who has drove to the track and couldn't drive home(because you broke it)

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bad440

bad440

everything,all the time..
Joined
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lets see how many people drove to the track and their car broke.my old 12 sec 70 b body went about 60 trips and never broke.my buddies camaro i broke the balancer. had to get towed.my kaw 750 triple never broke either. went about 25 times.
 
Drove to the track.. blew the transmission seal cooling it down cruising the hwy between runs. "Super hot and sitting still wasn't doing anything but baking it"

Drove to the track.. Shredded a new McLeod RST Twin disk clutch in 2 passes. "I think I had my trailer on this one.

Drove to the track.. Sent a piston to an early grave "22lbs boost and the fuel system punked out.

Drove to the track.. Ejected a spark plug at 3/4 track.

Drove to the race.. killed the trans and drove home with 1st, 3rd, and 5th.

I'm sure there have been a few more times. Even after I bought a trailer I sometimes drove it to the track. It always seemed to break on those trips.
 
I had a 318 with a Roots blower have a head gasket let go at the track. The #6 rod broke due to hydro-lock. It started and I drove it onto a trailer. Not too bad..

For my next stunt, I built up a 360 and had the heads O-Ringed and receiver grooves cut in the block. This way I would eliminate the sb Mopar head gasket problem. I drove a hundred miles to the track with my two kids and girlfriend. I was running a 150 shot of N20 ontop of 6psi of boost....The street tires hooked with the release of the trans brake button. I rolled out a couple feet and the rear tires unloaded, I lifted slightly, grabbed 2nd gear, went full throttle, which turned the 150 shot on, tires spun again, I took a quick look at the gauges....4psi of fuel and I dont know how many RPMs, as my tach only goes upto 8000. LOL Bad things happen quick with no fuel pressure....

I had to leave the car at Atco Raceway and luckily got a ride back home from another racer. I tried giving him gas money and he refused to take it.
I got my trailer and picked my car up. I made it home just in time to go to work after driving all night and not having any sleep.
 
Drove to the track had made 3 runs on 4 run launched the car and put a rod through the side of the block leavving a 3 inch hole in the side.
 
Can't say I ever broke anything on the car or truck and could not drive home
My son has in my 8.0 1/8 mile dodge truck, I was not there, he borrowed a pare of soft slicks and burned up my 904 trans so it got towed back home.
I pulled the 360, Hood and rear end never to see the track again.
I still have the 360 :happy1:
 

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440 in a 69 Roadrunner, hit 4800 RPM's and pulled the waterpump shaft out of it's bearings and trashed the radiator, fan and shroud.
Thought it was just a faulty water pump so I did the exact same thing again.

Back then the parts were easier to find though.
 
I've broken my Dart a number of times, but always had a trailer.

When I was running stock ratio pulleys I went through two parts store alternators from overspinning. Underdrive crank pulley was the solution.

I had a sticky valve guide at one point and it would sieze and kill pushrods, then come loose so I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it until it finally seized for good and the piston smacked it. New valves, new springs, no worries. I think this ended my day twice.

I broke the rear end twice. My own fault for cheaping out and using factory/old stuff. Detroit Locker and new gears seems to have put an end to trouble with that.

My car has been very reliable since I had these problems, but I don't think I would take it to the track without the trailer!

Steve
 
damn! some people have the worst luck.no explaining bad luck like that.
 
I havn't personally, but I have ridden with my chevy buddies & had to walk home from the track.
 
I broke the factory rear in the Dakota almost 15yrs ago. Lucky for me it was in the finals and the axle didn't come out until I turned onto the return road. My opponent redlighted as he heard I had been killing the tree all day(someone showed him my .005 light from the previous round,lol). Won enough $$$ to replace the rear end 10 times over,so a pretty good day at the track. Getting home wasn't much trouble.
 

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5 or 6 years back in my 61 Falcon .Had a hopped up aluminum headed small block in it, 8 inch rear with a mini spool ,and a toploader 4 spd.Power shifted into 2nd at 7100 rpm on a well prepped track on a Friday night TNT and got this.I was asking for it as i knew the 8 inch rear was near its limits ,but took a chance since i was running 60 series plain street tires . Bearing cap broke on the driver side and took the end off the axle when the ring gear went back .Ruined a brand new set of gears along with it .Had a friend haul it home swapped out the chunk for an open stock one i had ,cleaned the housing ,swapped both axles and drove it to work Monday morning (it was my daily driver at the time).No more street strip for me after that .Sold the car ,and bought a race only car and pick-up soon after ,lol ...
 

