Diesel Truck Engine Explodes in the Quest for 3,000 HP, Spectators at Great Risk

Right now, the world's most potent pickup truck is the Ram 1500 TRX, and at least until the all-new Ford F-150 Raptor R comes out, the Stellantis product is at no risk of losing its title. Thanks to the Hellcat 6.2-liter supercharged V8, the T-Rex pumps just over 700 hp to all four wheels, enough to easily make it the quickest production truck on the market at the moment.

With a Hellcat V8 under the hood, you would expect nothing less from the TRX, just like you would hardly expect a diesel-powered truck to impress in a drag race. The oil burners are known to generate huge amounts of torque from low rpm, giving them a more agricultural feel that's more suitable for moving mountains than blasting down a drag strip.

And yet turbodiesels can be tuned to generate copious amounts of power. In fact, you even go about it pretty much the same way: increase turbocharger boost pressure and add some nitro injection. Do things properly, and you can look at power outputs of well over 2,000 hp, with 3,000 being the current holy grail.

Diesel builds taking the dyno to break that milestone—or get as close as possible—are not as rare as sense might have you believe, and every once in a while, some of these attempts can end badly. Bad for the vehicle, bad for the egos of those who built the engine, or bad for everyone present at the event. This incident that took place at this year's Ultimate Callout Challenge could have easily fallen into the latter category, with the only thing preventing that being just blind luck.

A truck built by Power Driven Diesel was preparing to have a go at breaking the 3,000-hp mark as it stood on a raised podium with a dyno stand just in front of a pretty densely populated gantry. The company admits it wasn't expecting a smooth run (they were running the backup engine after the first one was busted during a previous event), but we doubt it was expecting things to go this badly.

The engine basically turned into a giant popcorn kernel and exploded violently, with a ball of fire that engulfed the entire vehicle following quickly after. The driver escaped unharmed by using the door as a heat shield and jumping off the stand immediately after, but it turned out that the fire didn't pose the greatest danger.

With the engine block popped open and disintegrated, all the internal bits were left free to take off, so the entire stand was turned into the target of a true artillery barrage consisting of piston heads, wrist pins, and all sorts of hot metal pieces. Luckily and somewhat miraculously, nobody was injured, which means everyone was left with a great story to tell at the next dinner party. And the one after that. And so on.