Hey everyone, please read all of this before downloading the video(s).
I'm a new member here. I've posted a few replies, and so far I have gotten a good impression of this forum. People have been friendly and I haven't gotten shit for "being a st00p1d r1C3R" ... yet. Hopefully that won't change after I make this post. :shrug:
These videos have been around the internet a thousand times by now, but I didn't see them when I searched on this forum. It was funny as hell reading everyone's responses. There are soooo many uneducated people running around on all these Internet forums. I guess that's life. I'm glad people on this forum seem to be "smarter" than most. I'm seeing a direct correlation between the average speed of the cars on a forum and the average IQ of the users on a forum.
Anyway, I own a '98 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that I have modified myself. You can find more information at my website.
The first video is a race between myself and a new E46 M3. I blow my motor at the end of the run (be sure to turn up your volume). Stupid little connecting rods can't hold any horsepower. :bash: The second video is a bit longer and depicts the awful carnage that ensued after the rotating assembly became "unbalanced" at roughly 6k RPMs.
Just a few important points to mention:
1) The M3 *was* racing. Believe me. I gave the guy a big smile and pointed forward. He responded with a head nod. If you don't believe me, then I'm sorry. There's no way I can prove anything.
2) I am not bouncing off the rev limiter at the start of the race. I have a launch limiter (commonly called a two-stage by the muscle car crowd, I think) that cuts fuel to the cylinders and holds the RPMs at 5500. This cools the cylinders and spools the turbo so I have positive manifold pressure. This makes for a great AWD launch (0-60 in well under 4 seconds on street tires).
3) The person videotaping the race and "narrating" the aftermath is my friend Brian. Please don't be too hard on him for the camera work. It was his first time as camera man. :??: HIS FINGERNAIL IS LONG AS A SIGN OF THAI GOOD LUCK. HE IS NOT A COKE ADDICT!! :rolling:
Here are the videos:
The Race
The Aftermath
And here is the entire "Kill Story," if you're interested in reading even MORE...
----------------------------------------
I was headed to work yesterday morning with my friend Brian. We spotted a new E46 M3 up ahead on the highway. He was turning right at a stoplight, so we decided to take a detour.
As we followed suit, I gunned it and got up next to him in the left lane. I paced him for a couple seconds and gave him a big smile. Just then a stoplight turned red in front of us and we slowed to a stop. I looked over at the M3 owner and pointed forward. He acknowledged with a head nod so I knew it was on.
Brian had grabbed the video camera minutes before and had been taping the entire event. He kept the camera low so the driver wouldn't see it. We didn't want to spook the guy out of the race. M3 owners never seem to race me up here in Northern VA.
The traffic signal for the opposing turn lane turned yellow, then red. I pressed the accelerator to the floor and my launch limiter kept the revs at a very noisy 5500 RPMs. I wasn't looking at the M3 owner's face at this point, but I'm assuming he was getting a bit nervous.
The light turns green and I let the clutch up quickly. I didn't sidestep it, as I was still worried about my new transmission (I had just shattered my center differential two weeks before). The clutch slipped ever so slightly, all four tires gripped the pavement, and I was off with zero wheelspin from my brand new 225/45ZR17 Kumho Ecsta Supra tires.
The M3 driver was just as alert. He had been inching forward the entire time and actually began accelerating a fraction of a second before me. This didn't help him much though. By the end of first gear, which winds out almost immediately, the M3 was just behind my front bumper.
After a loud backfire (running rich as hell) I granny shifted into 2nd (still babying the tranny) and wound out 2nd gear. The M3 was falling back fast and was about two cars behind at this point. Third gear was coming up and I was excited, because it is definitely my power gear. I found 3rd and began to pull away even harder, and then it happened.
Screws were thrown into my exhaust pipe. At least that's what it sounded like. My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest. I knew what the horrible sound really was. My completely stock shortblock with 78,000 miles finally gave out.
