Brand New Mustang Takes Off And Goes Airborne On The Drag Strip, Racer Walks Away

There are few things more alarming than watching a car go airborne, but I imagine one of them is being in the car that took off. That’s exactly the situation that racer Todd Spiers found himself in on his second pass on the drag strip with his brand new 2023 Ford Mustang.

Shocking video footage from the strip shows precisely what happened as the purpose-built drag car accelerated well, and simply got its front wheels a little too high off the ground. From there, the Mustang‘s front end rose sharply, the hood flew off, and the whole car rose as high as the timing towers at the drag strip.

Spiers, who appeared on the Discovery show “Street Outlaws: New Orleans,” was testing his new Mustang at State Capital Raceway in Louisiana on March 19 when the incident occurred. Fortunately, the driver walked away with only minor injuries.

Read: Actual Mustang Takes Out Toyota Windshield In Attempt To Jump It

The Mustang was built by Bad Habitz Fabrication, in Picayune, Mississippi. In a statement, the shop said that the team was still testing and collecting data from the car’s sensors when the incident happened.

“We made a bad ass car, the car is fast as hell and light,” Bad Habitz Fabrication wrote. “There was a huge headwind and Todd and I got after her a little hard on the back end and she took it plus some when the cold DA of -1375 hit them turbos she loved it a little too much…. Todd did his job as a driver and had his foot clean off the throttle just wasn’t fast enough.”

Despite the near catastrophe, everyone involved was good-humored about the incident. A video posted to Facebook by the shop today, shows Spiers receiving a scale model of an airplane and being told he’s earned his wings.

Although the accident appears to have damaged the Mustang significantly, the team said that it would be working to rebuild it.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all you that have supported us in kind words and prayers for Todd,” Bad Habitz Fabrication wrote. “We feel we made nearly a perfect car and it will be back it will be better!!!”