SCAG Wilkerson Racing's funny car engine exploding, causing less damage to the body than expectedThey call it the "internal combustion engine" because the combustion is supposed to remain inside the engine. And while there are exceptions, when the combustion escapes, you're usually going to have a bad day. SCAG Wilkerson Racing wasn't planning to blow up Dan Wilkerson's funny car during a run, but when it happened, it had some positive results. The explosion proved that some safety concepts Tim Wilkerson, Dan's father, had worked as intended, and guided them towards further improvements, according to Competition Plus.Back in the day, funny car bodies just flew off the car when an engine or supercharger exploded, releasing the energy of that explosion to the outside world. That changed when Robert Hight's funny car body landed in the grandstands in 2013, reports Drag Illustrated. Since then, the NHRA has required improved latches and tethers to keep the body attached to the car. While the safety measure has the good intention of protecting spectators, it has the side effect of making the cars more dangerous for the drivers. Dan Wilkerson explained why to Autoweek last year:"What happens when we're holding these bodies down [is] you're asking for all that energy to stay underneath the car there. When you put a firecracker in your hand and you open up your hand, it'll burn you pretty bad, if you're lucky. But you close your hand around that, and it's going to knock your fingers off. That's just simple physics. Any person that understands physics understands that's going to happen."But that's what we're trying to do with these cars. Even with the burst panel up front, you're trying to hold that energy down on top of the driver, and that's a massive concussive force that you can't even explain to someone. It's just a lot of energy. And then what happens is these tethers stretch a little bit, so then the firewall is up in front of your face instead of the windshield. So then you're running blind. Engineered points of failureFront view of SCAG Wilkerson Racing's funny car body under repair, preparing for another race weekendThe elder Wilkerson heard what his son had to say and had two ideas that he thought would help. Both involved intentionally weakening certain body components so that they would fail first and allow the energy of the explosion to escape the car. It's a similar idea to crumple zones, or a fuse in an electrical circuit, something designed to fail first in a specific controlled way to prevent further damage or danger. As he told Competition Plus:"Well, I think our burst panel assembly worked better than the tethers because the front latches still did not quite give up like I would like to see them give up," Wilkerson said. "They still held on. But not being double sheer, they actually let it flex. It didn't ruin any of that stuff. Didn't break the front end. The body's negotiably not bad at all. So I'm pretty excited about that."Normally, an explosion like this would destroy a funny car body, deforming it and preventing it from being used again. But in this case, the revised burst panel released most of the explosion's energy, and the body is already being repaired for later use. Wilkerson said he probably could have repaired the body at the track and run it again at that same event.Wilkerson also wanted to weaken the latches that hold the front of the body to the car so that their controlled failure would absorb even more energy, but NHRA wouldn't allow it. This incident did prove the concept, however, and NHRA working with Wilkerson to refine his design further while meeting its requirements.Drag racing is risky business, no matter who you are. While Dan Wilkerson's race didn't go as well as he'd hoped, it did put these safety improvements to the test, and they worked exactly as intended. Anything that can help improve the safety of drivers, as well as spectators, is a good thing. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.