Under all that smoke and flame is a Pony Car, which drives away without any scratches.
A few Ford Mustang drivers gathered in Sturgis, South Dakota last week for the annual Sturgis Mustang rally. Few is a reference to several hundred. This is the same Sturigs that hosted half a million Harley riders at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Motor1.com was there for the Mustang event, which we will discuss in a later article. But right now, we have some very dramatic video footage. It’s not a Mustang attacking people and going rogue. The video shows a Mustang attacking tires, with explosive results.
Roy and Janel Swecker, from Gillette, Wyoming sent us the clip. Before we get started, let’s just say that no one was injured in the ensuing fireball. According to the owners, the mini inferno did not cause any damage to their car. This is especially impressive when you look at it from the other direction. Stang jatczak also was there and posted the clip from the driver’s perspective on Facebook.
Trey Vangenderen posted this video right in front of the spectator wall. We don’t think he was wrong to dive behind concrete when rubber ignites.
What caused the Mustang fire? The contest’s burnout was held on Thursday. There were no mechanical problems and the couple drove the Mustang for the entire event, which ended on Sunday. This Mustang is a 2010 model. Although we won’t see a factory-installed linelock for several years, the car had an aftermarket setup. The rear brakes, which can heat up during burnouts with no line lock, are not the problem. The possibility that the heat from tires ignited gasoline fumes near the tank or that the tires themselves reached combustion point and atomized the cloud into an afterburner fueled by rubber is possible. Fire crews were ready for such an event, and the crowd seemed to love it. Roy drove in the contest and even gave a thumbs-up after the tires had been extinguished.
This could have been one of the most extreme burnouts we’ve ever witnessed, considering that nobody was hurt and no damage was done to the car. This is a reminder that not all burnouts are as simple and as harmless as they appear. It’s clear that we will be thinking twice about warming our hides during the next automobile adventure.