A drag racer got a nasty surprise when the outlaw Corvette dragster he was driving took to the air at over 200 mph in Oklahoma.
According to Motor1, driver Daniel Pharris was at the controls of Alepa Racing’s eye-wateringly powerful 4,000 horsepower twin-turbo C7 during the Radial Revenge Tour at Tulsa Raceway Park on April 1. He was up against an equally ridiculously powerful Camaro in the semifinals of the 1/8-mile competition, and everything was looking great for the widebody Vette. Within seconds of launch, however, everything went sideways.
As they left the starting line, both cars lifted their noses off the ground. But while the Camaro settled down and soldiered on down the track, the C7 just kept lifting. Eventually, aerodynamics got the better of things, the front clip tore away, and the car took to the air. It flew over the center line of the track and crashed into the other lane, where it went skidding sideways down the track, shedding parts. The stricken car eventually came to a halt back in its own lane, and Pharris escaped largely unharmed.
Surprisingly, Pharris got a great time with a 4.6-second run at 226.9 mph. Not bad for a car that spent most of its time either in the air or traveling sideways across both lanes.
Even more surprising: Despite the aerobatics, scattered parts and hard landing, the C7 will live to race another day. Pharris Motorsports wrote about the crash on their Facebook page and announced that the car will down for an unspecified amount of time but will be repaired and back on the track.
Original article by Jason Marker of AutoBlog: http://www.autoblog.com/2017/04/04/watch-4-000-horsepower-corvette-take-flight-in-200-mph-wheelie/
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