Boost is a wonderful thing — it can push a vehicle to incredible performance heights and make driving more fun than it has any right to be. Boost also has an ugly side that can cause epic amounts of damage to an engine when it’s not kept in check. Mac Brosnan’s GTR, known as “Kimbo”, learned about the downside of boost when its intake couldn’t handle the boost it was fed.
The Shop Houston is Brosnan’s business, and it cranks out plenty of high-end cars that do impressive things at the track. Kimbo is one of its project cars and at the GTR World Cup it laid down a new personal best of 7.09 at 202 mph using a pair of 68mm turbos for boost. The GTR makes over 2,000 horsepower to the tires, so it was knocking on the door of a 6-second pass at the event.
In this video from ImportRace, we see Brosnan put Kimbo on the chip and take off on what seems like a solid run until there’s an audible bang and the hood begins to flop around on the front of the car. Things go from bad to worse as a fire breaks out in the engine compartment with Brosnan still in the car. After a few frantic seconds, Brosnan emerges from the GTR as the Bradenton Motorsports safety crew arrives to put out the flames. The damage from the intake failure was extensive, but thankfully Brosnan wasn’t hurt and Kimbo will live to fight another day.