Dashcam captured the scene as the BMW traveled a distance of 8.56 quarter miles before crashing into the wall
- A BMW M240i xDrive owner crashed his car after reaching 274 km/h (170 mph) on the drag strip while several cameras filmed.
- He walked away unscathed, but the car has probably seen its last days on the road or track.
- The video is a sobering reminder of how far modern safety equipment has come and how important it is to reserve this driving for the track.
Racing is an exciting prospect for most, but sometimes things go wrong quickly. For one driver in a BMW M240i, his journey to the drag strip ended with a dramatic high-speed accident that ended his day, but thankfully not his life. He captured the entire scene on several cameras mounted on and inside the vehicle.
His BMW M240i was seriously fast and he went into the day hoping to achieve a sub-8.5 second quarter-mile time. That’s not just fast, it’s the Dodge Demon 170 that beats fast. That super muscle car can only do an 8.91 second quarter mile and that’s assuming the driver is perfect because most are far from that.
More: Watch the Mustang driver lose control and crash into the wall while dragging the Corvette Z06
In this case, the driver says he doesn’t know what happened, but after completing an 8.56 second pass at 170 mph (274 km/h), the car “pulls hard to the right.” The pilot quickly counter-steered, but not fast enough. He glances along the right wall and then slides across both lanes to hit the left wall. From there he is capable and aware of keeping the car straight down the center of the track.
Somehow the driver escaped without any major injuries. It’s a sad end to what seemed like a promising day. He completed the run itself quite cleanly, even recording a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of 2.1 seconds and a 60-foot time of 1.50 seconds.
Ultimately, this entire scene is a testament to how far safety equipment has come in modern cars. Despite the enormous forces at work when a car hits a barrier at this speed, the driver walks away virtually unscathed. The airbags all go off at the same time, essentially creating a soft barrier around him.
Plus, it’s a reminder to keep these types of antics on track. If this had been a public road, who knows what could have happened? Not only would the driver have been further injured, but others could have been injured as well. Fortunately, the worst outcome of this crash is just one less BMW M240i.