has a BRM ever caught fire in a crash? Never heard of one, but thought ...

[Jim Ratto]

it must be an ugly sight. Just curious if a car ever caught fire and torched a real BRM.

[Bill Schwimmer]

no

[Zach Gomulka]

You gotta get mag real hot to catch fire, I imagine in most crashes the fire is out before that becomes an issue... unless it's a full on 4 alarm carbeque.

[Donny B.]

While I was in the service back in the '60s I had a friend with a '63 or '64 Stingray crash and catch on fire.  It had real American Mags and there were three in the car.  The guy in the back did not make it!  It completely torched the car and all 4 of the mags went off.

[Rennsurfer]

Schwimmer has spoken, therefore no BRM has been torched by way of fire caused by a crash.

 

Joking aside, he's right... don't ever recall hearing of that happening. Only magnesium we ever saw torched was the engine and transmission cases at the infamous D.K.K. midnight beach bashes in Huntington Beach. What special and GOOD times those were.

[Neil Davies]

I was told by my high school chemistry teacher that it's the surface area of magnesium that allows it to burn, hence shaving the gearbox bellhousing results in fires pretty often, but a completely torched car will still have the engine and gearbox intact. He said that you could burn a car until there was nothing left of the tyres except the steel bands, but the magnesium wheels would be largely unharmed.

[benssp]

didn't Ivan have an engine fire with his Berms on the car?

[andy M.]

Back in the 60's my Dad was crewing for the Renault works rally team running the old Alpine 110's.

They got a call to go and pick up one of the cars from a forest stage somewhere in Wales after it had broken down.
It was dark as they approached the area they could see in the distance an enormous fire, lighting the whole sky and in the middle of the inferno was the Renault.
These works cars were almost entirely made of mag and fibreglass, all they found were the brake discs and a few bits of engine and box, all the wheels etc had vanished. They waited for it to cool down and slung the remains in a ditch.

When they got back to the service area all they had to show for a works rally car was a very warped gear lever!

andy

[bill stipe]

Back in the 80's, the wife of a friend of mine was burning trash in the "trash barrel" out in the back yard.  They lived out away from town in a wooded area.  Well, the embers flew out and caught part of the woods on fire.  He used to stash several vw's out in the woods during that time.

A fiberglass dune buggy was out there and caught fire.  As the fiberglass burned, it fell down around the rest of the chassis.  The mag wheels and the gearbox caught fire and they said the ensuing fire was too bright to look at.  I saw the remains of the buggy several days later.

The wheels were non-existant and the gearbox was just a pile of gears with a ring gear and carrier lying there with axles and axle tubes attached.  There was no  evidence that the trans case ever existed. 

[Donny B.]

Remember when a car catches fire and the firemen show up they usually spray it with water.  That will get the mag going real fast.

[mg]

Not a BRM but a Panterea burning with campys.
http://www.ws6.com/autowek1.htm
Back story was they drove the Pantera to the Silver State.
On the way they had a problem with the rear brake or axle that they fixed on the road.
Some think they might have pinched a rear wheel bearing during the quick fix.
The wheel bearing may have overheated leading to the fire.

Water on mag video.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Yqlgb1w62o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/3Yqlgb1w62o</a>

Fire should not be your greatest concern with 40 year old magneseum rims.
They will most likely fail from rotting, they become brittle and crack.
Where a stong aluminum wheel will bend and still hold air a vintage BRM may not.
A new BRM copy removes the worries/risk of the magnesium wheels.

Imho Vintage magnesium wheels, vintage seat belts and vintage fiberglass seats will not make your ride safer.

[speedwell]

Imho Vintage magnesium wheels, vintage seat belts and vintage fiberglass seats will not make your ride safer.

and what about a vintage driver  .........................

[mg]

Imho Vintage magnesium wheels, vintage seat belts and vintage fiberglass seats will not make your ride safer.

and what about a vintage driver  .........................

for real, at my age (52) I just go out to have fun, not break anything and bring the car home in one piece. 

[plasticblack]

I've seen one car go up in flames (a Reliant Scimitar) which burnt with such ferocity and so quickly that the alloys did melt in parts and the whole car looked like a burnt sofa at the end, with burnt piles if Fiberglass matting just lying on the what was left of the chassis & the seat frames.

I also saw the remains of a 911 (stolen & torched) where the Alloys had just melted and run into pools on the tarmac...

