Has it ever been announced what the cause of Larry Dixons' structural frame failure at Gainesville was? This was supposedly a car with only a few laps on it and this type of occurrence seems to rear it's ugly head every now and then,ie. Larry 15 years ago and Corey Mac a few back. I'm sure the NHRA knows and is maybe keeping a lid on it!
Nitromater
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Catasrophic Failure
- Thread starter wireguy
- Start date
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
I thought Vandergriff said the car had about 50 runs on it?
Also, if NHRA knows what the problem is, I am sure they would communicate that information to the chassis shops and teams. There is nothing in it for them to "keep a lid on it". Would they put out a press release so everyone knows, maybe not, but NHRA issues tech/safety bulletins pretty regularly that we rarely hear about. And if we do hear about them, it is just because a racer made the info public (See: Street Outlaws, Header Collector tethers).
Also, if NHRA knows what the problem is, I am sure they would communicate that information to the chassis shops and teams. There is nothing in it for them to "keep a lid on it". Would they put out a press release so everyone knows, maybe not, but NHRA issues tech/safety bulletins pretty regularly that we rarely hear about. And if we do hear about them, it is just because a racer made the info public (See: Street Outlaws, Header Collector tethers).
Just Paul
Nitro Member
Lower frame rail failure 2 boxes ahead of the foot box. Basicly the foot box and the box in front of that were intact. Could have been anything from unknown material issue to how the chassis is supported in the trailer, to just being one of them things that happens when you push a car to 300 mph while trying to bend it in half every run.
Say what you will about Dixon's first crash, but that thing was bent from the run before. They had it back in the pits up on blocks and were using torches and come-a-longs pulling it back straight, it was f**ked before it even left the starting line.
Worst straight up chassis failure in the so called modern era (97) was Marshall Topping. He's lucky to be alive.
Say what you will about Dixon's first crash, but that thing was bent from the run before. They had it back in the pits up on blocks and were using torches and come-a-longs pulling it back straight, it was f**ked before it even left the starting line.
Worst straight up chassis failure in the so called modern era (97) was Marshall Topping. He's lucky to be alive.
just my 2 cents worth. Are they looking a the material itself? There is a lot of Chinese crap metal in the industry now. You're not always getting what you pay for, even if you have a Certed material. We have a gun at my work that tells us the composition of metals that we buy.
Jim; the full time builders are certainly aware of the material they are buying, especially after the "heat treat fiasco". Yes, there is "some" crap material from China, but also "excellent" quality too. Keep in mind, in the mid seventies, when suppliers still used Roladex cards on their desk, my supplier had my card marked "NO Summerill Tube" a USA manufacturer that was producing material that "crap" wasn't a strong enough word. Thankfully they went under.
One of the highest quality 4130 tubes I've ever worked with was made in Germany, and as of this day, they are selling their ingots to the USA to be produced into tubes.
