By Mark Gearhart

powerTV Media

Nitrous oxide is unquestionably one of the greatest single power-adding options out there for the high performance street and drag racing markets. While there are certainly more powerful options, they simply can’t match the ease of installation and the flexibility that nitrous offers. On the other hand, using nitrous is a lot like playing with fire (okay, actually it’s a lot like playing with fire, as you’ll see in the videos below) in that if you don’t know what you’re doing, its better off left alone. Without further ado, we present some of the finest examples of drag racing pyrotechnics shows courtesy of nitrous oxide setups gone bad.

If there is such a thing as worst case scenario in a nitrous explosion, this particular one involving Big Dog/Pro Modified racer Donnie Krusinski is probably petty darn close. At this Big Dog event at Piedmont Dragway in North Carolina, Krusinski’s Monte Carlo backfires instantly at the drop of the hammer, and wastes absolutely no time erupting into a bonafide four alarm blaze. Even watching the video there are some tense moments as the entire car engulfed in flames so quickly that Donnie couldn’t react quick enough to unbuckle and get away before the rest of the car began to burn. Luckily he was able to safely get out of the car, but this is undoubtedly one of, if not the worst explosions turned fires that we’ve ever seen.

See the rest of the nitrous explosions at Dragzine.com

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

At a recent quarter mile track meet, a Corvette running nitrous oxide exploded! Within a flash, flames and smoke start pouring out of the hood of this nimble C6. What happened here? Was it a leaky fuel line, or was it a result of running too much nitrous? Corvette’s do not randomly explode, so obviously it was hopped up on the funny fumes. This is one reason why I don’t like nitrous oxide. If you want more power, build it don’t spray it! Read more about this nitrous explosion at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

First off, am I the only one that thinks the guys fighting this fire should be wearing more than shorts and t-shirts? If there’s a bottle of nitrous in a burning car, nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen, and this situation could have resulted in an explosion. Another thing? Why the hell didn’t the driver shut the motor down before he bailed? That seems like a no-brainer to me. Anyway, while there are some pretty big fireballs—at one point it gets so bright you can barely see anything in the frame—it doesn’t look like anyone got away with anything worse than some singed eyebrows.

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Nitrous, like fire, can be man’s best friend or worst enemy when it goes wrong. Consider this video as going as wrong as it can possibly go.

The drag car in question suffers a flaming nitrous backfire which immediately erupts under the hood into a raging fire. The track officials armed with weenie extinguishers don’t get it out and only really succeed in making the fire gods angrier until stuff under the hood starts to melt and, well we won’t ruin it for you.

We’re not sure what track this video is from but their safety crew isn’t exactly made up of people possessing Carl Lewis-esque speed.

Snap crackle pop.