This Dodge Hemi gasser, despite being meticulously prepared and literally using the best aftermarket parts in the biz, suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure that sent his clutch flying out the housing and into his dashboard in front of him.

These set of photos of a clutch going through a drag racer’s dashboard and ending stuck in the front cowl of his car are going viral. According to Classic Muscle Car Club Inc in a set of photos taken after a botched drag race by Tony Turner in his 1939 Dodge D11 gasser, his clutch, for some odd reason, jumped clear out of where it’s supposed to be and landed smack dab in the middle of his hood, that is, before flying at tremendous speed through his dashboard inches away from where he’s driving. Check out the amazing photos for yourself below.


The accident happened during a race run by the Southeast Gasser Association earlier last weekend. Someone kindly linked the video of the accident in the comments, which I’m also linking here.

As per the video description,

Tony Turner was very fortunate to walk away totally unharmed when his clutch exploded going from 3rd to 4th in his Quick and Dirty gasser and flew out through the dash and over the roof.

Since the photos have gone viral, literally hundreds of guesses about why this happened came out of the woodwork including improper bell housing bolts and flimsy QuickTime bellhousing construction. I’m here to quash all those rumors because even Tony Turner himself doesn’t exactly know what happened. According to Tony (or someone close to him) in a comment left on his official build thread,

So listen up guys. Not one of you has taken this mess apart piece by piece and documented it with over 100 picture. You all are having so much fun guessing what happened here. And even blaming Tony. We will work with both manufactures if required but please stop putting theories together with half ass information. I have heard shit of how this part broke first and the owner told me this. I don’t remember any little men riding shot gun under the hood so please Chill. We promise to share once we get to the bottom of this.

We also “Thank all of those who have wish us well.” God is good to those who do not judge and we will not make quick judgements so please show the Quick and Dirty team the same respect.

But if you’re hankering for an unofficial explanation, this commenter in the original post above seems to know a thing or two about the situation.

Trans mount broke which is why the scatter shield separated and cause this. Just an FYI for people who don’t know. I used a QuickTime anti-scatter in my car, they work fine in normal conditions.

It was a scary, and definitely freak accident overall, one that Tony Turner will sort out in due time.

What do you think about this amazing photo set and what happened? Care to share your own theory? No one’s stopping you, let me know your .02 in the comments below.

Source: Classic Muscle CC

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