Incorrect engine timing is what caused this nitrous-injected Chevrolet Corvette C6 to catch fire while it was doing 180 mph or 288 km/h driven by its owner Buddy Schulz at the Texas Mile. It wasn’t a heavily modified car, though, but the Stage 2 nitrous shot kit kind of clashed with the smooth running of the LS3 V8 , instead of helping it make the claimed 625 hp that it was known to be capable of.
The fire itself isn’t of the extremely spectacular kind, but we bet Mr. Schulz didn’t feel the same way as he was rushing to get the racing harness uncoupled so as to get out of the burning vehicle (while it was still moving).
In the end, he threw himself out, just before the ‘Vette came to a complete stop, but instead of having a negative attitude about it afterward, he was apparently talking about the next engine that he’s going to use for the car. He probably would not have been positive about it if the fire would have spread to the other parts of the body too…
Thankfully, as the YouTube uploader states in one of the comment replies, “most of the car was saved and can be rebuilt.”
By Andrei Nedelea