Fire Extinguisher : Nissan Skyline GT-R

H3R Performance Universal Fire Extinguisher Bracket in a R32 GT-R

If you have ever had a car catch on fire, you know it is a scary thing. There is a point with every fire that no amount of handheld fire extinguisher will help. However a small handheld extinguisher deployed quick enough can extinguish a fire.

Without getting into too many details, there are four main types of fires. A,B,C, and D. Each has an extinguishing agent that puts it out best. There are pros and cons to each. Most cars you are going to normally have a burning liquid, oil or fuel, that will also burn some materials. So a class B,A fire. B being a burning liquid, A being paper, carpet, that kind of thing. C being electrical, so a non conductive agent. D being a burning metal.

Right after we got our NISMO, we decided to mount a fire extinguisher. We had seen the seat mounted brackets, and they seemed like a good idea. Some people don't like the idea of a fire extinguisher here. Like anything there are positives and negatives to anything. To us having the extinguisher close at hand, within reach far out weighed any negatives.

H3R Performance Fire Extinguisher. 2.5 lb

The H3R bracket and extinguisher fit the spot, and allowed nearly full movement of the seat. We normally drive an R32 seat all the way back, so especially no problem.

H3R Performance Fire Extinguisher Mounted in an R32 GT-R

We also saw a pretty neat fire extinguisher that is compact enough to fit nearly anywhere. In this case it actually fits in the flare brackets. The ones we bought were Element E50. You can see how they fit below.

This is an Element fire extinguisher. They fit into the factory flare brackets on an R32 GT-R

Right now, we are running two fire extinguishers in the #bluecar. One like the Nismo, mounted in front of the drivers seat, and an Element in the flare bracket. Having had an R32 GT-R catch on fire in the past, I want every chance to try and put one out. Fire sucks, it sucks even worse, when there is nothing you can do, but stand there and watch your pride burn.

You never want to have to use an extinguisher on a car, but we have had to more than once. During the first race of the World Challenge season in 2006, the R34 cracked one of the oil supply lines after a bolt loosened up. This line started to leak on the heat wrapped downpipe. We got black flagged, and came into the pits to investigate.

Josh yells "Fire". So earlier in the week we were talking about the fire extinguisher. It had this plastic tag to prevent the pin from being pulled out. It was a 1/2 way serious looking piece of plastic. When I ran to grab the fire extinguisher, I thought of that tab for a split second, and yanked the pin with everything I had. I ended up tossing the pin across pit lane. It was returned, and I still have it.

Buried in extinguisher powder. I was in the US Navy for six years. I was an engineer, gas turbine electrician. I had gone though tons of fire fighting school, and training. A fire was just another thing, we were prepared. Igor got out quick, and the fire was out fast.

Slowly dissipating. However, not a nice way to start our first race. a DNF 13 laps in. Turns out Sebring had really beat us up.

Fire out, reflash watch set. You might only get that if you were in the Navy. So what had happened, was a bolt came out of the oil feed line support to the turbo. This was a hard line that was looped. Brand new line, on a brand new engine. At Sebring it split the line. The oil dripped onto the fiberglass heat wrap on the turbo downpipe, and that flashed into a fire when we opened the hood.

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