We have certainly seen serious mishaps on the dyno. But this one here must top them all. A Chevrolet Camaro went up in flames. The owner of the car was on board but he walked away with a few minor bruises and scratches.
The Complete Street Performance team was in a hurry to get the car ready for the Camaro Fest XII. They were doing one of the last checks before the event when everything went south. Last time they got it up on the dyno, it showed over 850 horsepower. But now it comes with oversized Toyo runflat tires that replaced the factory ones. So now they want to see the kind of number the ZL1 does.
It starts with 811 horsepower, and Andrew Zurich, the owner of the 2018 Camaro and of the YouTube channel, is not satisfied just yet. But on a second attempt, he floors it really hard. A massive boom can be heard, and then fire breaks from under the car.
What has just happened? The move got the transmission on fire and might have caused the airbag module to freak out. The airbags deployed covering Andrew in a cloud of dust and smoke from the transmission fire.
He got off the car, calm and collected, and started filming the aftermath. There is a puddle of oil underneath the vehicle. Adrenaline keeps the pain at bay for some time, while his teammate asks him again and again if he is ok. From outside, it looked really bad. Andrew says it was even worsse inside: "It was really violent in there!"
But when the adrenaline slips away, Andrew realizes his shoulder is hurting like hell and blames it on the curtain airbag, but it might be the whiplash effect of the seatbelt. He also feels the blow from the airbag onto his left ear.
The electronics of the Chevy Camaro have gone bananas, so the only way to turn the engine off is to disconnect the battery. The guys at CSP kept their sense of humor despite the setback and the massive scare: "I don't think that's covered under the warranty!" Of course, blowing up your car on the dyno is not.
If they are to see the glass half full after all of this, the car made 829 horsepower, 18 more than on the first attempt, and the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine is intact. Andrew says there is another good news in it: it happened on the dyno, not on top of the race track at high speed or on the highway. The Camaro was doing 163 mph (262 kph) when the transmission went up in flames. But the CSP team has a transmission ready, and the muscle car will be ready in no time.
Now Andrew is going to take the C8 Chevy Corvette to the Camaro Fest and enjoy the event as a spectator only.
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