The twin-turbo Hinson Motorsports C6 Corvette Z06 joined two special clubs at this weekend's Texas Mile: the 230 mph+ club and the oh-my-God-how-did-they-survive-that-accident club. More scary for the driver, both membership cards were punched at the same time.
A mile-long airstrip in Goliad, Texas serves as the home of the open-class Texas Mile race, which has become a must-visit event every March and October for the nation's speed freaks. This year the team at Hinson Motorsports brought out their 1,400-hp twin-turbo Corvette hoping they'd break a new record.
On Friday night, they ran a 224.3 mph trip on a lower boost setting before packing it in due to winds. By Saturday morning they were running high boost and hoping to eclipse 230 mph. They think they did just moments before something went wrong and the 'Vette went flipping end-over-end-over-end-over-end eventually landing on its wheels.
There's no cause yet listed, and people who were at the event say there were no visual signs of engineering failure left on the track. At this point it could have been mechanical, driver error, a blow-tire, or a strong wind gust.
You'll notice in the video it appears to pass the mile-marker, which is just beyond where you see the RV at the end of the video, so it's possible someone got a trap speed. Speed or no speed, the only factoid anyone cares about when something like this happens is the health of the driver and we're happy to report he walked away from the crash and was released from the hospital the same day.
"This is a testament to following safety guidelines and building a safe car," Hinson Motorsports said in a post on their Facebook page.
If you can build a cage that'll take the force of a 230 mph+ crash, then you're very much doing it right. And a little more consolation guys: the 'Vette's gotta be cheaper to fix than the twin-turbo Lamborghini that crashed last year.
Photo Credit: Autospotters, WarShrike/Full Throttle V6, Video: Augusto Gaboldani