The owner of a black Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has found out the hard way what can go wrong if you try to push a little too much power out of what is already a very powerful car.
The owner of this particular Camaro ZL1, Andrew Zurick, runs a shop by the name of Complete Street Performance on YouTube and was testing the car on a dyno. We don’t have a full list of modifications made to the car but it was pumping out 829 hp through the rear wheels while running on an E85 tune at the time things went badly wrong.
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During what would prove to be the car’s final dyno run of the day, Zurick did a power run in it but just before letting off the throttle, a handful of metal fragments can be seen falling out from the underside of the car. Moments later, the seat and curtain airbags deployed and a fire erupted underneath the car. Thankfully, the person filming was able to quickly extinguish the flames before they caused any significant damage.
The team at the shop quickly determined that the transmission’s tail shaft housing had cracked and that it had triggered the explosion. It’s possible that the jolt from the explosion is why the airbags were deployed but it’s difficult to say with certainty. Regardless, Zurick notes that it’s probably a good thing the Chevy’s transmission went bang on the dyno and not on the road or on a racetrack as the ensuing fire could have quickly engulfed the car had there not been anyone else around to extinguish it.