Old Top Gear 1991 - Car Fires

Chris Goffey looks at the scale of car fires. He looks at what manufactures have done to lower the risk and looks at some 3rd party products you can buy. Taken from season 14, episode 7.

[@KeyToTime]

Apparently this Cavalier survived all the tests and was still on the road until 2002. I did a DVLA vehicle enquiry and it's Date of Liability was 01/09/2002. Old Top Gear never destroyed anything unnecessarily.

[@vaultdweller3371]

And what happened to it after that?

[@dasaniwater8259]

Vault Dweller it unfortunately caught fire

[@TrinityCourtStudios]

Jose Villatoro If that’s not irony, then I don’t know what is.

[@frankvandendool882]

They destroy stuff unnecessarily, because it's fun and the viewers love seeing stuff get destroyed. Go hug a f*cking tree.

[@lastp6905]

Well it was only a few years old when this test was done, no need to destroy a car that’s hasn’t been around a longtime

[@squeezybob84]

Let me pour flamable liquids onto a hot exhaust without gloves or safety gear and in a suit. This would never fly these days 😂

[@frankvandendool882]

With these small amounts, nothing is going to happen. These days there are a lot of people acting like complete idiots, that's why there are useless safety rules.

[@RSLMecha]

I never knew Chris Goffey was a Pyromaniac :P

[@robertgary3561]

In the US we've always mandated DOT 3 which is silicon based since the 1960's. high temp used on motorcycles etc is DOT 4 but still has a high flash point.

[@EdwardM104]

DOT 3 definitely not silicone based, it's glycol based and flammable. Only DOT 5 is silicone based.

[@houktanhdanhi2352]

I miss these old shows

[@jonathandonne1432]

That cavalier is one hot hatch

[@yellowhammer3]

when i was a kid in the 80s our Ford had an electrical problem and caught fire in the middle of the night, burnt half our house :(

[@blooperr1050]

matt k I feel sad for you

[@TheWretchedWorld]

why does every car in England have a sunroof but the sun is non existent?

[@vaultdweller3371]

Well, they need all the light they can get, even if it's sunny twice a decade. But joking aside it does help with the interior lighting when there is low lighting outside (aka every day).

[@twocvbloke]

It's to give us a reason to use duct tape when it starts leaking in the rain... :P

[@rarevhsuploads4995]

Most cars don't have a sunroof in 2018 because air conditioning is almost universal on cars. Also the summer this year has been incredibly long & hot.

[@jaggass]

''Danger to manifold!!!''

[@nachof248]

me encanto el sistema del matafuegos con la manguera..es tan simple y tan practico y util =| ya mismo me pongo a armarme uno!! jaja muy buen video really really good video, thanks for the upload, I had no clue that high temp brake fluid could and would catch fire just like that =|

[@1100HondaCB]

Looks as if the Halon type of extinguisher was developed in the aircraft industry during WWII to put out engine fires in the likes of the B17s and so on. What amazes me, is even to this day (2012), I don't know of any car manufacturer that fits this to any of their cars as standard. Shockingly, there is technology out there waiting to be exploited thus possibly saving many more lives, but just isn't getting used. Deeply infuriating!

[@alsationshep1]

Were is his PPE when doing theses tests safety glasses, gloves different era back then

[@master4112]

fire trace is a good idea but foam or powder would be better to prevent re-ignition plus they are still legal.

[@1100HondaCB]

I have an ADR licence so know about auto ignition temperatures and surprisingly, petrol's AIT is higher than diesel's AIT. That of petrol is 450 celcius and that of diesel is 250 celcius, so the possibility of brake fluid, thus being oil based and causing fires doesn't not surprise me in the least. Engine oil spilt on to a hot manifold, I would be more concerned about than petrol.

[@jonbuggins5575]

I miss the old days where things would spontaneously combust!

[@xOVERLOADEDx]

You can hold a lit torch to a pool of diesel and it wont light, its very difficult light off without both extreme heat and pressure.

[@cjmillsnun]

To those wanting that fire extinguisher system. Halon is now illegal.

