Bad car day, The Marina AutoX Options

[Randal]

Date line The Marina (AM)

After all the suspension work it was a big disappointment to lose my clutch sometime during the first (second for sure) run. Brad was hoping it was something else, but after a short drive it was time for the trailer.

The good news is that the car feels a lot better to me, but we’ll find out in Reno. The Marina would have been super fast in the PM; it was absolutely a perfect day.

And my student “trekkor” dropped 10 seconds off his time in 5 runs. Not bad. After a bit more work on the basics he’ll be in there going after a class win. I have to remember to give him Hank Watt’s book, which he’ll find invaluable, especially the bits about hand position and applying power.

PM:

After loading up we headed home. I was about 250 yards South of the Highway that goes over to Hollister (85?) and lost all power on my bourbon. I was able to get the truck and trailer off to the side safely (fun with no power anything) and then noticed that there was smoke coming from the engine compartment.

I opened the hood (wrong) to check and sure enough the battery (passenger side) was on fire.

I ran back to my 914 and grabbed the extinguisher, ran back to the bourbon and immediately put out the fire.

Something shorted one of the positive cables to the frame and the battery finally disconnected after the lead melted the plastic (or whatever) around the terminal connection.

I am going to put extinguishers in all my vehicles this week.

I always keep my vehicles up, but this has been a huge lession to me. If the 914 hadn’t been there, the bourbon would be no more.

I don’t know what kind of extinguisher Bontempi put in my 914, but that is the one I’m going to put in all my vehicles.

That fire was out in one second.