Mitsubishi AMS Drag EVO breaks speed record then catches fire

We haven’t heard a whole lot from Mitsubishi these days so imagine how excited we were when we found out that a Mitsubishi AMS Drag EVO VIII caught everyone’s attention at The Texas Mile after it broke the world record for a standing mile on a four cylinder with a top speed of 228 miles per hour.

While the record itself was an achievement in its own right, it still got overshadowed by the events that transpired as soon as the car crossed the timing traps. Watch this video and you’ll notice at around the 1:22 mark that smoke starts coming out of the car only as a small preview to the flames that literally start coming out from under the hood. Driver Eric Jones vainly tried to activate the fire suppression system, but when he realized that it would be for naught, decided on a better course of action by jumping out of the car.

Overall, the AMS team had quite an eventful time at The Texas Mile and if it wasn’t for the Evo-catching-fire-after-breaking-world-record episode, the boys from AMS would have had a weekend to remember. Although, I think it was a weekend to remember anyway.