Turbo Chevy Silverado Launches Driveshaft Into Crowd During Dyno Pull

I’ve learned a lot after years of writing about cars online. One nugget of wisdom I’ve obtained is when you see a dyno video with people a little too close to the car, there’s bound to be trouble. Still, that didn’t stop folks at the Atlantic City Truck Meet in New Jersey from standing directly beside and behind a turbo Chevy Silverado while it performed a pull. And wouldn’t you know it, the truck spit out its driveshaft at high rpm, sending it back into the crowd—more specifically, into the crowd’s shins.

A clip of the snafu was posted on TikTok over the weekend. It shows a mobile dyno with a regular cab GM pickup on fat rear tires spooling up before losing that crucial piece of hardware. It could’ve been worse as the truck seemingly sent the driveshaft before making peak power, but even then, nobody wants to take one of those bad boys to the leg. Lightweight aluminum driveshafts still weigh roughly 20 pounds, and it’s not like they dent as easily as a soda can.

You can tell straight away that the event setup is suboptimal. People are gathered around the dyno trailer, and the guy closest to the truck isn’t even paying attention as it starts its run. He looks up as the driveshaft exits stage left, hitting the people stationed behind some cones and caution tape. As you’d expect, that wasn’t enough to stop the metal tube spinning so fast that the nuts and bolts let loose.

This is exactly why so many high-powered cars and trucks run driveshaft cages. It’s one way to prevent injuries to both the driver and the crowd. There’s clearly no way to guarantee people will be alert enough to react in case of an incident, and in this case, several people just let it hit them without jumping out of the way. Chalk it up to negligence or simply not caring, but the result is the same.

https://www.tiktok.com/@zach_6.6/video/7378241058700053806?_r=1\u0026_t=8n2n0Xr1meI

All in all, this could’ve gone worse. I’ve seen engines blow apart and catch fire plenty of times before. With a crowd so close, that would have been a much bigger disaster. A driveline to the ankle could have easily been a connecting rod to the temple, in which case I’d be writing a far more tragic story right now.

Use your noggin, guys. Otherwise, you might end up losing it.

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