High pressure fuel leaks flame big fires!

OK so a little over the top, but same thing happens with gas...
on board camera view starts at 44 seconds...

http://youtu.be/VxQgXuQUomw

Wicked, pretty neat with 2 views of the same incident.

Actually three! Distance, front and rear. Did you see the guy working feverishly to stop the leak, it was spewing fuel at startup and got worse, he gave up and went to cockpit and looks like as soon as he shut motor down it ignitied!

imo he waited too long. I know how quickly highly evaporative fuels can ignite and I tend to give them plenty of respect.

I thought the same thing... for a long time while watching him and fluid going all over, I'll bet he thinks the same now. Seriously how much could you do with out tools to leaky high pressure fuel lines?

Quote:

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I know how quickly highly evaporative fuels can ignite and I tend to give them plenty of respect.

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This is why I wanted people to see this! Leaky fuel of any amount is a huge problem!

That was leaking fuel while he still had the starter on!

What did he do when he shut it down? You can see the leak got way worse at shutdown? Then BOOM...

Maybe he forgot to kill an electric pump before the high pressure pump??

yikes I wonder what happened there.

I just watched this again. There's a helluva lot to see. Something exploded in the fuel system. A fitting or line let go as soon as pressure came up and there was a huge spray of fuel everywhere. The crewmember with the starter pulls the starter away then reaches back in to try and stop the leak... and stays there with nitro spraying in his face. He bails out a mere three seconds before the engine erupts. There's a guy with fire gear crouched and ready on the right side of the car and he starts dumping retardant as soon as the flames erupt. Moving the car out of the burning fuel puddle really saved the whole thing. And if you watch the firemen, no one sprays retardant into any of the ports in the engine which amazes me. Just plain wow.

Of course, it just might be thay've had plenty of practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6iBt1WaxpU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=q00qihgGqUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVseeLAK6HI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKTF7gYwOKI

I noticed that, no fire retardent into exhaust or more importantly intake. They all did a good job! I don't know the reasoning for wating so long to shut down? Maybe he thought he could fix it? He's obviously more familar with the car then me, who would have bailed out with the starter still on...