It's been a great year for fans of Nissan GT-R drag builds with horsepower counts in the four digits. Our brains have been reordered by the sight of a 3,000-horsepower kaiju smashing the half-mile speed record—at altitude, no less. But as this code-brown clip shows, "only" 1,300 horsepower is plenty to get you in trouble.
Drag maven 1320Video took his camera to a drag meet in Oklahoma City and caught this incredibly close call between a pair of Nissan GT-Rs. The two line up for a rolling start, but as they both open it up on the green light, the driver of the 1,300-horsepower red GT-R loses control and spears sideways across the track into the other lane. He makes contact with the other car, but thankfully his opponent keeps it under control and they're both able to straighten out and avoid a serious crash.
The driver on the receiving end of the shunt appears to be just a little frustrated in a brief post-race interview, but the damage is limited to a few scrapes and he seems more grateful to have stayed off the wall. The reaction of the guy who did the shunting was slightly less measured. He blames a patch of oil on the track, while admitting track officials inspected the surface and found no evidence of any fluid spills. He also don't seem particularly apologetic, instead focusing on the damage to his car and repeating how it could have been "so much worse," though its possible that happened off-camera.
Oil spill or not, the video just goes to show that even straight line racing can have its unexpected turns.