Not a good day - My Griff catches fire

[TVR OWL]

Going up Winnats Pass Castleton today. Smelled burning and then felt the clutch pedal give way. Managed to get to the top of the hill in second gear but by then smoke was coming into the cabin. Then pulled over to the side of the road when flames lapped out of the bonnet. Didnt have my fire extinguisher with me (it was in the back of my Cerbera !) so poured 4 litres of cola and 2 litres of coolant I had in the boot over the fire in the engine bay. Flames died down for a while but soon came back. Passing motorists gave me more water and one had a small powder fire extinguisher . . . but in the end had to just let the fire take hold and wait for the fire brigade. Came about 15 minutes later and put the fire out. Car towed away to recovery firms compound

Will never drive again without a couple of extingusishers on board.

Press Photographer happened to be passing and took this photograph. So now my poor Griffs on the front page of Derby Telegraph

Edited by TVR OWL on Sunday 30th November 20:32

Edited by TVR OWL on Sunday 30th November 20:33

[TVR OWL]

15 minutes of flames up to 3 foot out of the bonnet. Flames and a lot of smoke from the cabin (around the gearstick and dash board). Hope its repairable. It was just frustrating having to just stand at the roadside watching it go up in flames. On the plus side Bodywork and most of engine bay looked ok afterwards.

[TVR OWL]

As I got a burning smell just prior to the clutch pedal giving way I assume the fire started as a result of the clutch failure and that the fire spread from there. Or maybe was it started from a wiriing failure. Dont know.
Best if you all make sure you carry a fire extinguisher in the boot. . . just in case

Edited by TVR OWL on Sunday 30th November 21:42

[TVR OWL]

Thanks to everyone for all your kind thoughts.

On longer runs I transfer my fire extinguisher, jump leads, coolant, tyre pump, tools etc to the car I'm about to use. However on this occasion the car had been stood on the drive unused for a few weeks and I decided to just go for a quick run. I was only going to the next village (4 miles away) and back so didn't bother moving things across from the Cerbera boot.
Having said that I don't know whether I could have put the fire out if I had my extinguisher with me as it was hard to get down to where the fire had taken hold.

Been in touch with the insurers today and RT Racing are picking the car up tomorrow from the garage who recovered it. So should have news from Richard Thorpe on the extent of the damage soon. I'll post back once I know more.

Thanks,
Graham

[TVR OWL]

Yes its annoying our cars get branded as unreliable. Got that from a few at work on Monday. But its an old car and you expect some problems from old cars no matter who made them. You will have problems. I ask them whether they think their cars will still be on the road 17 years from now

In the newspaper article it puts the cars value at £20,000 : I gave the reporter that figure : Once I had used up all the bottles of water and cola in my boot and the motorists who stopped to help had used up all the water/drinks they had we just had to stand back and wait for the fire brigade. The reporter (who by chance had been parked up nearby) then asked me whether I thought it would be repairable and I replied that at that point I thought it hopefully would be as the damage was probably less than the cars £20,000ish value. But that if the fire got worse / the petrol tank exploded then it would be a write off.

Someone left a comment on the newspaper article that I shouldn't have left the bonnet up as the air could then feed the flames. May have a point I suppose but its hard to just stand back and leave the fire to take a hold. Your instinct is to try and tackle it in the hope you can put it out before things get worse.

Edited by TVR OWL on Tuesday 2nd December 14:21

[TVR OWL]

Spoke with RT last week and its repairable. Early signs are it was a clutch fire or clutch fluid pipe that's ruptured and the fluids caught fire. The chassis powder coat has been burnt off in places so will need body off for new powder coating. Interior damaged so needs a re-trim : leather, dashboard, carpets, new wiring, clocks etc. Early signs are that there's little damage to the engine bay - just wiring and stepper motor area near the bulkhead damaged. They still needed to clean down the bodywork to check on damage there but hopefully ok . . . to take a closer look at the bonnet and let me know. Obviously the fibre glass in the tunnel will have damage - the extent unknown yet but repairable.