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Well one year Lisa drove her Dart to Bakersfield (300 miles) to the ET finals and she was caravaning with other racers who were towing there cars. Her Dart had 4.56 gears so she was not keeping up with the group and they drove away from her. About 180 miles in the trip and crusing I 5 all alone she ran through a big wet spot on the road, it was oil and her dart spun out of control went off the side of the road into the ditch and landed on its roof on the side of the highway. That was 1 year before I met her. The floor jack she had in the back seat floor all most her her in the head when the car rolled over. So alittle breakage at the track is no big deal, happens once in awhile espically if you go all the time like we do. So I guess you can say it did not happen at the track but I guarentee you the car was bent and was trailered home.

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I have to admit one. Don't ever leave a manual in reverse, rev it to 3k, and pop the clutch. The oil filter will explode, along with your butt-hole.
 
Many years ago a friend drove his Mustang to the track and decided not to race that day as his car wasn't running well when he arrived. A short while after he had parked talked to a few buddies and then gone to the stands there was quite a commotion and the fire truck headed out. He looked back and noticed a car on fire! Turned out some guy flicked his cigarette and the wind blew it into the grass under the Mustang and they surmise that the reason his car wasn't running real well was because the fuel pump had sprung a leak. By the time he got to his car he had nothing left to drive home!!

Bad day at the race track for sure....
 
wheelsup73 said:
Well one year Lisa drove her Dart to Bakersfield (300 miles) to the ET finals and she was caravaning with other racers who were towing there cars. Her Dart had 4.56 gears so she was not keeping up with the group and they drove away from her. About 180 miles in the trip and crusing I 5 all alone she ran through a big wet spot on the road, it was oil and her dart spun out of control went off the side of the road into the ditch and landed on its roof on the side of the highway. That was 1 year before I met her. The floor jack she had in the back seat floor all most her her in the head when the car rolled over. So alittle breakage at the track is no big deal, happens once in awhile espically if you go all the time like we do. So I guess you can say it did not happen at the track but I guarentee you the car was bent and was trailered home.

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cool she was a racer before you guys even met.my group always drives too fast on the highway for me too.around 2000 me and a buddy were on our way to sonoma on wed nite,my 440 had a deep pan on it on highway 80 it scraped the ground all i could see was smoke behind me. got off at ashby ave went to the first gas station.and let 9 quarts of oil run out.saw a plumbing supply down the street got some of that all metal epoxy filled the hole my friend couldnt beilive we were still going .anyway it was my best outing yet i went like seven rounds and lisa took me out. lol at least i beat my niebors stang,and that pesky yellow nova.....
 
Closest i had was a driveshaft break on the way to the track. Ironically because of the u-joints i replaced in hopes of not breaking the driveshaft.
 
Years ago I had a 4x4 Ranger that I put a 302 in it. Was at the track with a neighbor and decided to run it. 3rd pass the straps on the rear let loose. pulled the shaft, locked the hubs and drove it home on the front axle....
 
Local racer,at Famoso,1987.70 Challenger,4.30's,833,Max Wedge headed 511.Twin n2o plates,Holley d.ps,edelbrock crossram.Drop the clutch@1500,wack 250 of spray off the line.Was getting 1.3,1.4 sixty fts.3rd pass,sacks the spray,carb backfired.Gets towed to the pits.Was a 2 piece plenum manifold.Blew the gasket,sheared three or four mounting fasteners.
 
Last fall the stock rear diff decided to let loose on the 1-2 shift. Completely shattered the housing into pieces and dumped synthetic fluid all over the track. I stopped and got over as soon as I could, but it still took 30 minutes to clean up the mess. To me, that was the worst part, standing there on the track holding up everybody because my junk broke.

I later found out that the trans was taken out as well. That wound up being a pretty expensive trip to the track after all the upgrades to make sure that wouldn't happen again.
 
A few years ago when I used to race my 73 Dart Sport 340,4 speed.I launched with slicks,hit second and "clunk" as I was pulling to the side I noticed my wheel with axel still attached pass me.:banghead:I snapped the 8 1/4 axel and was lucky to not cause any damage to my 1/4 panel.I stuffed the axel and wheel back on to get it towed home on a rollback.I installed an 8 3/4,then bought my 66 Dart to build and race.
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I haven't broken anything that kept me from driving any of my cars, but I trailer them non the less. I have helped two different buddies though that drove their cars to the track and couldn't drive them home.

I use to race a 2006 Magnum SRT. I always trailered it because I go with my motorhome. I had a buddy break a half shaft on his 300C SRT8 so I trailered it home for him, putting his rear tires on my car so he could drive my car home 250 miles.

The other one was a buddies 2007 Shelby GT500 that he broke the rear end. Same thing, I trailered his car home and he drove mine. Now with my duster I don't think I'd be able to do that anymore, but I do have AAA to use for a buddy.
 
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