I watched this video the other day, it reminded me of a much, much younger time with my first '68 Super Bee
back in the early 80's though - much stupidity occurred that night, most of it performed by yours truly.
An impromptu street race in a semi-urban area, 4 lanes through a suburb - and when we crested the blind hill, both
still hard at it, the unexpected heavy traffic backup directly in front of us caught us by surprise.

The Camaro I was running handled it with a lot of lockup; my 'Bee, all 4 drums worth, was also screeching down
next to him when I lost pedal (line blew out, I found out later) and any braking....and I still had a ton of steam
left.

As I surmised there was no way I was going to get it woahed in time to avoid the stopped cars in front of me, I
made the snap decision to throw the car into a slide, figuring I'd cause a rollover doing so - but at least, it would
just be me getting hurt that way.
I stomped the emergency brake pedal and gave the wheel hard left, all I could turn the manual steering at once.
The car and I then proceeded to do the prettiest 4 lane 180 degree slide you've ever seen in your life...
no rollover!
By the time the car came to rest, I had a death grip on the wheel, head down and eyes shut, totally concentrating
on the task at hand - and then when things got quiet, it occurred to me I hadn't felt any impact - with anything!
I poke my head up and look around and realize what has happened - after starting in the right lane of northbound
traffic, we've done a full 180 and are now resting against the far right lane curb of the southbound lanes!
Hell, the car didn't even stall out...naturally, I had buried the clutch pedal in all the commotion, too.

Next thing I realize is, I'm sitting out front of a well-known and rather rough biker bar - several patrons of which
had now come outside to see what all the commotion was about.
Some took great joy at the situation, others scoffed - but what appeared to be a "leader" stuck his head in my
passenger window and asked if I was ok.
When I nodded, he said "then get the fluck outta here, man! The cops are comin'!"
Which I did....because they were...
I took every back road I could think of going home and threw the cover on the car once there (no garage) without
further incident - and didn't sleep a wink all night afterwards.

Lessons were learned by young and dumb Ed that night, lessons that still apply to this day.
There were plenty of escapades and lead-footin' to come, but they were always where risks were assessed and
minimized - and brakes have been a "thing" for me ever since.
I was damn lucky I didn't hurt anyone that night. Blessed. Given a reprieve.
The way I see it....

I was lucky as well to not total my ‘Cuda when I had a stuck throttle. I was turning that manual steering box as quick as I could! I still have the smashed rim in the basement as a reminder.

 

[GetX'd]

I guess those that mentioned the impending/possibly settled lawsuit. But I have to tell you it about made me puke - all that talk about the coin he had into the car, work, beauty, their battle wounds, on and on - with zero mention of the other parties involved and so on. I noticed that right away and didn’t like it - but then also saw the post about liability, lawsuit, probably couldn’t etc. So that’s probably very likely why.

A couple of years ago I had just eased off the 55 freeway here in Newport Beach - right where hiway ends and turns into a busy artery. As you ease off theres a light ahead with Uber time to slow and stop if you catch the light. Even if you get it green you’re already slowed down to 30-40 mph. Well I hit the red light and was stopped dead at it - as is normal I glanced up at the rear view mirror in just a 10tn of a split second to see this silver flash and that was it. This bonehead coming off the freeway driving like an erratic bat out of hell doing well over 65mph somehow managed to miss everyone else and straight away rear ended me while I was at a dead stop. He had 5 people in his car and the engine was literally smashed right up into his windshield. Didn’t speak a word of English. His Camery looked like it had already met the crusher. My Lexus SUV really took George Foreman‘s best punch and was still standing - but the damage was frame etc. $20k and 2 months to repair. But the place I brought it to is best of breed especially in the Lexus world. Not one aftermarket or used part. New frame rails - no straightening or welding - first class and you’d never know the car was hit. Perfect. Me - various and sundry damages. Thru the legal process he had to sign some papers - guess where they located him? In the hospital from having just caused another such accident. I don’t know what became of him - but hope to God he’s no longer allowed on the streets save being a passenger. And maybe not even then.

 

[dual fours]

Anybody that can keep his wits when his airplane engine quits could better handle that.

My Instructor's words were...''Your number one concern when the Engine shuts off, is to fly the aircraft''. Then you go down the "list" of corrections/setups in your head. But you should be thinking about all that before you get into that World of ****. My FI liked to pull throttle on me way to many times, I think he liked the thrill.

EDIT: The Driver is the first one that should have shut it down, and the Passenger, with him being a car guy, well he should have known better, something was going to go wrong and insisted to shut it down.

 

[moparedtn]

My Instructor's words were...''Your number one concern when the Engine shuts off, is to fly the aircraft''. Then you go down the "list" of corrections/setups in your head. But you should be thinking about all that before you get into that World of ****. My FI liked to pull throttle on me way to many times, I think he liked the thrill.

EDIT: The Driver is the first one that should have shut it down, and the Passenger, with him being a car guy, well he should have known better, something was going to go wrong and insisted to shut it down.

Yep. Should it have been me in the car (and it wouldn't have been anyways), the first time the throttle bound up, my
immediate demand would have been "pull over, I'm getting out".

 

[Big Bad Dad]

Looking again. The throttle sticking at 2200RPM! 2200RPM on 1300 Horsepower? What is the power band on a 1300 horse engine? Wow, what a freaking pair of idiots. And these videos where they drive these radical cars on crowded city streets. Why don't they go to uncrowded rural roads for these things?

