Silver State Classic Challenge 2003, what happened ?
 

There was a Japanese Z racing in it, hard to miss - bright orange with lots of sponsor stickers on it. Now I can't read Japanese so I can't read what happened in the magazine I have. But I can make out that they say it went over 360km/h, but them suffered a horrendous crash. Luckily the car was built to protect the driver to the max and he seems ok, maybe a broken leg.

Anyone have any other details of it ?

I saw that yesterday on Speed, Speedvision, or what ever they call it today. Saw the car you're talking about, but didn't hear any details. Anybody been to this event. Ely, Nevada. Sound like a interesting event.

I have been in 20 Open Road events and placed in most of them. There are 3 organizations that put them on. Silver State is a long, 90 miles, boring road, that has 5 real turns in a canyon area. They rip you off in several ways, charge you for a banquet in Vegas, drivers school in Vegas that is REAL mickey mouse, and you have a snowballs chance in H#ll of winning. As an example in the 150 group there where 26 cars entered, and the way they finished was 14 cars before someone was one second off perfect time. I was at an event where the Japanese showed up, alot of fanfare, etc, and they went out and ran 125, BFD!
I was in one at Battle Mt, NV and we had 1-2-3 finish 3 thousanths off perfect for 86 miles at 150 average!
The Most fun is at FtStocton, TX around April 15th usually, 59 miles each way, along with 62 turns each way, a navigators nightmare, not very many mile markers, I have won 2 times at 135 and 145, and I will be there this next year, probably run 130, with the harness bar can have a 140 tech sspeed.

Thxs for your personal racing bio, but really I'm interested in what happened to the Japanese Z that ran that particular race and crashed. What went wrong with it ? Driver error, blown tyre, or something else ??

IT actually blew a tire at 100+ and wrecked real bad, but the driver was alright in the end. There are pics in car and driver.

Thanks !
****, all the hard work that went into the car gone because a tyre blew! That car had a stroker kit too and was actually 3.8l turbocharged.

I actually watched that video many times trying to determine the same thing. Although we all hear about the tire blowout, if you watch the video, look at his downshifting. I don't know what types of gears he was running, but didn't it seem that he was a bit aggressive downshifting?

I don't have the video in front of me now, but there were 3 or 4 quick downshifts, and then it looked like the rear slid out. Having crashed my own Z, I can testify to how quickly the rear can slide, but in his case he was going in a straight line right? Was he in second when he slid?