July 16, 2012
Fire!
Part of the final test for NASA's competition school involved getting out of the race car, from fully strapped it with the engine on, in fifteen seconds.
It's not as easy as you'd think: you have to shut the engine, open the door, drop the net, undo your belts and radio plug and crawl out. It's a damn good thing to practice though because, you just never know.
And it's not just Ferraris that spontaneously combust, check out what happened to the Magnus Racing Porsche driven by John Potter at the Sahlen Six Hours of the Glen when the electrics let go.
Not sure why Potter does not activate the onboard extinguisher but the fact it takes almost two minutes before a fire extinguisher is deployed might be because the 2012 Daytona winner pulled off the main track and onto the "NASCAR" shortcut, stopping away from a marshal station.
Practice getting out of your car!
UPDATE: Magnus Racing told us Potter did activate the onboard extinguisher but that the system is aimed at the driver's legs, the engine and the fuel cell, not the dash.
You can read Magnus Racing's blog HERE
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Andy Lally said that John DID deploy the internal fire system, ad that it just didn't work properly. Proof right there that your fire systems need to be fanatically tended to on a yearly basis.
ReplyDeleteHope they did not forget the pin in...
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting footage on cockpit fire (of a minor magnitude than this one and during refuelling) is the one from the Doerr Motorsport MP4-12C GT3 at the recent VLN race. http://youtu.be/FSaZFci6_xw
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