Mclaren F1 mimicks 458

In this case I'm not surprised, when a fire develops on a race car it usually gets worse once fuel lines are damaged and the fuel pumps continue to pump high pressure fuel into the fire.

agonising how slow the marshalls are to put out the flames!!!

And it does take some time for the car to stop, the driver to unbolt the door and climb out. Kinda shows why flame proof gear is required.

Actually there is a cast of thousands in attendance.............

These always amaze me. Even with electrical cut offs and on board fire extinguishers these things burn uncontrollably.

A friend had a BMW new 3 series burn to the floor. He realised smoke was in the cabin whilst blatting down the A1M and by the time he stopped on the hardshoulder it was beyond saving.

He said by the time he opened his door, to exit, flames were appearing throught the front bonnet.

The fire crew said debris had entered the air intake and set fire..........how they can tell that from a burnt out wreck beats me.

Decades ago, a friend's year-old Chevy Cavalier burned to the ground in front of his house. Entire front end was melted to the pavement, windshield shattered. Was a car-sized column of smoke. You could feel serious heet even from well across the street. It was about 5:30 in the evening.

When the fire was finally out, a fireman reached inside and grabbed a mug of coffee which was sitting on the dash and said, "it's still hot, you must've just parked the car."

I thought my friend's eyes would roll through the back of his head, but he just said "Uh, I left that coffee there at 6:30 this morning - the last time I drove it. ...but you're right - that coffee being hot after having just sat for 20 minutes just 12" from a fire which melted half a car sure is a mystery, huh!?"

AugustWest said:

Decades ago, a friend's year-old Chevy Cavalier burned to the ground in front of his house.

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Had one of those as rental once. What a piece of cr**. Don't think I have ever driven anything anywhere near as bad as that "car". The only fun thing about it was that it was good at doing handbrake turns......

997 said:

Had one of those as rental once. What a piece of cr**. Don't think I have ever driven anything anywhere near as bad as that "car". The only fun thing about it was that it was good at doing handbrake turns......

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Oh - it was a total POS alright. But my friend's not into cars at all (he's a techie). It burned because of a part defect, wrote my friend a check for $10,000 above the total loss amount (which, IIRC was only about $7,500). He banked the $10K and went and bought a Honda (which I'd tried very hard to get him to buy in the first place -but he wanted to "Buy American.").

And got what he paid for - it was 1985, after all!

That Cavalier was abysmally craptastic.

F1 road car self-combusting.

http://wot.motortrend.com/mclaren-f...-mt-staffers-shed-a-collective-tear-5180.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC-qXGXYOMQ

AugustWest said:

but he wanted to "Buy American.").

And got what he paid for - it was 1985, after all!

That Cavalier was abysmally craptastic.

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The one I drove was somewhere in the early '90s. On one trip to the US I drove something chevy with 4 doors and the next trip one with 2 doors. I think the last one was the cavalier?

I remember ATROCIOUS road "holding" and when the electric window hit the top position the door visibly bent. The 4 door pulled a bit to the right when it was handed over to us and 10 days later it took a spontaneous right turn when you took your hands of the wheel.

The quality of the thing, the way it drove, the lousy engine and the slush box it was all so atrociously bad that I still remember those 2 cars and they are not exactly the sort of vehicles you would expect to remember.....

Also "drove" a cadillac from someone I visited. That felt more like being at the helm of a small boat.

Not being american after that buying or driving american was simply out of the question!

Both these F1s, the GTR at Le Mans and the road car in California, were repaired by McLaren and continue to live on today.

>8^)
ER