1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Drag Races 1,000-Horsepower Nissan GT-R, Crashes Hard

With both builds rated at around 1,000 horsepower, it was a promising encounter, but the race didn't have a proper outcome. Unfortunately, the 1955 Bel Air crashed before it could post an ET. It was a hard crash, too, with the old Chevy hitting the guardrail head-on at nearly 100 mph (161 kph) while narrowly hitting the GT-R in the process.

The Chevy driver was off to a perfect start and got a nice gap in front of the Nissan. However, only a couple of seconds into the race, he lost control of the car, which steered toward the right, before going sideways the other away and striking the guardrail head-on. The impact seems quick and massive, as it sends the Chevy nose up and into a 180-degree turn.

Fortunately, the car landed back on the drag strip on its wheels, and the driver walked away in one piece. Speaking of which, the man behind the steering wheel is none other than Richard Ellington, the father of Shawn Ellington, who owns the iconic Murder Nova dragster.

This '55 Chevy was actually built by Shawn himself and was one of his earlier rides. According to Drag Zine, the car had been parked for more than a decade before Shawn and 187 Customs gave it a makeover and dropped a Procharger-boosted LS V8 engine under the hood. This thing packs around 900 horsepower and should run the 1/8-mile in less than five seconds.

But it won't be able to do that very soon, because now it needs quite a few repairs. It's sad to see such a cool dragster end up like this, but at least Richard got away without significant injuries. Apparently, the Ellingtons are planning to rebuild the car, so we should see it back in action soon.