As reported over at Auto Trader, the Caparo T1 being driven by driver Jason Plato of Fifth Gear burst into flames during the test drive. At 150 MPH. This is terrifying for several reasons. One, at 150 MPH, you are going REALLY fast, and you absolutely trust the car to not disintegrate and hold up. You have this trust because if there is a problem, it takes a LOOONG time to stop the car.
In this case, Plato reported that “the car spontaneously erupted into a ball of flames and I was sat in the middle of a fireball. I hit the brakes, brought the car to a stop as quickly as I could and jumped out. The back of my neck is burnt and so are my face and hands. I obviously couldn’t take my hands off the steering wheel whilst braking and my right hand is more badly burnt than my left.”
He had to literally sit in the car, burning, waiting for it to stop. Yikes!
on October 11, 2007 at 12:21 am Richard C. wrote:
Talk about will power.
on October 11, 2007 at 9:46 am Noah wrote:
Yeah, that is pretty hardcore, I’m not gonna lie.
on October 11, 2007 at 4:03 pm Sam wrote:
Hot car.
on October 11, 2007 at 4:07 pm Noah wrote:
Yup. I think the engine bay of this car is even hotter than in Clint’s old RX-7, and that is no small feat.
on October 12, 2007 at 4:40 pm Sam wrote:
Didn’t see it mentioned, but was he wearing any sort of Nomex or flame resistant gloves/clothing? Sounds like a real trooper, he’s still going to race at Thruxton.
on October 12, 2007 at 7:40 pm Noah wrote:
Thats a good question, Sam. As he was not actually racing the car, I think he probably was NOT wearing any Nomex. Also, I don’t know much about Nomex, but I would hope it could last a little longer than 2 seconds.
on October 12, 2007 at 8:40 pm The Pansy Patrol » How fire protection garments are measured wrote:
[…] comment was raised in Noah’s last post about protective garments and their effectiveness against fire. I looked into this a bit when I […]