If you Drag Race, PLEASE weld your axle tubes.

[DVEST8R]

Oh my! This is Mitchell's car?!

I am going to contact him tomorrow.

Man o man.

YES, that was Mitchell Pope

 

[BMR Tech]

It only takes a very small amount of movement (twist) to shove a tire into the fender. If someone has BMR relocation brackets in the middle position, the length of the "lever" arm is like 6+"

Definitely an odd scenario here.

 

[5.0 Probie]

So, after watching the other video multiple times, and seeing this pic of the break, I disagree with what is said to have happened. I know you know the guy, and I know he's saying what possibly happened, but I disagree with that after seeing these things.

The break at the weld in the above picture looks like a break from an impact, not a rotational break. The "pin" is still in place, and the forward part of the axle tube appears to be still in place. This is simply my observation from what I can see in the pic.

In the other video of the wreck (not the one shown above), it looks as though the rearend locked up, or that he possibly hit 2nd instead of 4th, or 3rd instead of 5th.

I'm not trying to argue, or call anyone a liar or anything like that. I just am seeing things here that don't make sense. Can you get more pics? I'd like to see pics of the tire, the left side of the car, more pics of the break at the weld (the front part too), and possibly the lower control arm relocation bracket.

Here is the video I'm basing my opinion from:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=828212650544809

Pretty good observations. I would just add... As an arm chair onlooker mind you...

It looks like something broke at the start line. He was turning into the run the entire time.

Just as the 12 second mark appears (On the FB video), and just as he, what looks like, was 50' from the finish line or just finishing the run (No need for a gear change at this point) the left tire either locks up or is just popped and then locked.

No time to do much more than turn right and hit the breaks.

However, it does not look like he even hit the brakes (Not there to see tire tracks of course) but with hot tires, one would think other tires would be displaying "BRAKE"...

Now if he hit the brakes, then this idea of the rear tire letting go may be real as it took out the brake line at the same time.

Like you, just glad the driver is OK, and just sitting back looking at the video...

 

[kdanner]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=828251463874261&set=vb.100000682456680

Here's an earlier pass. I still sort of get the impression the rear axle is crooked, but not as severe. Perspective can be deceiving sometimes though, so hard to be sure.

 

[warmmilk]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=828251463874261&set=vb.100000682456680

Here's an earlier pass. I still sort of get the impression the rear axle is crooked, but not as severe. Perspective can be deceiving sometimes though, so hard to be sure.

you can see his diff bouncing like mad in this vid at launch... maybe that had a hand in breaking something...

 

[BMR Tech]

I spoke with Mitchell today about this, and he is set on the axle tube twisting just enough to cause the tire to rip, when the tire was growing up top.

He mentioned that he did notice the car pulling on the hit, and on the shifts - more during this event than ever before.

He also said there was definitely a rip in the tread of the slick, almost centered, that lines up perfectly with the front of the fender well.

From the conversation, I believe he is very confident about the axle tube twisting....and just enough on that last pass, to cause the slick to catch and that's all she wrote.

To add, he is no newbie to axle tube twisting. Unfortunately, he has had it happen on several occasions.

 

[19COBRA93]

It sucks all around, regardless. Hopefully he comes out of it okay financially. I see he's parting out the car already. Pretty good prices for his stuff too.

 

[deathwishracer]

Where is the stuff for sale at? What's his username? I hate to see this, I see him at all the tracks. I was at Wilkesboro the night he twisted a tube on the line. Not too much damage that night. I welded my tubes after seeing that. Very bad situation

 

[5.0 Probie]

I spoke with Mitchell today about this, and he is set on the axle tube twisting just enough to cause the tire to rip, when the tire was growing up top.

He mentioned that he did notice the car pulling on the hit, and on the shifts - more during this event than ever before.

He also said there was definitely a rip in the tread of the slick, almost centered, that lines up perfectly with the front of the fender well.

From the conversation, I believe he is very confident about the axle tube twisting....and just enough on that last pass, to cause the slick to catch and that's all she wrote.

To add, he is no newbie to axle tube twisting. Unfortunately, he has had it happen on several occasions.