I hadn't gotten my car to the dyno yet, but estimates were somewhere around 450 bhp at the flywheel, untuned. That's about 112 hp per piston/rod. I knew it was going to happen sometime, but I sure didn't expect it at that moment. The car wasn't tuned for maximum power and was definitely not running lean. My EGTs had peaked at around 880 deg C, I had no detonation, I was running only 18 psi, and I had not even added any additional spark timing advance. I guess 78,000 miles of hard driving, 50 or so clutch dumps, around 10 drag strip runs, a few road racing events, ten or so autocrosses did it in.
I limped over to the side of the road as the M3 driver passed me by with an astonished look on his face. I got out of the car and sat on the grass for a few minutes, contemplating what had just happened. In retrospect, that was a good thing to do. I didn't need dents in the side of my door, and I definitely didn't need a broken foot.
So the flatbed came and towed the car back to my house. The beast had left a lake coolant and oil where she rested. Brian and I went back to the scene of the disaster later in the day and discovered the bottom portion of a connecting rod and a thumb-size chunk of iron block. These two pieces were only a small hint of the destruction we would uncover later in the day after we removed the cylinder head.
Once we got home from work, we removed the head in just over an hour. What we uncovered was easily the worst carnage we had ever seen as a result of a bent connecting rod. The entire engine block and all its internal components literally disintegraed.
Schrapnel from exploding pistons and bearings was shot out the back of the iron block into the firewall (which was the loud sound we heard inside the car). The balance shaft was smashed through the rear of the block, creating a hand-size hole through which the crankshaft was easily visible. Multiple connecting rods were bent, twisted, melted, etc. Pistons were completely mangled and cylinder two had a silver-dollar size hole in the cylinder wall.
All in all, it could have been much worse (really!), as the damage was localized to the short block. Surprisingly, the cylinder head was untouched, except two very small nicks on the exhaust valves of the number one cylinder. No significant metal fragments exited my exhaust, as my exhaust turbine fins were untouched.
In goes the race block w/ forged internals. This sure was a learning experience. I was hoping the stock block would hold up for a bit longer, but oh well.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. Please do not start saying anything about the validity of any of my comments. Everything happened as I stated it (to the best of my recollection), and the M3 driver was definitely racing me. I'm sorry if you don't believe me for some reason.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that!
----------------------------------------
Chris
I'm a new member here. I've posted a few replies, and so far I have gotten a good impression of this forum. People have been friendly and I haven't gotten shit for "being a st00p1d r1C3R" ... yet. Hopefully that won't change after I make this post. :shrug:
These videos have been around the internet a thousand times by now, but I didn't see them when I searched on this forum. It was funny as hell reading everyone's responses. There are soooo many uneducated people running around on all these Internet forums. I guess that's life. I'm glad people on this forum seem to be "smarter" than most. I'm seeing a direct correlation between the average speed of the cars on a forum and the average IQ of the users on a forum.
Anyway, I own a '98 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that I have modified myself. You can find more information at my website.
The first video is a race between myself and a new E46 M3. I blow my motor at the end of the run (be sure to turn up your volume). Stupid little connecting rods can't hold any horsepower. :bash: The second video is a bit longer and depicts the awful carnage that ensued after the rotating assembly became "unbalanced" at roughly 6k RPMs.
Just a few important points to mention:
1) The M3 *was* racing. Believe me. I gave the guy a big smile and pointed forward. He responded with a head nod. If you don't believe me, then I'm sorry. There's no way I can prove anything.
2) I am not bouncing off the rev limiter at the start of the race. I have a launch limiter (commonly called a two-stage by the muscle car crowd, I think) that cuts fuel to the cylinders and holds the RPMs at 5500. This cools the cylinders and spools the turbo so I have positive manifold pressure. This makes for a great AWD launch (0-60 in well under 4 seconds on street tires).
3) The person videotaping the race and "narrating" the aftermath is my friend Brian. Please don't be too hard on him for the camera work. It was his first time as camera man. :??: HIS FINGERNAIL IS LONG AS A SIGN OF THAI GOOD LUCK. HE IS NOT A COKE ADDICT!! :rolling:
Here are the videos:
The Race
The Aftermath
And here is the entire "Kill Story," if you're interested in reading even MORE...
----------------------------------------
I was headed to work yesterday morning with my friend Brian. We spotted a new E46 M3 up ahead on the highway. He was turning right at a stoplight, so we decided to take a detour.
