I'm down to 3 Lotus

Glad you got out, and hoping that Hagerty sorts you out with a minimum of fuss so you can turn your attention from brushes with danger to what you would do about the Esprit if you had it to do over, since you do now...

Glad you're okay.

Hopefully you can have some fun finding the replacement1

GameboyRMH wrote: Well that sucks. RIP Crystal Princess (still can't believe you named it that).

Jeez Doc, I've always liked you, but did you seriously refer to that car as "Crystal Princess"?!

As someone who searches the ads for "Lotus" on a daily basis, I believe that we need more of these cars, not fewer, but I'm not sure how bad I feel about this one anymore...

Glad you're OK. Had a fuel pump arc to the frame on my Stalker. Arcing and fuel = bad combination. Fortunately no fire, but scary moment anyway.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

Well, like everyone else has already said, that sucks. But life goes on, and there are other cars to burn, right?

Glad to hear you're OK, but very sorry to hear about the car. I loved knowing that at least once of the Esprits out in the wild was being driven as it was meant to!

Sorry to hear about your Lotus, Doc. Glad to hear you're alright.

to be proper... a wake is in order to celebrate it's life and achievements

I've had two catch on fire with no "Coaxing." E36 M3ty way to watch a car go. Sorry man.

After watching my Turbobrick burn, I was quite sad. But life went on, and I realized it was just a machine after all. Now I've got a better one.

Yeah, FF00, that's how I'm looking at it. Like you see when someone marries a supermodel. Sure, there's the supermodel part, but you know there's the total PITA biatch part that goes right along with it. Then the marriage blows up (or burns to the ground, whatever), and the guy goes his way and thinks really, really hard about another supermodel and putting up with all the E36 M3 that goes with it.

We tend to personify these things, especially after the thousands of hours we (I) put into them. In the end, it's only stuff. Berkeley it.

And I don't think I'll be posting pics. It's too depressing. That worst one hotlinked above looks good compared. I'm not gonna feed the ghouls. And my next one will have an onboard fire suppression system.

You gave me hope that love for british cars as awesome as Lotii would not end in tragedy. This sucks.

I am glad you got out without the need of skin grafts. For that I'm grateful for you.

I am glad you are not hurt, as you said it was only stuff. It can be replaced. What type extinguisher did you use? Did it seem to help before it ran out of suppressant?

I always figured those people who said the Esprit club has a "Fire Marshal" to keep track of all the fires were just being funny. Maybe not.

Yeah, split thickness skin grafts suck. Not too difficult of a surgery, but not that exciting either. And sux royally for the patient.

The extinguisher was a generic dry chemical powder type. It seemed to slow the flames down a little, that's all. Both of them. I think it was probably burning from underneath, and it all happened so fast. I think I tried spraying by the wheel, but it didn't really help.

Dr. Hess wrote: Yeah, split thickness skin grafts suck. Not too difficult of a surgery, but not that exciting either. And sux royally for the patient. The extinguisher was a generic dry chemical powder type. It seemed to slow the flames down a little, that's all. Both of them. I think it was probably burning from underneath, and it all happened so fast. I think I tried spraying by the wheel, but it didn't really help.

Just glad to hear you're OK. I've fought car fires at the track, but never been around one on the street.

EDIT: I was taught in our Crash & Burn school (Corner Worker first aid & firefighting) that if the fire has begun to engulf the entire vehicle, dry chem pretty much only keeps the flames down long enough to allow the driver to exit the car. Once the flames escape the subsystem that was the source of the flareup, it is extremely difficult to extinguish the entire car. I've seen it done (an SCCA GT-1 car), but we had about five guys working on it, and the Flag Chief handing us extra 10 & 20lb capacity bottles out of the back of the course truck to do it. IIRC, we used between 8-12 full sized dry chem bottles. The dry chem ended up corroding the tube frame so badly that the guy ended up having to discard the chassis anyway.

Why I posted up that rambling, boring edit: Don't beat yourself up because you couldn't put it out with those two little bottles. That's not what they're designed for. There's no way you could have stopped it without a fire truck.

Another vote for Glad you made it out OK.

And it's good you have professional training to recognize and deal with any weird post-event symptoms that might show up, beer or no beer.

Dr. Hess,

You're my hero for having more than one Lotus. I haven't worked up the courage yet to own one, much less four. I've been jonesing for a Europa for years. Keep on fixing the other Lotuses and enjoy those in memory of the Esprit.

sorry to hear that, glad you are okay!

Seriously I mean what can you say to such a suck thing, I suppose you can always tell the story about how you've had a beer over an open pit lotus-que...

Dr. Hess wrote: Yeah, had Hagerty. Called them up while the fire department was still hosing it down. They called the wrecker. Or sweeper, as the case may be. Don't think it was electrical. It was burning at the back where there's no wires, just the cat. Having run a burn unit, I'm real glad there was no skin involved as well. Saved the brief case and the nine mike mike. Everything else is gone.

So was the 9mm to put the poor thing out over its misery?

Who knew the held so much smoke Glad you made it out ok.

Wow... Glad you are ok! I almost lost my Trans Am to a fire 10 years ago. Always carry a fire extinguisher; I was lucky that someone passing by in a truck had one. You never know when you or someone else will need it.

E36 M3. Glad you made it out.

Woody wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Well that sucks. RIP Crystal Princess (still can't believe you named it that).

Jeez Doc, I've always liked you, but did you seriously refer to that car as "Crystal Princess"?! As someone who searches the ads for "Lotus" on a daily basis, I believe that we need more of these cars, not fewer, but I'm not sure how bad I feel about this one anymore...

Well he did say there was a lot of meth around his area...