A video making rounds on the internet appears to show a Virginia man revving the crap out of his in the middle of the night until the vehicle catches fire. For some reason, even with the car ablaze, the man continues revving the V8 until the car becomes an even bigger fireball. It then burns to the ground.
A Facebook user named , who uploaded a few videos to his page with a caption reading, in part, “Enjoy my dumbass neighbor blowing his car to shit.”
The videos, stitched together by the YouTube virality mill and embedded below, appear to show a man revving his C5 Corvette in the middle of the night as smoke billows from under hood, the underbody glows orange, and the car shoots sparks from its exhaust. The vehicle then catches fire, and the blaze engulfs not just the ’Vette, but also the car beside it (another car, per the video’s caption, was also affected). By the end of the clip, both cars have been extinguished by the fire department and are left as soggy, wet shells of their former selves.
At around 3:15, we see the driver step out of the Corvette, though it’s not clear if he sustained any injuries or not.
ViralHog’s description, which states that this went down on July 16, includes a quote apparently from the person who filmed the video:
“My neighbor started revving the engine to a corvette in the middle of the night ultimately setting the car on fire and causing 2 other cars to catch on fire also.”
The City of Manassas Fire Rescue Department its own video below showing its members putting out the flame. The Facebook clip’s description identifies the offending car as a 2002 Corvette and the adjacent small sedan as a Mazda:
Rescue Engine 521 recently ran a vehicle fire in a residential area of 21’s due. The fire started in a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette and spread to an adjacent Mazda, causing a complete loss of both vehicles. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Fire Marshals Office. The quick actions of the Rescue Engine crew prevented additional vehicles from being involved.
I’ve reached out to the City of Manassas Police Department and the fire department to learn more about what happened, because the video alone is just baffling. Why would someone rev their car for minutes on end, especially at night? Why bounce it off the rev limiter? Why continue revving it after there are clearly flames emanating from underneath?
Hopefully the aforementioned government entities can help build some context, because we don’t know much about the state of the person behind the wheel, and that may be key here.
O’Connor posted to his page a photo of the aftermath, and as you can see, the Sheet-Molded Composite-bodied Corvette didn’t fare so well. I’ll update this post when I hear back from authorities.