From: Bill Sanford <tvrdude@netzero.net>
> then saw the fire in the grass I started, 100'
>back
>up the road. Headed to the fire (to protect my new Tuscan on the back of
>my now stationary Tow rig). Hell nor consternation would make the 1/2
>full exting. shoot again. After careful consideration, decided that I
>could stomp it out
Good choice. Read the label on a dry-chemical fire bottle. The are good
for Class B and C fires. Not so great for Class A (paper, wood, polyester
resin, the grass threatening your polyester resin).
I recall that Bob Cox's Europa caught fire back in the early seventies. It
was about a 1/4 mile from the event site at the Elko Speedway in Elko,
Minnesota. The whole gang started hitting it with fire bottles. I was
driving up in my SAAB. I drove right up near the crowd, handed my bottle
out the window and then drove about 40 feet away to clear the area. We blew
off all the small bottles and one of the club's. There was no fuel fire by
this time, but the body was starting to burn and the bottles wouldn't touch
it.
The gang finally realized that what we needed was water and lots of it.
Several guys started pushing the car back to the track, where we knew there
was a working garden hose. I yelled to some guys to get in my car. We
followed until the pushers started to get tired. I drove past the them and
my guys piled out and took over the pushing. I picked up the worn-out ones.
They got the Lotus back to the track and started putting out the burning
resin by flooding it with water. That did the job.
I think the car was either white or yellow from the factory then. When he
had it repaired, Bob had it repainted "vitamin C orange".
That was the first Lotus I ever drove. Bob let me take it around a course
at Signal Hill Shopping Center in West Saint Paul. I drove it at about
5/10ths. It was unbelievable. I only regret that it took me 20 years to
get one. I was grateful for that favor from Bob. So much so, that I didn't
take it so hard when he tapped me in an ice-race practice in Duluth,
precipitating my second, and most spectacular, rollover incident. We had a
little confusion over who had the line... The weird part is that when Bob's
Mini came down on all fours and spun, Bob became a little confused about the
direction of travel. He started off driving reverse-traffic nearly giving
Bob (what the heck was his last name?), an AMX driver from Winnipeg, a heart
attack. As soon as they both saw headlights, they parked it, so no further
car-nage ensued.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Chev Suburban
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"If I can do it, it's not art" - Red Green
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