Exploding Wire Lightning Simulation. Driven by big pulse capacitors.

A powerful bolt seems to penetrate the car in this exploding wire lightning simulation.
“Continue reading” for more details and photos.

This next photo appears to show a puny light along a wire. However, the total energy is still the same as the red photo above, but the filter is darker. But how is the car still lit? It is a 10 second exposure with the car lit by dual 500 W flood lights (see the double shadows). The bendy spiral wire is actually taut but has exploded already (hence the arc is visible). The arc is being repelled by itself.

Below is a day time shot and you can see how showing how intensely bright this really is. It is hard to see any details even close to the exploding wire.

Below is a welding glass filter but it is too dark and not uniform due to scratches and welding debris. Recently I obtained a variable filter with 400:1 ratio which should make this sort of photography easier.

A $100 non working junk car from the local wreckers was used.
A bit of grinding the roof to get a better contact was the first mod.