Dude, Your Car's on Fire

This afternoon, my two brothers Matthew and Stephen took me out to teach me some of the details of the fine art of rally racing, which is when you race your car in dirt instead of on an asphalt road.  Stephen has an old 1985 Saab 900 that is his beater car for this sort of thing since it runs pretty well (okay, so it burns a fair amount of oil so it smokes a bit), but has some rather significant cosmetic issues (like no interior).  At any rate, it is a fun car to run around the woods in and to learn how to drive in the dirt.  I wanted to learn some new things, so off we went in the car!

Well, it was incredibly fun and I learned several important lessons this afternoon, as well as a pile of interesting tidbits.  The whole thing is an intricate dance of car and dirt.  Here are the highlights:

Important Lesson Number 1:  Sliding turns are cool.

Those cool sliding turns that the drivers perform with such precision and flair in races and movies are much harder to do that they look.  Actually, it isn't hard at all to slide around like a twit.  But it is really hard to end up pointing the direction you want to end up going.  You also really have to sight where you want to end up going and keep your eyes on that point, because if you are not looking at your goal but at something else (like the car in front of you), you will end up going some direction you did not want to.  You will go where you are looking to some extent.

Important Corollary to Lesson Number 1:  Don't lose sight of the destination.

I did not verify this myself, but Matt and Stephen tell me that if you spin the car around too many times and lose track of your destination spot, you get pretty disoriented.  I figure that this is important to remember for the next time that I am driving in Boston.

Important Lesson Number 2:  Emergency brakes are way cool.

Heh.

Important Lesson Number 3:  Don't let up on the gas unless what you hit actually stops the car.

This is a direct quote from my brother Matt.  One of the obstacles I was learning to traverse was a really steep, sandy hill.  The first time I tackled the hill I had the car in a reasonable gear (the car has a manual transmission, of course), but I did not have enough speed, so the car only made it about half-way up before gravity won out and we started sliding back down the sandy surface backwards.  Dropping into a lower gear and stomping on the gas pedal only dug out trenches in the sand as we slipped backwards. Stephen told me that I needed more speed going into the climb, so I tried it again.  The second time I took on the hill I had a good bit of speed going into the hill, and we would have made it to the top, but about three-quarters of the way up there was a horrendous thunk from a large rock the tire threw up against the bottom of the car.  I thought that I had hit something, so I let off the gas pedal, and the momentary hesitation had us sliding down the hill backwards again.  Matt told me, "don't let up on the gas unless what you hit actually stops the car".  Seems like reasonable advice...  Also, I kept being vaguely worried that we would get stuck on something, but Stephen made it clear that that is what all those tractors we have are for.  So, I tried again. The third time I made it to the top, although admittedly, it was not too gracefully.

This rule may have some exceptions.  Matt got a car completely hung up on a tree while following this rule.  Then again, that is what the tractors are for.

Important Lesson Number 4:  Never sweat a minor setback.

The car is a bit older and is beaten on somewhat regularly, and the exhaust system and muffler were perhaps hanging a little lower than usual.  Or maybe not.  At any rate, when we were sliding backwards down the hill, somehow I got the exhaust lines caught on a rock or something and tore the muffler off (so much for the loud thunk).  During the next lap, we noticed that the car seemed louder than usual, and so we stopped and walked our course, picking up all the pieces and pipes of the exhaust system that were strewn along the track as they cooled down enough to handle.  I was feeling bad about it, but my brothers were completely unfazed.  They tossed all the pieces (including the muffler) into a pile laughing about how they would just put it all back on later.  Then we piled back into the car (with all the windows open) and headed out around again!  So much for the exhaust system.  Who needs a muffler anyway??

Important Lesson Number 5:  Always make sure that the battery is tied down.

After my third and successful attempt to make it over the hill, Matt decided to show me how a pro goes up over the hill.  He zipped around the corner at a high velocity and zoomed up the hill effortlessly while Stephen and I watched from safe spots on the top of the hill.  It was pretty cool!  He stopped the car, set the emergency brake, and jumped out of the driver's seat to let Stephen jump in and drive a lap.  As Matt jumped out, he noted the thick clouds of smoke around and commented to Stephen, "Steve, she's really smoking."  Stephen jumped into the driver's seat while replying, "Oh, she always smokes like that.  It's nothing."  As he strapped his seat belt on, the car's engine suddenly died.  Stephen was surprised and tried to restart it, to no avail.  Muttering, he popped the hood.  I glanced in and saw orange flames, so I looked at Stephen and commented, "Dude, your car really is on fire."  (How many times does one get to say a line like that?)  Stephen scoffed, "Nawh, she always smokes a lot."  Then he looked in, saw the flames, and said "Damn!  It's on fire!"