I wish I'd had a camera on me because it was seriously artistic looking, the alloy had run like candle wax into pools.

[Lemonade]

  Only magnesium we ever saw torched was the engine and transmission cases at the infamous D.K.K. midnight beach bashes in Huntington Beach. What special and GOOD times those were.

Did that light the beach up like daytime or what??? How many people came from blocks away & ask what we were burning. Our reply was "Not our fire, don't know who started it". LOL!

Lems

[kingsburgphil]

Those VW off-roaders out there will remember Comp Hill at Glamis on the Thanksgiving holiday. It was like peering into Dante's Inferno,... mayhem,
 human depravity, vehicular insanity and VW engine cases being sent to VAHALLA.   

A once in a life time experience,...OK.. maybe twice.




Forgive me Father for I have sinned.   

[Fastbrit]

You haven't lived until you've experienced a mag engine case being tossed on a bonfire at Glamis...

[Rennsurfer]

Did that light the beach up like daytime or what??? How many people came from blocks away & ask what we were burning. Our reply was "Not our fire, don't know who started it". LOL!

Lems

HAHA!! True, Kev... & the replies still crack me up to this day. Somewhere on The Lounge, I posted up what most of 'em were. Nothing like playing volleyball after midnight in the middle of the beach, too. I remember one night on one of those mag fires and a fireman walked up. He was making sure that we weren't attempting to put it out with water. We assured him that we'd be there long enough to let it burn itself out. Otherwise we'd slow it down a bit and throw some sand on it.

Those days were great in the sense that there was much less awareness and many things were more lenient. Glad that we were fortunate enough to enjoy our childhoods during that era.

[SlingShot]

Those days were great in the sense that there was much less awareness and many things were more lenient. Glad that we were fortunate enough to enjoy our childhoods during that era.

Yeah, now they would send HAZMAT after your ass...after the police of course 

[Rennsurfer]

Yeah, now they would send HAZMAT after your ass...after the police of course 

You're very correct on that one.

[nlvtinman]

Back about 1983-84, I got a call at my shop from a guy asking if I "collected BRM's?"   Duh, yeah..as I already had 6. 

Turns out he had one of his break while driving down the '57 Fwy. Took quite a big hunk off the inside of the rim, and in his braking, it ground down some of the lip on the outer side.
Well, No fire, that was good.

Made him a deal.  I am a auto painter, so I resprayed his '53 oval and I got 3 good wheels and the broken one in trade.
Being as badly broken as it was, I took it to Berg and had them machine off the back, and I made a real BRM clock out of the front. 
The Bergs asked if they could have a small section of the machined off back, which I let them have.
Wonder where that piece of BRM magnesium ever ended up?

[Dave Galassi]

Larry's closet.

[Fastbrit]

Larry's closet.

Larry's a closet what?

[deano]

I do recall BRMs.... the real ones, and not the repros, make great hose reels.

[nlvtinman]

Deano,
That was another cleaver alternative use back in the day, when the wheels were less pricey.
 I can remember many Bug-In's at OCIR where there would be a set for sale, reasionably priced, in the swap meet area.
I bought my wheels at Bug In 15 from DVB member Mike Sellers. My friends thought I was Insane, paying $500.00 for 6 wheels.

If that was their price today, Every garden or air hose we have would be hanging from nothing but BRM's

[deano]

As many of you may recall, Fleming & Aronson had a real BRM as a hose reel, mounted on the side of their dyno. Until one day, its market value far exceeded its need, and away it went.

[vwxtc4free]

While I was in the service back in the '60s I had a friend with a '63 or '64 Stingray crash and catch on fire.  It had real American Mags and there were three in the car.  The guy in the back did not make it!  It completely torched the car and all 4 of the mags went off.

How do you fit three guys in a Stingray?

[Bill Schwimmer]

While I was in the service back in the '60s I had a friend with a '63 or '64 Stingray crash and catch on fire.  It had real American Mags and there were three in the car.  The guy in the back did not make it!  It completely torched the car and all 4 of the mags went off.

How do you fit three guys in a Stingray?

Use the same technique that we used to get 9 people in a 54' convertable beetle & go driving around...

[Donny B.]

How do you fit three guys in a Stingray?

One guy crawls behind the seats and curls up under the rear window.  Not comfortable for sure.

[vwxtc4free]

Ive seen two guys and girl on a.....Schwinn Stingray!