Amanda Shepherd Supercharger Explosion

Filmed at the Karcher Nitro Champs second day of qualifying 2nd May 2009. A similar but less spectacular failure occured earlier in qualifying. The crew must not have found the original problem because it happened again, on an even grander scale :)

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Top
• Fuel
• Nitro
• Nitromethane
• Quarter
• Mile
• Drag
• Racing
• WSID
• Western
• Sydney
• International
• Dragway
• Explosion
• Supercharger
• Crash

[trust33]

yeah. to answer your question shagerz. i think that her dad couldnt care a single bit. he has no price on his daughters happiness it seems :)

[shaggerzbrisbane]

Ahh, but apparently there is a price, because Amanda may not be racing in future as they are having trouble finding sponsors for "Amanda Shepherd Racing". At least thats what I caught her saying on One HD, who had some awesome high def coverage of the champs on the weekend after. Lets hope it doesnt come to that, as Amanda Shepherd is a great representative for drag racing in Australia, for my generation, and for women in drag racing.

[trust33]

i was there. she wasnt in the final and it was her last round to post a qualifying time. . she was stupid for going at it after the first shake of the tyres. as they say fool me once ok. fool me twice and u know w hat happens. but she went at it for a third stab. thats why it was a silly move on her behalf.

[shaggerzbrisbane]

You're right there it was her last chance to get into the finals... I think she only needed an 8 point something to get there, so the three stabs at the throttle was out of desperation, and the slim chance that after the rought start she could still get down the track in enough time to get into the finals. Even so, I wonder if her dad thinks the damage bill was worth the risk :P

[shaggerzbrisbane]

Correction: don't know where I got 8 point something.... That would be an extremely slow field if that WERE the case, but my point remains valid.

A reminder too that the responsibility for this probably lies more with the mechanic(s) responsible for the clutch setup than with Amanda, as the track had been, and continued to be, extremely sticky on this day. To configure the clutch in a way that broke traction so readily on a sticky track was a very aggressive move on their part.

[boof6749]

This was bloody Loud As, I got the Blower belt and Blower Casing from this

[shaggerzbrisbane]

I had earmuffs on and it was a hell of a bang even through them. Like a kick in the chest with a heavy boot.

[jrdragteen6323]

Learn how to drive! my god!!

[benjison1974]

That's more than a blower explosion. That's what they call hydrolocking. Too much fuel in the cylinders and it actually becomes a solid as it's compressed. You can't compress solid fuel, so it blows the motor apart.

[dragracer89]

@shaggerzbrisbane more often times than not when a top fuel dragster or funny car boils the hides that soon after leaving the starting line it was a mechanical malfunction as opposed to a bad tune. That being said i dont know how experienced this team is, a very inexperienced team could very easily do that if they have not gotten the car down the race track during the weekend.

[laford1986]

This is why women shouldn't drive...

[rootypootooty]

@ozbloke74

Check out vid "NHRA-Worst Top Fuel Engine Explosion Ever"-Tad bit worse than this one.

[The98corolla]

my mates uncle drags and he knows amanda and my mate got that supercharger in his room signed by her

[ozbloke74]

thank fk for ballistic blankets, blower prob wldve ended up in the carpark, seen some gnarly tf explosions before but this wins hands down

[DERANDUM]

the engine was idling way too high, she didnt sound happy whe amanda stood on it

[Copsweet]

Actually,this only comes up under Amanda Shepard,far as I know,if you re-title to start with top fuel,think it would get lotsa hits.

[Copsweet]

Was at wsid for this,thought it was a terrorist attack,huge. Awesome footage n sound dude,not sure why you don't have lots more views,waaay better than the "warmup vid",yet it has over 500k views?!