I've purposely kept quiet on this post, but I'm one of the geezers who have been racing the same Hemi Dodge for almost 50 (48 years, actually) years with no incidents. In fact, I can only recall even seeing two incidents over those years, both caused by driver error.

I still use a "J" converter, a Cheetah VB. standard stuff. It was pounded into my head back in the day the cause for trans explosions, and to always check after a first gear drive line failure, or excessive spinning. The easiest way to check is to pull the driveshaft, put a driveshaft yoke into the rear of the trans, and spin it. It should only spin one way easily. If it spins both ways easily, the sprag is turned and it's got come apart. I have always started my burnouts in second, and then go to high. I use first gear only to put it on the trailer, or to pull it into the garage, or to leave the starting line where it's pulled second real quick. Not hard, just pay attention.

I can't help but notice that some of the cars on here who complain about it happening are dual purpose, street/strip cars. To me, that is probably a lot of their issue. Go out on the street, blow the tires off of it in low gear, take it the track, and then, pow. My guess is that in a lot of cases, that is what happened. I'm sure there are some explosions that are legitimate, but, to be frank, I've never seen one that didn't have an explanation for it. Now, I'm sure that there will be a pile of you on here who start arguing with me. That's OK, whatever. Do whatever you think is necessary. But, one can save themselves a lot of hassle and money by just doing it the right way.

But, when I hear guys saying how they are scared to drive one, that's a bit over the top. It's not like jumping into a combat zone with the 82nd Airborne. Just know what you are doing and pay attention. Not hard.

Of course, there were also the neutral starts we played with back in the late sixties, but, that's another story....Dick Oldfield and Ron Mancini can tell you all about them....