I'm still for N20. Done right and used intelligently that is. Why is it when a naturally aspirated or blown or supercharged or alcholhol or nitro high performance car goes BOOM, no one raises a big red flag? But anytime theres an N20 incident everyone pulls out the NO NO N20 GUNS.

Like all aspects of racing accidents happen, things go boom. It's likely that this guy made a big mistake. He may have engauged the ASR during his burnout. From about 1994 up when a vette gets sideways a tad like on a burnout the ASR kicks in and retards timing like 15 degrees and if not given time to recover and then someone hits the spray it's not a great result.

He may have also forgot to purge or didn't purge well enough. I spoke to forum member redc4corvette about this. He is an ex chevrolet mechanic who has been racing for many years and has a wealth of N20 knowledge. He gives this example "The driver of the C5 may have forgot to purge the nitrous. Purge is the same every time,3 times every time.
What happends if you don't purge? common sense.
Pull up to the line and hit the putton and you did not purge, the fuel is spraying into the manifold but no nitrous.
What do you have in the manifold! Fuel, and lots of it.
Now the nitrous comes down the line after the fact and what happends?
The valve opens spark lights the fuel and the nitrous finally gets there, BOOM! The fuel is not attomized at this point it is sitting in the intake as a puddle when it should be a gas."

You see, it may not be all the old evil n20's fault. The trouble is people jump in blind and often dont do their homework. Although nitrous has been around a while it is still a bit taboo if you will. It is human nature for us humans to be scared of that which we dont understand, particularly if it can hurt us. Just look at how many non poisonous snakes get killed everyday. Just for being a snake. A snake that would help control the increasinly overwhelming rodent problems our farmers encounter daily. Yet we dont understand the snake and are scared because it's cousin is venomous. So we kill it. Then we wonder what to do about the crop ravaging and disease spreading the rats are doing.

My point is, lets not kill the snake just yet. Nitrous can be a wonderful thing if used intelligently and in moderation. I feel very bad for that C5 owner as I do for every NON-n20 car that I've seen burn up. It's just sad. Thank God he got out alive and will live to race another day.

 

twice over. I posted it in the Z06 Section this week and somebody else already got it over here.

Being said though this is a case of a poorly installed nitrous system. If you do it CORRECTLY it is perfectly safe. This was obviously not done correctly.

 

Kill the snake! Kill I say! (Vipers)

As for nos, I have never seen a non nos car at the track burn. Outside of an funny car or two. We had a huge NOS "Burp" once. After the burn out the car that had run before us broke and coasted off the end of the track. It took just an extra 30 to 45 seconds but it was a very hot day. The nos line must have leaned out a little while sitting there. As we (This was on Dads 10 Sec Camaro before NOS) dropped the hammer the car kind of skipped a little then BOOOOM! A freaking huge ball of fire blew out the hood scope and it was all over. He hit the kill switch and we were done for the day.

The hood was warped (Fibergalss) but everything else turned out alright. We never ran NOS again. (250 HP Fogger)

I agree that people tend to jump on the no nos wagon quickly, but things happen that are out of our control. I'll let the import geeks depend on it, not me. No offense. Sucks for the burned yellow vette. Damn that is a shame.

 

I imagine that if I ever did do a nitrous system it would be of the direct port variety so as to keep as much fuel in the cylinders as possible. Fuel injection intakes are meant to flow AIR not fuel. A carb intake is a different story.

 

Well, here we all are adding fuel to the fire... (no pun intended) but, none of us know what actually happened. It could have been human error or it could have been a mechanical error. I've been on the spray for awhile, but not enough to be an expert on the subject. I did my "homework" before adding laughing gas to my "baby". I've had no problems whatsoever. N20 is a great power upgrade for the costs involved. Over the years, the cost of bottle refills will start to add up, as will the inconvenience of having to remove/replace the bottle(s) each time. Compared to a supercharger or turbocharger, "juice" is associated with a lot smaller initial investment and is easier and faster to install. Every modification has its pros and cons. I feel bad for the guy, I wonder if his insurance company covers drag racing or nitrous? Imagine the guy in the little silver car going home to tell all of his friends that he "BEAT" a corvette at the track... OK, that's my 2 cents - now remember, drive fast, drive safe and don't forget to eat all of your green vegetables!