scorps Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 The Pods fire quenching efforts seem a bit lame IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S2IM Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 Blimey the owners must be gutted! That looks expensive. At least the driver got out ok though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 Don't smoke and drive..... On a real note, oh dear looks like the 6 second lifespan of a drag engine was cut short in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted May 29, 2011 Report Share Posted May 29, 2011 Nitrous backfire by the looks of it , motor will probably be fine , they do burn quickly as i'm guessing a fuel pipe ruptured, i think they need to improve the on board fire suppression systems for this class of cars , Andy Robinson had his car burn back in 2010 To be fair Santa Pod are more geared up for a fire at the top end but my mates bike once burst into flames in the burnout and one of the marshalls just threw a bucket of water over him and the bike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 That looks nasty, glad no one was hurt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Headers should land around Now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorps Posted May 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 The guy that owns the car said he wont be competing anymore as he cant afford to build another car. "Nothing was insecure, there was a nitrous backfire which blew the hoodscoop 30ft in the air, the forces in such explosions often take out an intake manifold, gaskets, fuel/nitrous lines at the same time. With 2 x 20lb nitrous bottles at around 1000psi & a couple of 120gph fuel pumps there is so much combustible stuff everywhere in a couple of seconds & although we have on board extinguishers, they are really only effective with a minor fuel/oil fire, basically to control the fire to give the driver enough time to get out. In this tragic event the fact that there was such a strong wind fanning the fire did not help, it is a very sad end to Henri's racing career as he said today that the car is beyond repair & he cannot afford to build another. He has been truly well respected & regular competitor in Pro Mod & will be missed". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Oh dear, i'm gutted to read the full story...... I'm sorry that my interpretation of this event was so void of the real facts..... In truth most drivers in this field are very well sponsored so a "blow out" is not a financial consideration, obviously in this case it is. I wish the best of luck to the owner and a "speedy" recovery, excuse the pun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 In European drag racing the sponsorship is much lower than other sports , quite often the cars are financed through friends and family if you can get sponsored for fuel or for tyres you consider yourself very fortunate , there are no big money deals and nobody gets rich Those nitrous engines cost about £60k alone add another £100k for the rest of the car plus spares , tools support equipment etc let alone for these continental racers the cost of travel to UK event He had done very well with that car though its been racing a fair while it was purchased from the US in the 90's iirc. He has been around even longer i'm sure he will be back , I bet behind the scenes he is working a way to buy Robinsons Studebaker The class of pro-mod used to be dominated by large capacity nitrous engines but in the last few years many people have gone over to the supercharged methanol engines for this very reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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