Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Andy8421 wrote:I had a look at the 'Fire Safety Stick'. Which frankly I thought looked a bit dubious. "

I've had a 1kg standard extinguisher strapped to the passenger seat of my S4 for some years now (possibly compulsory when taking part to an event, can't remember for sure) and it always looked dubious if not ridculously small to me.

Then last Oct. I lent my car to a test pilot on a track: I had overfilled the sump with oil just in case he went overboard (he usually stays at the limit at least 100% of the time...) and after a few laps he exited without the customary cool off lap, sat at least 30 sec in front of the exit gate where the car started smoking heavily (oil spill from the cam cover opening), and when arriving at the parking the oil had fallen on the red hot exhaust wrapped in thermal insulation fiber and caught fire (also there is a tiny exhaust leak at the 2-1 exhaust junction from rubbing on the floor). This was now 10m or so from my spot in the parking lot, my friend who was the passenger for this demo climbed off the car, grabbed the 1kg toy extinguisher and handed it to me, I took the safety off, looked underneath the car at the yellow flames and pressed the trigger for half a second - which was enough to stop the fire, to my amazement. People where starting to gather, marshals where being called at the same time and eventually came 30 seconds later with a huge extinguisher on wheels, but only had to acknowledge that all was ok now.

So I've bought a brand new replacement, and kept the almost full one near the bench.

Timing is everything.

An Extinguisher in each car within reach of Driver while seated. Always within arms length of Driver.
Three in my Garage.
Alan

I have one in the cabin and one in the boot. 3 in the garage.

Now I'm paranoid I'm going to have one more in the car. I have e10 proof hose throughout, and next year will renew it just for peace of mind.