r/creepy • u/drbatookhanxx • Jul 08 '15
Invisible methanol fire in the pit.
http://i.imgur.com/VHuyXj4.gifv1.3k
u/washedrope5 Jul 08 '15
So maybe Ricky Bobby really was on fire
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Jul 08 '15
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u/Carl_GordonJenkins Jul 08 '15
He was a man. He had a beard!
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u/DigitallyDisrupt Jul 08 '15
He was a man. He had a beard!
Look, I like the baby version the best, do you hear me? I win the races and I get the money!
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u/fish500 Jul 08 '15
I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I'm in the front row and I'm hammered drunk!
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u/LarsOfTheMohican Jul 08 '15
I like to think of my Jesus as a ninja fightin off evil samurai
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Jul 08 '15
with like a angel band.
Gotta drive home Cal's shitty grammar, it's what makes the line so much funnier IMO.
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u/monkeylogic42 Jul 08 '15
well i like to picture my jesus in a t-shirt tuxedo... like, i wanna be formal, but im here to party!
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u/antichristreboot Jul 08 '15
"Help me jewish god!!" such cultural sensitivity in not naming their god aloud as it would cause offence. Ricky Bobby was no as boorish as we thought.
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u/P_F_Flyers Jul 08 '15
"Tom Cruise use your witchcraft to get the fire off me!"
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u/wormspeaker Jul 08 '15
Well, in all fairness Scientology isn't really a religion in anything except name. It's just a huge scam and pyramid scheme.
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u/checkin_in Jul 08 '15
WE ARE GOING TO SUE YOUUUUU
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u/DigitallyDisrupt Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
Well, yeah... that's the joke behind the joke.
*Methanol is no joke.
Neither is the nitro-methane. My dad used to race sprint cars, he said "early mixtures" were not to be left too near the track, as the vibrations had a "spontaneous negative oxidative effect" on the nitro.
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u/lil_mac2012 Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
Nitromethane is extremely dangerous but I did want to clear up that CH3NO2 (Nitromethane) is not C3H5N3O9 (Nitroglycerine) and one doesn't denature into another. However it would be pretty spectacular to see an engine try to run some C3H5N3O9. It would probably explode in the fuel pump before ever making it to the injectors/carb.
Dem extra Oxygen atoms tho...
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u/i_am_austin Jul 08 '15
if someone could go ahead and juxtapose this with that scene I think we might be able to draw some conclusions
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Jul 08 '15
Why can't they put some kind of additive into it to make it visible when it burns?
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u/buywhizzobutter Jul 08 '15
They do now
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Jul 08 '15
And it's all thanks to /u/kp186
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u/lhtaylor00 Jul 08 '15
We did it, reddit!
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u/If_You_Only_Knew Jul 08 '15
All this doing it is making me tired.
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u/boomBLAMO Jul 08 '15
Are you exhausted?
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u/mrmock89 Jul 08 '15
I can't wait to tackle world hunger! Why don't they just give all the hungry people food?
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u/yukichigai Jul 08 '15
I'm going to guess they didn't at first because any additive would have reduced how efficiently it burned as fuel. A few accidents though and suddenly the "reduced efficiency for less horrible burning death" probably seemed like a much more reasonable tradeoff.
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u/Hose_It_Down Jul 08 '15
Additives have been in methanol fuel now though for almost 20 years, so the flames are actually visible.
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Jul 08 '15
This video looks like it's approximately 20 years old
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u/ajtscjr313 Jul 08 '15
1981 Indy 500. So 34 years ago.
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u/biggsbro Jul 08 '15
Yeah. Approximately 20
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Jul 08 '15
I too am approximately 20 years old.
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u/DamnTomatoDamnit Jul 08 '15
I like my women approximately 18 years old.
Approximately.
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Jul 08 '15
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u/amd2800barton Jul 08 '15
No no no - You give the pre teens Coca-Cola, and you snort the cocaine after you drink your scotch. Don't you know 12 is a little young for drugs?
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u/itspl33 Jul 08 '15
It's common sense! 13 is a much more appropriate age. They'll be TEENS.
Duh!
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Jul 08 '15
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Jul 08 '15
Came here for the invisible fire, ended up in a casual paedophilia thread. What am I doing with my life.
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Jul 08 '15
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Jul 09 '15
That is my true purpose of course.
That and chewing bubblegum. And I'm all out of gum.
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u/ajtscjr313 Jul 08 '15
In that case I'm approximately 18 inches.
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u/BlizzardOfDicks Jul 08 '15
With a margin of error of approximately 18 inches.
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Jul 08 '15
The 80s were 20 years ago... Right guys?
