Drag racer Tim Slavens narrowly escaped disaster after his 1969 Chevy Camaro went airborne during the recent Lights Out 12 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
Slavens was lined up alongside a lime green Ford Mustang when he got the jump on the Ford and began to pull away. Slavens had to get out of the gas, however, as the front end of his Chevy Camaro began lift off the ground. Sensing imminent disaster, he pulled the parachute on the car, stabilizing it and preventing it from flipping end-over-end as it soared down the dragstrip. Surprisingly, the Camaro ends up landing on its tires, with the parachute helping Slavens regain control of the vehicle as it rolls through the finish.
Slavens’ car may have a Chevy Camaro body, but it has HEMI power under the hood. The Brand Anderson Engines block is paired with two 106mm Precision turbochargers and a built TH400 four-speed automatic transmission. This combination took Slavens to a personal eighth-mile record of 3.621 seconds at 217.74 mph in 2019, so it’s safe to say that this steel-bodied racer is extremely fast when it’s not putting on its best Boeing 747 impression.
After this scary wreck, Slavens crew made some small repairs and sent him back out on track, with the racer clocking in a respectable 3.893-second eighth-mile pass at 193.52 mph. While nowhere near his personal record, it’s good to see that this airborne moment didn’t send his team packing for the day.
Slavens didn’t end up winning Lights Out 12, either (that distinction went to fellow Chevy Camaro racer Ron Rhodes), but after this potentially disastrous run, we’re sure he was just happy to leave the race track with his twin-turbo HEMI-powered Camaro in one piece.
Check out the video embedded below to watch Slavens’ 1969 Chevy Camaro take flight.
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Comments
He spent that much money build that type of machine and didn’t put a real wheelie bar setup underneath the car???
radial cars dont run sissy sticks
That was a brilliant move his reaction time exceeded the one He had when he left the line. Hands down, or maybe i I should say wheels down.
Automatic parachute release if the car gets out of shape past a certain speed
Wheelie bars are run in a different class. Setup is obviously critical if you run in a non-wheelie bar class, to avoid wheelies like this.
While he’s at it, add some wings and give him his pilot license!!!
Attention please make sure your seats are in the upright position, we will be landing shortly.
Excellent Pilot.
Eighth mile @ 217. No wonder it literally flies. I agree, what reaction time he had. Lady luck was with him too.
That’s some nerves of steel right there! Give that man a Cee- gahr! NASA will be contacting him very shortly! “Houston, we have a problem solved”!
W O W W O W W O W WOW!
insanity loll…… how is that even possible???
Drop that nose some and everything will work out.
Yes, keeping the air out from underneath the car is important, as well as out of the engine compartment, the hood acts like a reverse spoiler as air pressure builds inside, lightening the front end. It would be great if they could wind tunnel test the car and find out at what point it flies….
the name of the engine builder is not Brand Anderson it’s BRAD ANDERSON
Now that’s what I call driving I think he may be a pilot as well
Designed Performance is the engine builder, using Brad Anderson components…
The passenger door flew open. That is when the gremlin jumped out!
Think he went for a flight lol but he should have added a little bit more weight to the front to even out the car to prevent a 🚗 (car) to become a ✈️(airplane)
No THM400 4 speed unless they added an overdrive behind it. Unlikely…