Plan B Forum

You notice that he did not take the quick right into the chicane?
This is an example of the new NASCAR penalty structure — IEDs if you do not stay on-course.

-"BB"-

? ? ? Intense black smoke first. Was this a front tire exploding?

A little better video, with voiceover, rather than that .gif that dales put up.



Cope had been having brake problems and had pulled off the course when it looked like the engine just hand-grenaded.  NASCAR impounded the car immediately after the incident, which happened Saturday.  By Sunday, it was determined that it was a result of the brake malfunction/failure; it is assumed that the brake fluid leaked or boiled away and the brake parts became overheated, causing the nitrogen/air mix they use in the tires to expand.  When he slowed, what little cooling that was coming from the airflow over the wheels, rotors, and calipers went away; the wheels acted as a heat sink, and the heat caused the air inside the right-front tire to expand and over-pressurize until it failed in a catastrophic — and spectacular — manner.  Watch the video above again, and pay special attention to the right-front tire at around the 1:01 mark.  You will see how the car 'jumps' a little bit as the tire first lets go; the super-pressured air in the tire then vents to the inside of the car causing the eruption of "smoke" and the damage to the hood and engine compartment framing (let's face it; we all know those hoods aren't anywhere near as robust as the hoods on the real cars).   All the black "smoke" was just the accumulation of brake dust being blown around by the explosive release of the air when the tire burst.

Consider too that the "smoke" has cleared away almost 100% by the time the safety crew gets there, and there is little or no steam coming from the engine or radiator.  To me, this is a dead giveaway that it wasn't anything in the engine or cooling system (radiator) that burst, ruptured, or otherwise caused this, and subsequent examination of the car confirmed it.

-"BB"-

Sounds plausible, but I still liked your first explanation better.

Occam's Razor:

Why am I seeing black rectangles instead of videos? (See 2001 Space Odyssey reference earlier today in the guess this movie thread.) Dales' original video showed up just fine.

I had a poster of Watkins Glen on my dorm room wall as a freshman, but there was no exploding car. Just an airborne Porsche.

Me too, must be a youtube problem.

Hmm. The "black rectangle" thing was why I was trying to get to my laptop's Windows 10 control panel (over in the Win10 thread). Never did figure it out. Now I'm on my (Android) tablet and YouTube looks and works perfectly.

...and now I'm back at home on the laptop and I can't see the videos, again...

It's your Adobe flash player. You need to upgrade.

I had a poster of Watkins Glen on my dorm room wall as a freshman, but there was no exploding car. Just an airborne Porsche.

During my high school days we would go up to watkins glen and camp out. Watch the 12 (or was it 6) hour endurance race, the super vees races and some others that were going on.
Watched the nuts burn cars and busses (and sometimes themselves) in the bog.
We even had a stripped down vw bug (no body, just seats and a rollcage) we towed up there and drove around the track area with.

We went walking the track one night and the Matra Simca pit was open and some guys were in there working on Mario Andretti (and I think Arturro Merzario sp??) endurance car. We were with my buddies dad who immigrated from sicily and he knew a couple of the guys working on the car.
Not a word of english was spoken, but we got a few souveniers and met the racers.

I meet Mario Andretti during the winter in Pa. as we are in the same snow mobile club. He doesn't remember meeting me (it was 1974 I think).

Guinevere wrote:It's your Adobe flash player. You need to upgrade.

I have the version that comes integrated with Chrome and updates automatically when Chrome updates; both Chrome and Flash are supposedly the latest available--Chrome Version 52.0.2743.116 m and Shockwave Flash 22.0 r0 Version 22.0.0.209. And if I go to YouTube's own site the videos there play perfectly.

Econoline wrote:

Guinevere wrote:It's your Adobe flash player. You need to upgrade.

I have the version that comes integrated with Chrome and updates automatically when Chrome updates; both Chrome and Flash are supposedly the latest available--Chrome Version 52.0.2743.116 m and Shockwave Flash 22.0 r0 Version 22.0.0.209. And if I go to YouTube's own site the videos there play perfectly.

Same here. I still see black obelisks.

Not working for me now, either. Windows 7 running Chrome.