Back around '91 I was driving on one of those big California four-lane (in one direction) freeways ... and there was a corvair six-cylinder engine sitting in the middle of the freeway. It may have fallen out of a truck, but there it was sitting upright, pointing straight down the road, and on each side drivers buzzing by at 65 mph ... it reminded me of the old saying "it only takes four bolts to change the engine".

I saw the Mythbusters show as well...but I have seen a speedway saloon car,a Camaro snap the front universal and then it's driveshaft dug into the dirt and pole vaulted the car over the fence and into the pits...It was 30 odd years ago and driveshaft loops were not compulsary then.

I see alot of unusal things on the road over the years. But the best l have seen is Mid - 80s Mits colt in the Otways Ranges near me. Drive shafts broken / Busted, what ever you like to say it & looked funny the front of the colt sitting on them. Driver was from Melbourne and guess the rest. Bruns

But why do they always wreck cool old american cars? No old car deserves to be treated like that.

I have seen the tail shaft story on myth busters funny stuff. But they wearnt doing 200kmh

Driving to work the other week I stopped at an intersection and had a chuckle when I saw a tailshaft sitting in the middle. I am sure it had just fallen off the back of a ute. But it was funny none the less. It will never beat the time I saw a kitchen sink under a car though

A friend of ours was driving a land rover discovery along a gravel road at about 90kph when the front uni joint let go, and it popped the back of the car into the air and did all kinds of damage to the rear end. Ever since then he has used the loop to catch it.

the worst that happens is the front uni joint snaps - grips the ground and makes the car jump ever so slightly.

but then the rear uni breaks and spears the whole shaft thru the rear windscreen / boot / fuel tank of the car.

i've seen this happen and it ain't pretty.

the 120y i just posted a pic of in im dumb in the main forum...had a really badly flogged out front uni...previous to that inspection we were doin about 240 250 down the road...couldve been a bit nasty...

If it was the back u-joint I reckon it wouldn't (usually) be too dangerous, but pretty loud and scary nonetheless.

On the other hand I once bought a car where the front of the driveshaft failed ... the whole underside of the car was beat up quite badly. That must have been quite scary to go through.