So today I was with some buddies at a mall and I drove my car over a median not paying attention. The car was stuck on the median and could not pull it self over it. We tried pushing it off the median for about 15 minutes with no luck. The car wasn't able to get itself over the median by itself as only the back left wheel was touching the ground and the rest of the car was resting on the median. After about 15 minutes we saw smoke coming from somewhere so I immediately turned it off. We assumed it was just smoke from the tires. My friends went inside the mall to go get help to push the car off the median while I stayed by the car.

Well the smoke kept coming and I noticed it was now coming from under the hood. I lifted to the hood to investigate and saw the smoke was coming from somewhere in the back of the engine bay. About 5 seconds after that the entire engine bay went up in flames followed by an explosion from somewhere in the engine. 10 minutes after that my precious RX-8 was engulfed in flames while I watched hopelessly with about 80 people watching and taking pictures.


I can not think of anything that would have started a fire in the engine. We were definitely giving the clutch a work out while we were trying to get it unstuck but I've never heard of a clutch starting a fire. Only thing I can think of is the Cat caught on fire but I think I would have noticed that earlier than I did.

Either way sad day for RX-8 owners everywhere.

GREAT pics/Videos will follow if people are at all interested

EDIT: Ill have the pics up tomorrow.

 

Wow - that really sucks .

any grass on the median ?

 

holy ****, sorry to hear that...

+1 for pics and video

 

Nah It was basically just dirt and rocks.


I have the vids on my phone and my friends phone Ill have them up Tomorrow for sure

 

I wouldn't mind betting it was caused by your cat

 

That's what we figured also.

 

damn that sucks....and kinda scares me.... i dont want that happening to me.

 

+1 for pics and video

 

Oh man. Sorry to hear about your car dude.

 

yeah most likely it's your cat that touched something it shouldn't touch when you jammed it on the median

rotary cat runs uber hot, fyi

 

wow man that sucks.

 

**** man that blows... hope insurance takes care of you.

 

cat got really hot and started a fire. rose up to enginebay. sucks.

how will you explain it to insurance? :P

 

Whatever I can to get as much money as I can :P

Hoping insurance covers what I still owe on the car

 

say you had a flat tire and pulled over on the median because you were losing controle.. then fire happend.

 

Bummer. Sorry about the car dude!

I don't think trying to get the car off the median had anything to do with the fire. Something likely happened when the car rolled on the median.

Whatever the cause, you should be ok insurance-wise as long as you have full coverage. Good luck!

 

bahahaha ripping off insuracne companies. Normally, my morals would kick in and I'd say don't do that. But they steal a **** ton of money from people... so **** them haha

 

If the frame or cross brace was resting on a concrete or asphalt part of the road or curb it is also possible that the thin cross brace was pushed up and grounded into the hot wire of the starter, although this is less likely than the exhaust starting the fire on some dry grass or brush.

Did the fire start on the passenger side or the driver side?

 

Not sure this would fly because there were about 15 cops and 5 firetrucks and about 100 witnesses who would beg to differ :P

 

That's what insurance is for. I don't think they have any reason for not covering it.

I bet you wished you would have called a tow truck now.

 

wow that sucks.. Get the video or pics up though

 

let me get this right.

You high centered your car and left it running?
just wow.

I'm glad no one was hurt, but Darwin catches the slow ones.

 

wow...

 

sucks..
another one bites the dust....

 

That sucks amigo. I hope all turns out well. We've all made mistakes, it just sucks when you make a big mistake.