analogmike

These stories and pictures make me feel good about having a water-cooled rear engine car. No oil forward of the engine to ignite. If the engine blows, or the oil leaks, it should stay behind me if I don't spin out.

Matt Romanowski

You just get showered in burning hot water!

KaiB

OT, but howdy Mike...I've had your chit on my pedal board long enough now that they reek of cheap beer, bad bars and smoke. It's only been the past year that I've realizxed that we pickers are subsidizing your sins here.

Great stuff! Cheers, Kai

Mahler9th

I wish the driver a speedy recovery.

I think a lot of us (most?) wear our balaclavas all of the time. In addition to the obvious benefits in a fire, the fact that it absorbs so much sweat really seems to make the helmet linings stay fresher and last longer. I cannot see why anyone would run without a balaclava.

I am not sure how many of us run nomex underwear. I have never worn it. I will be checking it out this year... I bet they have many more choices than when I started and it is likely more comfortable. At least as comfortable as what I wear now under my suit. I am not sure I would move toward a cool shirt made of fire resistant material... will have to think about that.

I think many of us drive with our visors fully open. With my new helmet, I am going to start with the visor closed to adopt that new habit.

Getting out of the car... lots of good suggestions here. As a shorter driver with a muscular build, this is not trivial with a seat that has head protection. There is only so much you can do with seat sliders and pedal blocks, et cetera. The effort to practice getting out fast does not cost a penny, so that makes sense at minimum.

I think one other thing that we should consider is looking at stuff that can fail and lead to oil and fuel fires... this should be in our minds when we do tech inspections. Routing of lines w.r.t . potential chaffing, et cetera.

My car has had one fire in the last 10 years. Wife was driving and under load the right rear hub/stub axle broke. The departing wheel/tire hit the oil tank and knocked off the oil line. 8-9 quarts of oil hit the track and the headers and there was a flash fire. I shudder to think about what would have happened in the fire did not go out by itself.

gums

You mean like this?

SRL

Yep, if not for the location of that pesky fuel tank!

mrbill_fl

Best wishes for his Speedy Recovery!

-but, WoW, an OIL fire... they 'ususally' aren't that bad.... I was figuring a Fuel fire...

-it Could have been a LOT worse if it were fuel instead of Oil.


Probably a lot of you have laughed at me wearing my full nomex at DE's... but I know what can happen.

This type of event should be discussed at the DE drivers meeting. -cause it can happen.

-has any video of the fire posted?

M758

He has in car video and I assume it is pretty amazing. I know some have seen it, but it is not posted any place. I do not expect it to be posted online.

The interesting thing is that the fire was really hot and fire system, put a noticeable dent in flames did not put it out. However the car did not burn to the ground. Most of the back looked fine. Not sure on the front end. The firecrews on site did a job of containing it once they got to it. It is suspected to be an oil fire, but I am know the Tage has not looked over the car close enough to confirm 100%.

Tage's injuries seem to have be caused in that time as he was slowing down and preparing to exit the car.

Carrera GT

I think there's always the potential for some chuckling to see people at DE's in street cars, lapping at 65 mph, wearing their Nomex gauntlets and HANS, but the derision is preserved for the utter ******* showing up in full Ferrari race regalia, head to toe pristine bright red race suit and pixie shoes ... it's just a little too comical not to see the lighter side of the risks we take.

As for me, I've been known to wear the fireproofs and I have to admit, I'd forgotten my loathing of the inadequate safety and emergency response at the track. Seeing what's happened to someone fit and agile like Tage, I'm ready to suffer the discomfort and expense of a full balaclava and keep the helmet visor down.

I think this incident is as important as the basal skull fracture fatalities that motivated a lot of amateurs to find the money and get set up with a HANS collar.

For the time being, I'm on the track in an unmodified street car, but if I moved to a race prepped car, I'd have to budget on external air and seriously hefty fire system.

This fire is also a notice to anyone getting into a track prepped car as a passenger or instructor.

jrgordonsenior

Joe I hope he does post it online for all to see. Reality is life's best teacher....

mrbill_fl

I only needed to see one fuel fire...

Now if that's a high pressure FI system that blows.... <shutter> the only comparison I can think of is a booster rocket!


but, yeah, the poser stigma at DE's, is one reason I don't buy a newer suit, -my patches are old enough to have a comp license...

67King

Okay, so this thread has me wondering. I recently had a cage put in, and have stripped the car, essentially setting it up as if it were an SP3 car (I'm an embarassingly green DE guy). So how do those of you with more fully prepped cars have your door handles set up? The doors are gutted (no window motors, wiring, etc.). I did, however, re-use the factory handle, which is mostly plastic. I imagine that if I'm in a fire hot enough to melt the handle, I'll be seriously ^&%*ed up anyway, does anyone think about something like that?

gums

No, actually I haven't thought about that. My door handle thing is hose clamped to the remaining door bar, that's how most of us have it. I figure that by the time that thing melts I'm either out of the car or I've already melted....

924RACR

Fortunately, 924/944/951's have windows big enough to go straight out of, regardless...

fatbillybob

Only an uninformed idiot would laugh at you. People joke about the guy all decked out in race gear going 65mph in a beginner group? Well how many know that 45mph change in velocity is 50G's! Isn't that beginner going 10/10ths at his level of skill and could make the same mistake a more skilled racer could make going 10/10ths at his level of skill. Why should HANS be for racers only? My dual use streetcar goes 150mph on the banking at Autoclub speedway just like my racecar does and has 100 more HP too.