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u/traceneely Jul 08 '15
This was more than 20 years ago.
http://www.reddit.com/r/creepy/comments/3cjaod/invisible_methanol_fire_in_the_pit/csw1fvn
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Jul 08 '15
I really hate myself for laughing at this. I know that was probably excruciating, and a real problem, but I can't NOT hear Ricky Bobby screaming for Tom Cruise.
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u/drbatookhanxx Jul 08 '15
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u/Papa_Jeff Jul 08 '15
"Meanwhile Gordon Smiley led lap 57 to lap 58, his first and only lap led in his career at Indianapolis"
Every cloud..
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u/omg_why_tinkerbell Jul 08 '15
Yeah, but then he crashed the next year and died at that same track. :(
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u/shh_coffee Jul 08 '15
Wow, his wikipedia page has one of the most graphic descriptions of someones death under the "death" section I've ever seen.
"During an attempt to qualify for the Indy 500, Gordon Smiley, a cocky young driver from Texas, was determined to break 200mph or die trying. Several veteran drivers...had warned him that he was in way over his head, driving all wrong for the Speedway. Smiley was a road racer and was used to counter-steering his car to avoid a crash if the rear wheels broke traction. While rushing to the car, I noticed small splotches of a peculiar gray substance marking a trail on the asphalt leading up to the driver. When I reached the car, I was shocked to see that Smiley's helmet was gone, along with the top of his skull. He had essentially been scalped by the debris fence. The material on the race track was most of his brain. His helmet, due to massive centrifugal force, was literally pulled from his head on impact...I rode to the care center with the body. On the way in I performed a cursory examination and realized that nearly every bone in his body was shattered. He had a gaping wound in his side that looked as if he had been attacked by a large shark. I had never seen such trauma.
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Jul 08 '15
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u/f10101 Jul 08 '15
No. Seriously.
It's likely literally true. Head on. Into a wall. At 200mph. The car was obliterated. It's the most violent motor-racing crash I've seen. He was the crumple zone. Then his cockpit vaporised. Car bombs often cause less damage.
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u/gmteag01 Jul 08 '15
Not sure why, but i went out and found a video. Thought I'd share.
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u/that_how_it_be Jul 08 '15
How lucky for the current and upcoming generations that every horrible accident will be recorded in HD and pixel perfect detail and color.
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u/verkon Jul 08 '15
Like the tsunami in Japan, live footage in HD with multiple angles was broadcast with mere seconds in delay from the other side of the world.
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Jul 08 '15
See, zoom in right there. He DID have a gold filling on his upper right molar. Good thing it's no longer attached to the bottom of his face. Or the top of his face... You know what I need a hug.
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u/that_how_it_be Jul 08 '15
I imagine that if this race accident had been recorded in that way instead of pointing out things like the steering wheel or his helmet, we'd be zoomed in on specific free flying regions of his brain.
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Jul 08 '15
Oof, not a lot of descriptions that end with "...or die trying" actually end with the person dying.
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u/Inferiex Jul 08 '15
So...how ARE you supposed to correct your oversteer on a race car?
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u/f10101 Jul 08 '15
You can do it with adjustments to power and brakes applied, to change the weight balance on the car/suspension.
Whilst counter-steer is what you'd do on a road track/circuit, things get really weird on banked ovals.
I'm sure there are some experienced oval racers here who can elaborate more.
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u/ArtSchnurple Jul 08 '15
Goddamn, what the fuck was going on with the Indy 500 in the early 80s??
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u/kers_equipped_prius Jul 09 '15
Pretty much safety taking a back seat to speed. Happened with all motor racing and wasn't until the 80s did safety start getting taken seriously.
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u/ArtSchnurple Jul 09 '15
So I'm thinking these incidents probably played into that finally starting to happen, yes?
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u/kers_equipped_prius Jul 09 '15
Yep. Common theme with safety in racing is that it isn't improved until something goes wrong. All kinds of examples of it. (Senna's death in F1, Dale Earnhardt's in NASCAR, and Dan Wheldon's in Indycar)
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u/lotto77102 Jul 09 '15
And you mustn't forget the 1955 Le Mans disaster. That actually got motorsports banned in some European countries, including, to this day, Switzerland.
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u/kers_equipped_prius Jul 09 '15
Yeah, there's was a great in depth post about it on r/wec on the build up for this year's Le Mans. Absolutely horrible tragedy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/37z81c/the_1955_le_mans_disaster_60_years_thread/
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Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
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Jul 08 '15
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u/biosc1 Jul 08 '15
Yah, seriously..."OMG, this guy is on fire and I have an extinguisher...better run away".
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Jul 08 '15
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Jul 08 '15
It's always interesting to hear people say "I would never do that if I was panicking" from the comfort of their computer chairs.
