Whether we like it or not, the prospect of carnage is definitely a part of the sport’s appeal, and flying chunks of piston, sparks from a brush with the wall, and explosions for any numbers of reasons just come with the territory of racing.

While the vast majority of violent explosions are engines giving up the ghost, we often see transmission failures, rear end parts failure, and tires that come apart and cause the driver to lose control. What is far less common is for catastrophic failures to happen during the burnout, but it does happen occasionally, and as you can see here, it can be quite spectacular. Just as this blown alcohol dragster, competing at Little River Dragway in the Southwest Superchargers class, rolls into his burnout, we witness one of the more spectacular come-aparts we’ve ever seen.

According to the driver, Brian Beasley, something in or around the front pump of the transmission failed, which it would seem caused the converter bolts to shear, letting the rapidly-rotating converter loose from its bounds and sending it flying through the transmission’s bell and out of the video frame to the left. If you watch the slow-motion replay, you can clearly see the converter exiting to the left in rapid fashion just as the flames and sparks subside.

Luckily, the converter landed inside the retaining fence and came to rest harmlessly trackside. The carnage to the transmission was devastating, as one would imagine. It’s great to see that there were no injuries sustained in the aftermath of this explosion, and somebody probably went home with that torque converter as a kick-ass souvenir!