 

[moparedtn]

If you believe what you see in all those TV and YouTube channels, there's people with tons of money -
and hot rod shops to take it from them - in southern California.

 

[gkent]

Unless I was in Canada, then I’d count to ten.

But you'd have to take your hands off the wheel to do it !!!

 

[Don Frelier]

So the throttle was sticking and the driver thought riding the brake was a good solution?
If it sticks at 10% whats to say it doesn't stick at 50% or 75% next time?
As soon as the throttle sticks it needs to be fixed. Period.
Simply unbelievable and then the host comments that he should have had bigger brakes.
The brakes need to be sized to stop the weight of the vehicle not based on the HP of the engine.
Sure larger brakes let you stop quicker but they would never be sized to hold back the car and the engine.
I'm thinking if the motor would idle the brakes on the car were fine.

I drove my Charger with manual 10" drums for over 20 years and never rear ended anyone.
But I did have a few highway speed stops that were iffy. Hence the switch to discs on the front.

 

[Rusty knuckles]

This makes me think of rich dudes with voluptuous beautiful girlfriends. Money gets them into an amazing piece as a status symbol that everyone loves to look at and envy but once inside they don't know what they're doing and in the end just costs a boat load of money and things often end prematurely.

 

[roadrunnerh]

I actually got a sick feeling when I watched this. I'd like to think I would have handled that differently; some E brake, drop into 1st, shut off, turn the wheel. Those two guys got F'ed up, but it could have been worse... Crazy story with video!

 

[33 IMP]

This makes me think of rich dudes with voluptuous beautiful girlfriends. Money gets them into an amazing piece as a status symbol that everyone loves to look at and envy but once inside they don't know what they're doing and in the end just costs a boat load of money and things often end prematurely.

As I'm reading your post, I'm picturing the guy who crashed his new Ford GT, cause he couldn't drive a stick.....

 

[Ron H]

Dodge Challenger Hellcat Driver Demolishes Passing Truck in Idiotic Cars and Coffee Crash

The post here reminded me of this video a member posted a while back. An idiot trying to show off having HP he couldn’t handle in traffic with pedestrians all over the place. Too much caffeine or too little brains?

 

[sam dupont]

I hope our insurance companies don't take a greater interest in each of our builds.
Can one take their 1,200 hp, custom frame, homebuilt car to a track and race somebody? With no kill switch, emergency brake, or tech inspection?

 

[33 IMP]

I hope our insurance companies don't take a greater interest in each of our builds.
Can one take their 1,200 hp, custom frame, homebuilt car to a track and race somebody? With no kill switch, emergency brake, or tech inspection?

I don't know about that.
I do know that I had to have all kinds of sfi approved engine and safety stuff on my nine second car, along with a certified cage, new five point harness, and a window net.
Yet, last Thursday at the test and tune, I saw four cars running 6.0s (mid nine second quarter)with a lap belt and a helmet. I guess eight or ten airbags means that's OK.
For what it's worth, two were hellcat/redeye/demons, and two were tesla.
My friend that has a homebuilt 1300hp car has every nhra safety requirement for a 7.50 E.T. covered. I can't say that about some of the other street racers I have seen.....

 

[Billccm]

Armchair quarterback comments:
1) Placing the auto trans into L1 would have helped rather than letting the parking paw vibrate and break away.
2) Shutting down the motor obviously.
3) Assuming he had a parking brake would have helped.

I'm not sure 'brake technology improvements in the past 17 years' would have helped here unless he took the entire ABS system from a newer car. That is really the only 'improvement' I can think of that would have helped, and if you remember the runaway Lexus that had unintended acceleration from a few years back those brakes did not help the passengers at all; quite a few people lost their lives. I think in a runaway situation removing power is the only answer.

 

[Ron H]

Being in risk mgmt as a career, came across a saying somewhere that stuck in my head:
"Those who plan or prepare for emergencies have fewer of them."

 

[Crackedback]

Being in risk mgmt as a career, came across a saying somewhere that stuck in my head:
"Those who plan or prepare for emergencies have fewer of them."

Dead on. This fool KNEW the engine would hang up on the throttle, drove it anyways, killing the brakes to keep speed down, and had NO contingency plan if things went wrong.

Simple, click the F'ing thing OFF... Nope panic... the look on his face was priceless, bracing himself and turning his head. Dang idiot shouldn't be driving. Low performance driver extraordinaire.

 

[Kern Dog]

The Driver is the first one that should have shut it down, and the Passenger, with him being a car guy, well he should have known better, something was going to go wrong and insisted to shut it down.

I agree.
In the comments, the owner chimed in. He stated that the car had a B & M ratchet shifter that could not be downshifted unless it was put in PARK first.

What ???

Are those shifters really made that way? If so, that is really stupid.
Secondly, those disc brakes are really small even for 400 HP. The fronts look like they are grooved even before they went out on the road and at what appears to be maybe 11" in diameter, even if the brake fluid wasn't boiling, those brakes would have trouble stopping the car.
It is easy to watch the video and say what you would have done. Being scared and dealing with an urgent crisis will reveal your skill in a hurry. My guess is that the driver was painted in to a corner and he was holding the brush. Trees and a row of cars to the right, oncoming traffic to the left and idling cars waiting for the light ahead of him.
In my opinion, once he was in the thick of it, he had nowhere to go that was going to make any difference. He screwed up by continuing to drive the car with hot brakes and a sticking throttle. I think he was so happy to have the car on the road and get some attention with it, he ignored the risks.
I've driven some ratty cars but brakes are always tops on my priority list.