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.

just curious what year suburban you have. I have an '01 yukon XL that has never even hiccuped in 3 years.

My wife's X5 caught fire the day we got it home 3 years ago. If it wasn't in the driveway with a water hose nearby, would have been a big blaze. Apparently they had a problem with the electric fan in front of the radiator.

Some guy was not so lucky with his X5, he had his in the garage when it went ablaze, burnt the damn house down.

Her lease is up soon, probably wont be another BMW.

dr

Man that's scary! Sorry to hear about your trouble. I broke down on the way home also, but not as dramatically. I was hoping to pull you for instructor after hearing you discuss looking one turn ahead with Mike Mueller. Your post just caused me to resolve to equip my 914 with an extinguisher. Recommendations anyone?

The Suburban is a 1995 with a 454. I'll post what when wrong as soon as my mechanic tells me where it shorted.

As far as the extinguisher I'd call Brad at High Performance House in Redwood City. Or ask Rich Bontempi (same place) what he put in my car. I know the requirements for time trial extinguishers are pretty strict and can now attest to the fact that they work.

Per the SCCA book, if you do not have a fire system, get an extinguisher with a 10 BC rating.

If you give a rat's ass about the vehicle, go with Halon. Expensive, yeah, and you have to have a bigger (heavier) bottle to get the same rating as with dry-chem. But it won't eat your car the way dry-chem does.

Randall, check that extinguisher. If it says "purple K" or "dry chem" or some such on it, drop everything ASAFP and get to your Burb and clean all of the residue out. It eats aluminum and also wiring insulation. If you don't clean it out any aluminum bits are going to be rotted and weak in a little while, and you will have wiring troubles that will never ever go away.

There may be newer chemicals out there that don't f--k up aluminum and wiring--but if there ain't, then Halon is your friend. If I had any choice at all, I would not use my time-trial-legal dry-chem extinguisher on my 914. Period.

Oh, and those little Halon bottles the size of a spray insecticide can? They won't even put out a cigarette reliably. You need a bigger bottle than that. Look for "10BC" as the rating.

--DD

Hey Randal,

nice meeting you yesterday, thanks for the parking lot lesson

I think your car would have been a contender for TTOD for sure had the clutch not let go...I thought it was ignition related when it started to make funny noises at the starting light....I guess not

glad you got the fire out and under control, very scary stuff, I had a Volvo go up in flames, what sucked was I was still making payments on a car I paid too much for...nothing worse than paying for car that you no longer own when insurance only gives you X amount..........

Hi Randal,

Sorry to hear about your bad luck...sounds somewhat familiar to what I had coming back from Thunderhill earlier this month...

On a positive note, did you feel the differnece in those nice new springs? 250lbs...eh?

You're gonna like it alot when you get the clutch fixed...and you'll have that sticky surface at Reno to get the bugs out.

I'll be there!

Bill P.

I was thinking about a AFFF system. SCCA requires minimum 5lb halon or 2.25 liter AFFF.

AFFF is aqueous film forming foam. I haven't researched yet how it performs compared to halon but it is getting harder and more $$$ to get halon recharged.

http://www.ioportracing.com/faq/fire.htm

dr

Randal, very sorry to hear about your long day... with your better half and son along too! I'm glad you got it out.

Doug and Dana saw you on their way back to Marina to pick up the trailer. They had some troubles with their rig.

I think you took 9th overall on ONE run. Un-be-liev-able. I can't wait to see you in action with the new set up.

Thanks, R

Randal can blame me for not putting a clutch in his car prior to this Marina event. He told me he thought it was slipping before the suspension work I did.. I told him at the Alameda event that I thought it was wheel spin. It sucks not being able to drive the race cars on the street. VERY difficult trying to diagnose a issue with a car your cant bust around in.


B