3 ms·

Having seen a flywheel + clutch assembly disintegrate on a drag car in the lane next to me (10,000rpm - bits of flywheel came through the bodywork of his car),

Having seen a flywheel + clutch assembly disintegrate on a drag car in the lane next to me (10,000rpm - bits of flywheel came through the bodywork of his car), I can understand why you'd be hesitant to sit on top of something spinning at 140,000rpm.

bigiain 8y ago
Isn't that fairly typical turbocharger turbine speed though? I saw a Mazda RX3 Sport Sedan (a circuit racing class here in Australia ~25-30 years back) spectacularly blow a flywheel/clutch at the end of the main straight (at Oran Park) a long time back - it pretty much perforated all the bodywork in the plane of the flywheel - bonnet and both guards - as though it was a tearoff line on a set of stamps. We could hear bits landing 10+ seconds later hundreds of meters behind us in the parking lot. Depending on what port job he had, that could have been up around 12k rpm (if my vague 30 year old car modifying memory serves...)
- King-Aaron 8y ago
  > Isn't that fairly typical turbocharger turbine speed though? I believe so, but compressor/turbine wheels don't have a lot of mass to them, so fragments don't usually escape very far if they blow up. I've seen a few compressor housings split, and the main damage is done to the engine itself really. I guess if your turbo was sitting high up and exposed, it might be a danger. Flywheels however just seem to fail more regularly from my experience. (Also, yeah anything rotary powered deals with scary rpm's, haha!) For anyone interested, here's some in-car footage of what we're describing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOHUwL0zeXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOHUwL0zeXc and an image of what the result can look like: http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/LNJ11-BlowedUpParts-08.jpg http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/LNJ11-BlowedUpPa...
rurban 8y ago
He wasn't sitting on top of it, it was rather behind his ass. He either felt the vibrations or the hizzing sound, and that made him very uncomfortable.
- King-Aaron 8y ago
  Figure of speech, apologies.

bigiain 8y ago

Isn't that fairly typical turbocharger turbine speed though? I saw a Mazda RX3 Sport Sedan (a circuit racing class here in Australia ~25-30 years back) spectacularly blow a flywheel/clutch at the end of the main straight (at Oran Park) a long time back - it pretty much perforated all the bodywork in the plane of the flywheel - bonnet and both guards - as though it was a tearoff line on a set of stamps. We could hear bits landing 10+ seconds later hundreds of meters behind us in the parking lot. Depending on what port job he had, that could have been up around 12k rpm (if my vague 30 year old car modifying memory serves...)

King-Aaron 8y ago
> Isn't that fairly typical turbocharger turbine speed though? I believe so, but compressor/turbine wheels don't have a lot of mass to them, so fragments don't usually escape very far if they blow up. I've seen a few compressor housings split, and the main damage is done to the engine itself really. I guess if your turbo was sitting high up and exposed, it might be a danger. Flywheels however just seem to fail more regularly from my experience. (Also, yeah anything rotary powered deals with scary rpm's, haha!) For anyone interested, here's some in-car footage of what we're describing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOHUwL0zeXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOHUwL0zeXc and an image of what the result can look like: http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/LNJ11-BlowedUpParts-08.jpg http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/LNJ11-BlowedUpPa...

rurban 8y ago

He wasn't sitting on top of it, it was rather behind his ass. He either felt the vibrations or the hizzing sound, and that made him very uncomfortable.

King-Aaron 8y ago
Figure of speech, apologies.