20-01-2020, 06:16 PM
Measham Rally, January, North Yorkshire, 1am, Alvis Speed 20 saloon. Professionally and expensively maintained.
After a lot of wiggly stuff around the back lanes (near Malcolm's) we come up to a more major road.
The driver says to me:
"I think I must have been slipping the clutch a bit - I can smell it"
Me, navigating:
"No, that's a sweet smell, clutches are acrid "
Driver accelerates away on the bigger road.
30 seconds later looks in the mirror:
"Bloody hell, we're on fire."
I look around and see a trail of flames running out behind us.
We quickly stop, grab the 1 litre extinguisher and locate the fire. It's in the engine bay, on the scuttle and is flaming away. Driver administers the extinguisher, aiming through the louvres. Unfortunately he has the orientation 180 degrees out and intially blasts himself in the face. Extinguisher turned around and emptied into the fire, which thankfully goes out. We then open the bonnet to locate the source and the fresh, cold Yorkshire air rekindles the fire (we'd taken the oxygen away with the extinguisher but the heat was still there, so the fire had come back to life).
Our extinguisher was empty and the car was still on fire! The combination of a large bottle of Fanta orange and the useful proximity of 5" of snow everywhere saved our bacon - and the car. But it took lots of snow, repeatedly piled on the source of the fire to put it out.
The next 3 hours, stuck on the top of the moors in the middle of a January night waiting for suitable recovery were probably the coldest I've ever been since school. Sitting in the car was even colder than walking up and down the road.
Hence my enthusiasm for a decent, accessible fire extinguisher.
Charles
After a lot of wiggly stuff around the back lanes (near Malcolm's) we come up to a more major road.
The driver says to me:
"I think I must have been slipping the clutch a bit - I can smell it"
Me, navigating:
"No, that's a sweet smell, clutches are acrid "
Driver accelerates away on the bigger road.
30 seconds later looks in the mirror:
"Bloody hell, we're on fire."
I look around and see a trail of flames running out behind us.
We quickly stop, grab the 1 litre extinguisher and locate the fire. It's in the engine bay, on the scuttle and is flaming away. Driver administers the extinguisher, aiming through the louvres. Unfortunately he has the orientation 180 degrees out and intially blasts himself in the face. Extinguisher turned around and emptied into the fire, which thankfully goes out. We then open the bonnet to locate the source and the fresh, cold Yorkshire air rekindles the fire (we'd taken the oxygen away with the extinguisher but the heat was still there, so the fire had come back to life).
Our extinguisher was empty and the car was still on fire! The combination of a large bottle of Fanta orange and the useful proximity of 5" of snow everywhere saved our bacon - and the car. But it took lots of snow, repeatedly piled on the source of the fire to put it out.
The next 3 hours, stuck on the top of the moors in the middle of a January night waiting for suitable recovery were probably the coldest I've ever been since school. Sitting in the car was even colder than walking up and down the road.
Hence my enthusiasm for a decent, accessible fire extinguisher.
Charles