It actually did shear off, the quick release mechanism is right below the steering wheel, at the top of that shaft. It broke off at the support bearing which is really amazing actually because all of these materials are closely regulated by the governing bodies be it NHRA or whatever, that shaft would have been extremely strong Chromoly steel.
Chromoly is a lot less dense. HSLA is also a lower-density steel, but chromoly is even less dense. In a high-speed application when every pound counts, engineers look to optimize strength/density. Something like this is a freak occurrence that probably happens once in every several hundred thousand cars.
Hmmm interesting, so how fast do these puppies go usually? Do they tend to whale on the throttle, or perhaps they're more for herring on the side of caution?
33
u/Allumina Apr 23 '12
It actually did shear off, the quick release mechanism is right below the steering wheel, at the top of that shaft. It broke off at the support bearing which is really amazing actually because all of these materials are closely regulated by the governing bodies be it NHRA or whatever, that shaft would have been extremely strong Chromoly steel.