ZSA Motorsport

just sharing a though i had after a near rough incident we had on track recently...

somewhere last year after watching the Magnus John potter Rolex cup car burn to the ground at Watkins, we put small handheld fire extinguishers in our Cup car and Camaro.

obviously in both with have a full fire bottle pull system with multiple nozzles in the engine bay, driver area, etc. etc.

but on both we had a few pounds to give away to get to min weight, so rather than a slab of steel, i thought a handheld FE as well would be helpful. my feeling is that if a fire gets going, and i pull the bottle trigger, it might do the job. it might not. it might not work at all. and more importantly, it might do all its capable but the fire could be in an area that isnt covered.
you see all these videos of races where drivers exit their car, pull the bottle and then they are scurrying along pit wall to get a fire extinguisher from a corner worker to keep the car from burning down.
atleast here you can grab a handheld FE while exiting and maybe give yourself a shot of not burning the car to the ground.
again, if you have some weight to give up, whats the harm?

txhokie4life

Back in the day the fire extinguisher was used to put your competitors fire out.

Either way it seems like a good idea.

Mike

TXE36

I've got two in my DE car. Their only purpose is a last ditch chance to keep it from going up in the event of a small fire after I'm out of the car. Bought them after watching a MR2 go up at MSRH. That fire started small, but by the time the support truck got out there it was a total loss. Would really hate to loose a car because I didn't have a $20 FE bottle. If I loose it anyway, well then at least I tried.

-Mike

Vonschmidt

I agree good idea and a lot more useful than a slab of steel. We have onboard tank and handheld. Used it just a few weeks ago at NOLA to control a fire in someone else's car until the real fire guys could get there.

GuyIncognito

where do you put them in the car? Between the seat and cage in the drivers side? passenger footwell? I'm just thinking about where the most accessible place is for the driver once he's out of the car.

stownsen914

I saw one car saved due to a handheld fire extinguisher in the engine bay (it actually took multiple bottlles to put out the fire). A second car almost burnt to the ground because it had only an onboard system ... until the marshal was able to get there with an extinguisher to put it out. The second car's owner always carries a handheld bottle in his car in addition to the onboard system. I do the same.

Good point about placement of the mount ....

ZSA Motorsport

the cup car and camaro are kind of tight. i put them on the roll cage over my right shoulder in the cup car below the camera as low down as possible, low center of gravity and center of the car.
camaro is in the passenger area, fastened to stack of ballast.

fatbillybob

Hand helds are a great thing. How about some tips on good extinguisher mounts too.

LuigiVampa

I have mine mounted to the inside of the rocker panel but when I get my full cage installed I intend to move it right in front of my seat so it is sitting under my legs. If you can't get your hand on it it doesn't do you any good so there are a limited amount of places it can go.

I keep an extinguisher in my DD as well. Never had to use it on my vehicle (knock on wood) but have used them twice on other vehicles. One was a small car fire under the hood which I was able to extinguish. The other was a panel van and the thing burned to the ground. These small extinguishers don;t do anything against a large fire.

Frank 993 C4S

This is a great thread and I have been thinking of getting a hand held in addition to the fire system. I will look to get one mounted in front of the seat.

Chaos

Took mine out when I put the Halon system in. Time to put it back in as well.

ZSA Motorsport

the mounts are pretty versatile and friendly for different mounting options.
on the camaro, we just bolted it in the passenger footwell area literally next to the full bottle system bottle. just bolted the bracket to the floor and done.

mounting it low and to the right probably has zero impact on the balance of the car if anyone's even thinking that way, and im always thinking that way