Diaper Time… 😬

[Marc W]

This happened yesterday on the Irwindale 1/8 mile in Calif. West Coast racer Tatiana Weiss had what appears to have been a engine failure in her “Growler” Hellcat. This is a built low 9 second (potential 8 second) car. She’s a experienced racer. Pictures pretty much tell the story. I’m pretty sure that she, like 99% of everybody else, was not running a ballistic engine diaper. This is why we should 😐.

 

[Marc W]

Also…. She is ok. This car has a 8.5 cage and she uses a 5 point harness and fire suit.

 

[Chunky White]

That sucks!!

I have seen a few do that at Bristol when they lost the car while on the brakes or something failed during street fights or run what you bring events.

 

[vortecd]

Anything can happen at the track. Something like that is pretty rare from what I have seen over the years

She raced on the street outlaws Gone girl series

 

[1971demon]

Anything can happen at the track. Something like that is pretty rare from what I have seen over the years

She raced on the street outlaws Gone girl series

not the only diaper that woulda came in handy there...

 

[Tuckerracing]

I run this one on my car with the upgraded kevlar plates and straps

https://highhorseperformance.com/dj-safety-gen3-hemi-engine-diaper-730392/

 

[Marc W]

I run this one on my car with the upgraded kevlar plates and straps

https://highhorseperformance.com/dj-safety-gen3-hemi-engine-diaper-730392/

Same one I have. I just recently shared the details of my new pneumatic chute launcher on the build forum here. I also did that on my Instagram page and Tatiana commented that she thought that was a good idea and said she had been thinking about the safety concerns of loosing control and the potential for the chute to possibly save the day. That was on Friday. This happened the following day. She has a chute, but obviously was not able to get it out in the time it took for her to hit the wall. The whole point of the diaper is to keep this from happening. I’ve seen the white cloud of death followed by a car careening off the wall so many times I’ve lost track.

 

[Magnified]

Thanks for sharing always good to know that it's somebody made it out safe. Do you happen to know how badly the car was engulfed how many seconds it took to put out the fire?

 

[Marc W]

Thanks for sharing always good to know that it's somebody made it out safe. Do you happen to know how badly the car was engulfed how many seconds it took to put out the fire?

It looked like the fire went out quickly and did not continue to burn. I’m not sure at this point exactly what happened, but the huge cloud of white smoke in the first picture indicates a blown motor. Damage looked to be confined to the front of the car so hopefully it will be reparable.

 

[Mean Cat]

This happened yesterday on the Irwindale 1/8 mile in Calif. View attachment 73798 View attachment 73799 View attachment 73800 West Coast racer Tatiana Weiss had what appears to have been a engine failure in her “Growler” Hellcat. This is a built low 9 second (potential 8 second) car. She’s a experienced racer. Pictures pretty much tell the story. I’m pretty sure that she, like 99% of everybody else, was not running a ballistic engine diaper. This is why we should 😐.

Oh man that sucks big time.

 

[Mean Cat]

I looked like the fire went out quickly and did not continue to burn. I’m not sure at this point exactly what happened, but the huge cloud of white smoke in the first picture indicates a blown motor. Damage looked to be confined to the front of the car so hopefully it will be reparable.

As long as the front frame rails were not bent it's repairable.
In that last pic I'm not so sure.

 

[Magnified]

Photo number two, to me, looks like there is a huge amount of the drivers side front in/over that wall

 

[Marc W]

Can’t say from the pics if it’s salvageable. After the wall, it spun onto the track without any additional contact, so the front end damage was it. The fire went out so that’s fortunate. She said that it lifted a cylinder head and then the engine blew. To me that means it breached the head gasket and hydro locked one or more cylinders. When that happens… it don’t matter what rods are in there. I know that she had a recently “built” motor with one of the new 3.0 Whipples. I don’t know whether the choice of internals included the necessary $2k head studs. That was a painfully expensive choice I had to make. I know it didn’t have the $300 diaper that would have kept her off the wall. I hope she gets back up and running with the necessary improvements.

 

[Magnified]

you had me at $2000 head studs...

 

[Magnified]

and I agree with the underlying premise entirely. 30 years ago no one would have been driving cars like these, with the power and speeds they're putting down, without seriously considering a ballistic blanket.