[@Rentta]

+cjmillsnun I think you could use carbon dioxide extinguisher instead.

[@OverlandTT]

+Rentta co2 may just spread the fire also co2 tends to go up where as halon goes to ground level.

[@robertgary3561]

cjmillsnun we still use them on aircraft in the US

[@bait28]

except halon isn't illegal stupid fuck, only manufacture on us Soil

[@leopold7562]

Actually, in the UK and EU, the use of halon fire extinguishers is illegal, unless there's one already installed and it covers a critical system. Where I used to work, the server suite was covered by a halon extinguisher and we had to apply for an exemption, but we could only get one for three years and were expected to replace it in that time. You can only recharge a halon system with recycled halon as well. Maybe the rules are different in climate change denying countries like the US.

[@kernals12]

2:26 I thought disc brakes dissipated heat better

[@thephilpott2194]

With petrol the hazard is the low flash point (ignition by spark or naked flame) whereas with oil, brake fluid and the like it's the auto ignition point. As others have said Halon has been witch-hunted to the point where it's only licensed for aircraft- the reason it is retained in aviation is the one that you would expect; it bloody works! I think the chief problem with Halon is the toxicity of the combustion products. It's got to the point where the new extinguishers are recharged with the recycled contents of old extinguishers,due to the restriction on production of more Halon!! These days car extinguishers, particularly in racing, are all about AFFF, Aqueous film forming foam. This rose to fame at the turn of the 20th/21st C when the fire brigade started realising that removing tetraethyl lead from petrol wasn't such a fantastic idea. Funnily enough Mk2 Cavaliers did catch fire occasionally, but generally from electrical shorting. I have got 2Kilos of Halon and it fits nicely in the centre console, so yah boo sucks to them. Soon they'll be taxing sugar and banning proper light bulbs.. What? They have? Christ..

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

+The Philpott One of the major issues of Halon extinguishers is the fact that they are CFCs. CFCs have been banned in all but a few select industries across most of the World.

[@steven-vn9ui]

Fire or "Faar"

[@OhNoHesDrivenRoundIt]

Fahar!

[@DIZAZZO]

@nachof248 I like the fire extinguisher too, like he said in the video, it´s so simple, i´m wondering why it´s not standard in the cars today.

[@Xplorewithmatt]

This is back from when top gear was good and didn’t just show off crappy cars like they do nowadays

[@eddiejones.redvees]

The Halon fire system does not come as standard in any mode car that I now of properly down to cost

[@kernals12]

could diesel fuel ignite in contact with hot metal?

[@Alexander_l322]

No it’s combustible under pressure and heat and oxygen together not by lighting a match or it touching extremely hot metal.

[@KINGSBLACKBELT]

Keep a Fire Blanket in your car under front seat 1.2mx1.8m wide-can protect you from radiant heat!

[@minidriversouthsweden5137]

Coaches and psv's have that system installed in the engine bay I believe.

[@cjmillsnun]

Paulo Gianolio They don't. Halon is now illegal.

[@Teribus13]

Paulo Gianolio typically PSVs use powder extinguishers for this purpose

[@sad1234ee]

I think that he means the firetrace system, not the halon it is used with different chemicals nowadays

[@RSLMecha]

Why and how did you look that up.

[@seb959]

Rip haggard garage acura

[@jayshields1234]

What has Rudniks Acura fire got to do with top gear?

[@seb959]

car fire

[@Swissair171]

When in doubt, kill it with Halon!

[@barabaspolo]

did it succeed? :)

[@1100HondaCB]

Don't try this at home! So some 12 year old sees this and decides to borrow his dad's brand new car to conduct these experiments, but inadvertantly destroys his dad's new motor.

[@dkmorris713]

OMFG WHY ISNT GOFFEY OFFERING MUSTACHE RIDES FOR A FIVER?? I'd order a dozen

[@cirian75]

22 years later

[@CoffeeOn]

30 years now

[@cirian75]

@@CoffeeOn I was 37, now 45 :(

[@RSBritain]

@@cirian75 now 47

[@cirian75]

@@RSBritain yup

[@RSBritain]

@@cirian75 rip