Smoke

[Jonblue]

I did eight laps of the nurburgring on the weekend. It was one of the best driving experiences of my life, but that's another story.

Anyway, when waiting in the queue to leave the circuit I noticed smoke coming out of vents behind one of the rear wheels. I was terrified it was going to catch fire. The smoke smelt slightly electrical, was white and was almost definitely not coming from the engine bay.

I couldn’t really stop so I decided that the best course of action was to get off the track where there would be fire extinguishers etc. But by the time I got there, the smoke had gone, and there was no evidence of the cause that I could see. There were no problems at all on the way back.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or could shed any light on it? Thanks in advance.

[NWTony]

Was the track wet? Any chance it could be steam coming off the discs lol

Might have been the tyres I suppose, but I'd have thought burning rubber would have been obvious.

[TIPPER]

I don't know what the problem could have been but was that 8 laps non-stop? If so, and you were driving hard then thats probably 3-4 times the amount of time you should be pushing your car for (unless its set up for it).

[tricky 100]

Brakes can smoke and even catch fire when used extremly , ie 6 laps of the ring. If you made it home ok i expect that was the cause.

[Jonblue]

I had just done two laps in that session...but I was driving it quite hard.

Looks like the brakes are the main suspect.

Last night I was looking for more evidence and I found that the ventilation holes in the discs were clogged up with brake dust. I've done two track days in as many weeks so I'm going to clean out my vents and just take it easy for bit.

thanks everyone!

[GirlyLotusTamer]

Hello JonBlue

Were you at the ring on Sunday?

If so which Lotus were you in? You don’t happen to remember that grey S2 going fairly slow round the ring do you?

[Jonblue]

Hi! I was in a white S2. I do remember a silver S1, but it wasn't going slowly
Would definitely have said hello if our paths had crossed. What an amazing place eh?

[GirlyLotus_Tamer]

Yea it was an awesome track - I remember you now in that lovely looking white Loti. I wasn’t in the silver S1 I was in the grey S2 - it was a great day despite the thousand mile drive just to do 6 laps