We weren't too worried about it.  After all, there was plenty of dirt around to smother the flames with if things got out of hand!  As it was, Stephen quickly beat out the flames.  Then we all laughed at the idiocy of the whole situation.  The cause of the fire?  In all the bouncing around of everything, the battery bounced loose and slid toward the extremely hot exhaust manifold.  It trapped the battery cable that goes from the battery to the rest of the electrical system of the car between the manifold and the battery.  The insulation on the cable caught on fire, burning up stuff and leaving melted red insulation all over the place.

Stephen and Matt were still unfazed by this.  After giving it all a couple of minutes to cool off, Stephen pushed the battery back over to its place, and then wrapped the now bare and soot-covered wires with black electrical tape while they were still warm and flexible (once they cooled off completely, they would be pretty brittle).  Then we all jumped back into the car.  It started right up happily (and with considerably less smoke), and off we went!

Important Corollary to Lesson Number 5:  You can fix just about anything with electrical tape.

It seems that electrical tape is as cool as duct tape.  There are many cool things about being an experimental physicist; knowing how to fix an electrical system is one of them.

Important Lesson Number 6:  Always do this sort of thing with cool people.

This is the most important lesson of the day.  Always do things like this with cool people.  With cool people, things like this end up being hilarious adventures and stuff like engine fires are at most a minor setback.  I cannot imagine anyone else that I would want to be tearing off the exhaust systems from the undersides of cars and putting out engine fires with.  I am sure that we will laugh about this for years.  I know that I was sure laughing at the time.

It is good to be home!  :)

Comments

[claire]

Dear young madam: i present my excuses: i openned the good file but the tittle was different and i had already red the text the day before. i had before received one "accusé de reception" by Columbia University, this time terribly incoherent in the dates. I had already noticed this, with témoins, so i am not wrong on this question, about the differents locations of the texts in this blog.It was added to all sorts of distorsions on this blog.
Thanks for your attention.

[Aaron F.]

AWESOME!!! ^_^

Your title reminds me of a story one of my friends told me. This friend was on a high school robotics team, and he had a teammate who loved to tinker with cars (and, fortunately, had a team license plate). One day, in the middle of a competition, the announcer suddenly said, "Someone on team 469, please come out to the parking lot. Your car is on fire." Sure enough, after being disconnected and reconnected many times, the teammate's engine's gas lines and wires weren't what they used to be, and now the car was engulfed in flames! As far as I know, though, the teammate still loves to tinker with cars... :)

[Alejandro Rivero]

It is a pity that this kind of events were not included as part of the "2005 Year of Physics" program. Real mechanics. If only they were used to Watts, Newtons and Joules instead of Horsepower and cubic centimeters...

(But still, it is better that these cars in publicity ads, where they speak of technology but you can not actually touch anything near the engine).

[Sarah D. Barlow]

Sarah, Sounds like lots of fun. I remember all of the fun times at the house with your family. Sarah and I have moved again. Email when you get a chance.

Allen

[Daniel]

Very funny story !

[Sarah]

Hi Everyone!

Aaron, that story about your friend's teammate is hilarious! I have to admit that I never thought that I would ever get the chance to use the line "You're car's on fire" to someone, let alone my brother. :D I am sure that the teammate still tinkers with cars, since it seems to be a lifelong addiction. :)

Alejandro, I agree with you. There should be a World Year of Physics event where everyone is assigned a junky car that needs some significant work (probably in need of creative "repairs") and after the initial problem solving and rebuild, have a huge race in the dirt. From my experience, this would clearly promote spontaneous problem solving, creative uses of resources, team spirit, and a great understanding of momentum. It would be quite fun. However, the organizers would be wise to have the fire extinguishers ready! :D

Allen and Sarah, I will send you an email soon!

I am glad that you liked the story, Daniel. It was really a blast. My brothers are very cool. I figure that I ought to learn all this cool stuff too!

I wonder if I can put this on my curriculum vitae somewhere... :D

- Sarah K