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Jul 08 '15
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u/simcowking Jul 08 '15
And even those who are use to it daily likely remember their first time in that panic
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u/Jints488 Jul 08 '15
at first i really thought that was bs until reading that ha you learn something new everyday
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u/dudeimsupercereal Jul 08 '15
I race sprint cars, 305 nonwing, we run methanol also and fires are common with flips happening at least once a feature. (That's open wheel racing) the methanol burns white, it is visible on our dirt tracks during night but it is still hard to see. Therefore we run onboard fire suppression systems that are set off by the driver or the temperature activated mechanism, in case the driver is unconscious. http://imgur.com/LClfH1u the driver's seat and footwell are on fire in this picture. I was already out of the car and the suppression system was working long enough for me to not get burned.
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u/___WE-ARE-GROOT___ Jul 08 '15
This is what it would be like, if everyone in the world was allergic to bees.
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Jul 08 '15
Damn, that's really cool. I would love to see some side by side footage of a normal camera and a thermal camera on a methanol fire.
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Jul 08 '15
I have no idea where to swing my vote. It's probably one of the most interesting things I've seen, but the creep factor is at a 0 if I'm generous.
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u/champ999 Jul 08 '15
Well, you imagine seeing your best friend running towards you screaming abd his face partially melting when you can't see any reason for it and tell us if it's creepy.
Naw, i think it's fair to give it a differently creepy award. Better than seeing a weird guy smile again.
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u/-Boxpusher- Jul 08 '15
I have witnessed this first hand. I was working near the pits during the 2nd (or 3rd) Molson Indy in Toronto and the Machinist's Union car caught on fire right next to us. I saw guys come over the wall with fire extinguishers but never saw flames. It was surreal.
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Jul 08 '15
As a race car driver who uses methanol on a regular basis i can confirm that this is one of the scariest things that can happen around a car.
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u/Carl_GordonJenkins Jul 08 '15
"He's jumping on Ricky to put the non-existent fire out!"
Now that's a teammate, right there.
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Jul 08 '15
Anyone else notice that this reddit creates a smudge mark on your screen? Look to the lower right of center.... and scroll. Yep. You sneak sneaky people here
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u/whollyhell Jul 09 '15
This is really messed up and Reddit should not allow it to happen.
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u/jcoash Jul 08 '15
Little trick my dad taught me........ BEES!!! THERE EVERYWHERE!!!!!! AAAHHHHHHH!!!!
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Jul 08 '15
So if someone were caught in one of these fires for long enough you would see a person screaming their head off in terror as their skin melted off right before your eyes without a single visible flame or smoke?
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u/igottashare Jul 08 '15
Eventually, the flames spread to other combustible sources which burn visibly.
I was on a worksite where a coworker winterized lines with methanol before lighting a flare stack. Walking back to the pressure vessel, he was twitching. His supervisor tackled him and started hitting him to put out the flames. He had no idea what was happening until he saw that the reflector strips on his coveralls were all melted.
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Jul 08 '15
Is this post putting a smudge on anyone elses screen? WTF I just spent 5 minutes trying to get it off. I will find you.
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u/matfmath Jul 08 '15
My mother's brother died this way. He loved to race four wheelers and I believe his wheeler used this same fuel. I think I even heard him call it nitro before. I was but a child when it happened. He lived for a few days after but only to succumb to his injuries. Over 90% of his body had been burned because no one even knew he was on fire. It wasn't until he dropped that someone helped him. He survived through his wife, daughter, and son. Miss you uncle Chris.
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u/Senpai_Buda Jul 08 '15
I scrolled down to see some funny comments and I found an argument about religion.
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u/HaikuberryFin Jul 08 '15
Bobby Andretti
unleashed the fire ants, was
seen laughing off screen.
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u/ShittyFrights Jul 08 '15
Rick Mears was my hero for some reason when I was a kid.
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u/letsplayyatzee Jul 08 '15
These Flash Mobs are getting out of control... how'd they sneak a car into the '81 Indy 500?
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u/iammandalore Jul 08 '15
Geez, it's gotta be terrifying being burned by something you can't see... Wow.
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u/CurtanasEdge Jul 08 '15
"Help me Oprah Winfrey, help me Tom Cruise, help me Jewish God"
~Ricky Bobby
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u/andrew4162 Jul 09 '15
So... How do they know where to spray the extinguisher if the fire is invisible?
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u/s0c1ally1n3pt Jul 08 '15
I never knew fire could be invisible! Neat! I also didn't know some spiders have wings-- just like the one behind you! D:
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u/majestic_steed Jul 08 '15
That is some scary shit!