Thank you for the information

 

[Mystickeith50]

How did it twist if the front looks like it's still connected?....just curious.

 

[19COBRA93]

Where is the stuff for sale at? What's his username? I hate to see this, I see him at all the tracks. I was at Wilkesboro the night he twisted a tube on the line. Not too much damage that night. I welded my tubes after seeing that. Very bad situation

He's listing it on Facebook. Use the Facebook video link above and find his name.

 

[BMR Tech]

How did it twist if the front looks like it's still connected?....just curious.

Not sure.

It could have twisted just a bit, then upon impact (the actual wreck), bent fore/after - causing that gap in the picture.

Definitely a bad situation.

 

[Riptide]

It seems unlikely to have this type of failure down the track. If its gonna break it ought to have done it on the launch at the time of greatest stress.

I guess its conceivable it was already broke but needed just a bit more stress to catastrophically fail.

Unusual situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatwat

 

[BMR Tech]

It seems unlikely to have this type of failure down the track. If its gonna break it ought to have done it on the launch at the time of greatest stress.

I guess its conceivable it was already broke but needed just a bit more stress to catastrophically fail.

Unusual situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatwat

I agree....HOWEVER....if the weld prevented the tube from twisting all the way, where the tire struck the fender......it could have just slightly twisted, and when the tire grows down the track, bam.

During our conversation, he did say that this happened immediately after the shift to 4th gear. That "hit" on the shift could have been the last bit of force it needed. There is a lot of load on parts in high gear.

He was on 28" slicks, with very little tire pressure. It is not common, what supposedly happened here....but it isn't impossible either.

 

[stkjock]

Horrible that this happened, glad to see Mitch made it out without much injury.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=828212650544809

the camera girl lost her shit!

 

[Norm Peterson]

It seems unlikely to have this type of failure down the track. If its gonna break it ought to have done it on the launch at the time of greatest stress.

I guess its conceivable it was already broke but needed just a bit more stress to catastrophically fail.

Unusual situation.

That's what you'd normally expect, but a final fatigue failure is going to happen immediately after 100% of the part's or connection's actual fatigue life has been used up. If that last launch put the weld or whatever else at 99.999999% used up, it's not going to take much more abuse at all before it lets go. And even though the 3-4 shift isn't as harsh as the launch or the 1-2 or 2-3 shifts it still involves an impact factor (which is an effective force and stress multiplier that can exceed 2). I used to do a little fatigue life evaluation involving suddenly applied loads back in my day job days.


Norm

 

[BeachMonkey100]

That's definitely not a rotational break, even though you can see it wasn't welded properly (not enough penetration to the housing) I still believe it was something else that caused his car to do what it did. What the picture looks like and I 100% am sticking to it, is an impact break.

Source: Father being a master welder and weld inspector for 20+ years lol, I have learned a thing or two.

 

[2011/5.0]

This made me check my welds and they look great u can see the penetration on the housing. I think i remember him saying u need to put some heat in the housing because the 2 materials being different penetrate at different rates. He's been welding stang axles forever

 

[BMR Tech]

That's definitely not a rotational break, even though you can see it wasn't welded properly (not enough penetration to the housing) I still believe it was something else that caused his car to do what it did. What the picture looks like and I 100% am sticking to it, is an impact break.

Source: Father being a master welder and weld inspector for 20+ years lol, I have learned a thing or two.

Definitely possible.

But, it is Ironic that it is the side that does twist.

It is also ironic that the tube is twisted, after all said and done, and the tire has a rip in it that indicates the tire was rubbing the front fenderwell.

To add to the irony, the car did the same thing that a twisted tube car always does - it pulled on the launch, and on the shifts.

So, the tube definitely twisted. The picture may not be representative of the tube twisting, but it is twisted.

 

[BeachMonkey100]

As I am going by a picture, nothing else. I haven't seen a video or anything else like that. So I could very rightfully be wrong, but in my opinion it doesn't look that way. Just some food for thought I suppose.

I do however wonder why many think that welding the tubes are enough on these cars, should have been braced accordingly or it's just asking for trouble sort of like this scenario. Now I'm not sure if it was or wasn't braced, but if it wasn't it should have been.