 

[SilverBillet]

Anything can happen at the track. Something like that is pretty rare from what I have seen over the years

She raced on the street outlaws Gone girl series

Glad the driver is safe but that is just plain expensive any way you look at it!

 

[DavidKFla]

You can fab up an aluminum belly pan to replace the plastic stock one that will contain most or all of the oil and debris. It has a built in pan and is lined with absorbent material. Easy to r&r.

 

[Marc W]

You can fab up an aluminum belly pan to replace the plastic stock one that will contain most or all of the oil and debris. It has a built in pan and is lined with absorbent material. Easy to r&r.

I question the effectiveness of that. Not saying that a pan wouldn’t be helpful, but consider….. if you blow a hole in the bottom of your engine and oil is spewing out at 100+ mph…. Where’s it going to go? I don’t see a pan capturing and containing that at speed due to the air flow/turbulence under the car. My biggest concern is the loss of control, like in this instance, due to the billowing cloud of oil under the car. I just think that the idea that a pan is going to keep oil off the rear tires at speed is wishful thinking. I think what it will do, is contain what’s running out once the car slows down and stops. That is going to reduce the cleanup and the chance of a fire, where the car sits there feeding a oil fire underneath. I’ve seen that happen where it burned to a total loss. My thoughts are that a ballistic diaper is purposely designed to keep everything contained, but I get the argument that it’s not for daily driver street cars that are driven in the rain. That would just be no good, so I agree it’s for fair weather drivers only. Most serious track performing cars probably fit in that category anyway. Considering a pan with the same type of oil absorbent material in it…… How’s that going to work in the rain either? The other argument is oil changes being a issue. Pssst 🙄. Once installed, the diaper is held in place with quick release buckles that when released, it can be pulled out of the way of the drain plug in a minute. OMG 😱. I have one of these and I bet I can access the drain plug in less time then you can remove the pan. Anyway…. I’m not saying that a well designed pan is a bad idea. It can give you some improved aero under the car and I would love to see one available that would change my mind on it being less effective than the diaper and make me want one. Who knows….. the shop I’m in now does some nice custom fab work. Maybe I’ll talk them into producing a marketable aero oil containment device 😎

 

[DavidKFla]

I question the effectiveness of that. Not saying that a pan wouldn’t be helpful, but consider….. if you blow a hole in the bottom of your engine and oil is spewing out at 100+ mph…. Where’s it going to go! I don’t see a pan capturing and containing that at speed due to the air flow/turbulence under the car. My biggest concern is the loss of control like in this instance due to the cloud of oil under the car. I think that the idea that a pan is going to keep oil off the rear tires at speed is wishful thinking. I think what it will do is contain what’s running out once the car slows down and stops. That is going to reduce the cleanup and the chance of a fire where the car sits there feeding a oil fire underneath. I’ve seen that happen where it burned to a total loss. My thoughts are that a ballistic diaper is purposely designed to keep everything contained. I get the argument that it’s not for a daily driver street cars that are driven in the rain. That would just be no good, so I agree it’s for fair weather drivers only. Most serious track performing car probably fit in that category anyway. Considering a pan with the same type of oil absorbent material in it…… How’s that going to work in the rain either? The other argument is oil changes being a issue. Pssst 🙄. Once installed, the diaper is held in place with quick release buckles that when released, it can be pulled out of the way of the drain plug in a minute. OMG 😱. I have one of these and I bet I can access the drain plug in less time then you can remove the pan. Anyway…. I’m not saying that a well designed pan is a bad idea. It can give you some improved aero under the car and I would love to see one available that would change my mind on it being less effective than the diaper and make me want one. Who knows….. the shop I’m in now does some nice custom fab work. Maybe I’ll talk them into producing a marketable aero oil containment device 😎

It bolts up in place of the factory panels. Has a sidewall built into it that contain debris and oil that's cut to fit around the engine. Very hard to explain.

 

[Jack_Toepfer]

Haven’t read the rule book myself… but some classes require a diaper but it doesn’t have to be SFI, so you can buy an “expired” diaper cheap from someone who races in a stricter class.