Z06 engine blows up in front of me

[quikag]

This was probably the scariest 3-4 seconds of my several years of track day driving. When I went into the white haze, I saw absolutely nothing, so I was afraid I was going to blow right into him.

Sorry for the crappy angle, the camera tilted down on the helmet, so just fast forward to the end of the 30 second clip.

[Vertnut]

That's some scary stuff. If he panics and hits his brakes, that can get ugly in a hurry.

[Spritle]

"Pants shitting fear" -Al P

[forbes]

makes me happy with my z.... still running

[Rlhay2]

That looked like MSR-Cresson.

Did he spin out? Or opted to pull off to the right?

[mstng86]

You better go high Cole!!

[helosailor]

Harry to Cole Trickle: "You can drive right through it."

[80coupe]

Harry to Cole Trickle: "You can drive right through it."

lolZ

[TrueStreetMotorSports.com]

You better go high Cole!!

Harry to Cole Trickle: "You can drive right through it."

SCARY STUFF

[quikag]

Harry to Cole Trickle: "You can drive right through it."

It is amazing what goes through your head in milliseconds. I actually had that flash through my head about what to do when you hit the smoke. Days of Thunder baby. Obviously, there was no banking here, so I just tried to keep it straight, come to a stop as fast as possible, and hope for the best.

Rlhay, yeah it was MSR Cresson, I guess he pulled off to the right of the track, but I couldn't see a damn thing. Here is another angle from a camera my neighbor stuck on the window of my car facing rearward:

http://contour.com/stories/msr-cresson-17-ccw-z06-boom-in-front-of-a-zr1

[Gear_Jammer]

...I was afraid I was going to blow right into him.

Giggle...

[jw33]

Ooooffff good driving and big ups to the ABS. I'm guessing a botched downshift, broken valve spring, and dropped valve let all the smoke out of the poor Z06. The more important question is what is a ZR1 doing behind the Z06? Lap traffic?

[Juiced4v]

That will make you grow some hair!

[quikag]

Ooooffff good driving and big ups to the ABS. I'm guessing a botched downshift, broken valve spring, and dropped valve let all the smoke out of the poor Z06. The more important question is what is a ZR1 doing behind the Z06? Lap traffic?

The Z06 owner was really pushing the car hard and he emailed me later and said he had put a cam in the car a few months before and this was the first track event with the cam package, so I guess the tune and/or engine internals let go. He said there was small melted pieces of metal on the track, so that's not a good sign.

I started a fair bit behind the Z06 driver that session and had passed him several times on earlier sessions. He's an excellent driver and he had R compound rubber, cammed LS7, etc., so I wasn't gaining on him too much that last session. He was hanging it out to dry that last session, definitely the fastest I had seen him run all day, but I guess the engine couldn't handle it unfortunately.

[78X]

wow you have some hairy arms