New car news

03 May 2012 - 12:00

Video: how not to drive a dragster

Dragsters have been racing down straight pieces of tarmac for years in astonishing feats of speed. But what happens when a dragster faces a corner? Well, last weekend Mr. Ron Hope found out.

Ron Hope is one of the men responsible for these feats of speed, once holding a Bonneville speed record. The car in the video below - driving straight into a ditch - is his 1968 The Rat Trap dragster. This happened at Rod Millen's Leadfoot Festival, a hill climb event that takes place on his ranch's 1.6km driveway.

We're not sure at what point Ron thought that this would be a good idea, but we were very impressed with the fact that once in the grass, and heading for imminent failure, Ron decided to give it more gas.

So Internet, a digital round of applause for this service to car evolution. We now know - definitively - that dragsters can't turn corners.