As we followed suit, I gunned it and got up next to him in the left lane. I paced him for a couple seconds and gave him a big smile. Just then a stoplight turned red in front of us and we slowed to a stop. I looked over at the M3 owner and pointed forward. He acknowledged with a head nod so I knew it was on.
Brian had grabbed the video camera minutes before and had been taping the entire event. He kept the camera low so the driver wouldn't see it. We didn't want to spook the guy out of the race. M3 owners never seem to race me up here in Northern VA.
The traffic signal for the opposing turn lane turned yellow, then red. I pressed the accelerator to the floor and my launch limiter kept the revs at a very noisy 5500 RPMs. I wasn't looking at the M3 owner's face at this point, but I'm assuming he was getting a bit nervous.
The light turns green and I let the clutch up quickly. I didn't sidestep it, as I was still worried about my new transmission (I had just shattered my center differential two weeks before). The clutch slipped ever so slightly, all four tires gripped the pavement, and I was off with zero wheelspin from my brand new 225/45ZR17 Kumho Ecsta Supra tires.
The M3 driver was just as alert. He had been inching forward the entire time and actually began accelerating a fraction of a second before me. This didn't help him much though. By the end of first gear, which winds out almost immediately, the M3 was just behind my front bumper.
After a loud backfire (running rich as hell) I granny shifted into 2nd (still babying the tranny) and wound out 2nd gear. The M3 was falling back fast and was about two cars behind at this point. Third gear was coming up and I was excited, because it is definitely my power gear. I found 3rd and began to pull away even harder, and then it happened.
Screws were thrown into my exhaust pipe. At least that's what it sounded like. My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest. I knew what the horrible sound really was. My completely stock shortblock with 78,000 miles finally gave out.
I hadn't gotten my car to the dyno yet, but estimates were somewhere around 450 bhp at the flywheel, untuned. That's about 112 hp per piston/rod. I knew it was going to happen sometime, but I sure didn't expect it at that moment. The car wasn't tuned for maximum power and was definitely not running lean. My EGTs had peaked at around 880 deg C, I had no detonation, I was running only 18 psi, and I had not even added any additional spark timing advance. I guess 78,000 miles of hard driving, 50 or so clutch dumps, around 10 drag strip runs, a few road racing events, ten or so autocrosses did it in.
I limped over to the side of the road as the M3 driver passed me by with an astonished look on his face. I got out of the car and sat on the grass for a few minutes, contemplating what had just happened. In retrospect, that was a good thing to do. I didn't need dents in the side of my door, and I definitely didn't need a broken foot.
So the flatbed came and towed the car back to my house. The beast had left a lake coolant and oil where she rested. Brian and I went back to the scene of the disaster later in the day and discovered the bottom portion of a connecting rod and a thumb-size chunk of iron block. These two pieces were only a small hint of the destruction we would uncover later in the day after we removed the cylinder head.
Once we got home from work, we removed the head in just over an hour. What we uncovered was easily the worst carnage we had ever seen as a result of a bent connecting rod. The entire engine block and all its internal components literally disintegraed.
Schrapnel from exploding pistons and bearings was shot out the back of the iron block into the firewall (which was the loud sound we heard inside the car). The balance shaft was smashed through the rear of the block, creating a hand-size hole through which the crankshaft was easily visible. Multiple connecting rods were bent, twisted, melted, etc. Pistons were completely mangled and cylinder two had a silver-dollar size hole in the cylinder wall.
All in all, it could have been much worse (really!), as the damage was localized to the short block. Surprisingly, the cylinder head was untouched, except two very small nicks on the exhaust valves of the number one cylinder. No significant metal fragments exited my exhaust, as my exhaust turbine fins were untouched.
In goes the race block w/ forged internals. This sure was a learning experience. I was hoping the stock block would hold up for a bit longer, but oh well.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. Please do not start saying anything about the validity of any of my comments. Everything happened as I stated it (to the best of my recollection), and the M3 driver was definitely racing me. I'm sorry if you don't believe me for some reason.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that!
----------------------------------------
Chris
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