farewell to the 80t

[passat TS]

Dan,

I have this in my project car:
http://catalog.com/susq/hella/batswitch.htm
http://catalog.com/susq/rally.htm

It is actually a requirement for Rally cars and other classes.

BTW, if you decide to install this switch, you'll need one of these:

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=7166&prmenbr=76&path=76%202379%202382%202383


Sorry about your project Alex. I've been following it for a while.

Carlos.



>From: Dan Simoes <dans at audifans.com>
>To: lee at wheelman.com
>CC: quattro at audifans.com, audi20v at rennlist.org
>Subject: Re: farewell to the 80t
>Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 12:49:47 -0400
>
>"Lee M. Levitt" wrote:
> > > Luckily a nice man, retired fireman probably, ran out of his pickup 
>with a
> > huge
> > > extinguisher and killed the fire after I popped the hood for him.
> >
> > Did he ask you to pop the hood? I thought that the proper approach was 
>to
> > spray the extinguisher through the grille, that way giving less air to 
>fuel
> > the fire.
>
>Alex had popped the hood and I sprayed into the crack between the hood
>and fender.  The fireman had Alex actually lift the hood open, which was
>possible because his extinguisher had much more oomph than mine (see,
>size does matter after all).  In retrospect it was a risky move (the
>hood was already so hot that paint had melted off) but it saved the
>car.  I actually had nightmares later that night about Alex burning his
>hands.
>
>I'm not sure if halon is needed - both my extinguisher (to my surprise)
>and the fireman's were discharging a dry powder.  I don't think this
>would hurt any electronics.
>
>Alex forgot one part of the story - when the fire was out, I asked the
>cop if I could cut the ground wire on the battery "no, leave it for the
>fire dept and step away from the car".  OK, fine.
>Fire dept came, I repeated the request, but he starts cutting the
>positive.  I pointed out the ground and he said "doesn't matter now".
>OK... ZAP, ZAP - idiot grounds one of the positive cables, fire
>reignites.
>I looked at Alex and said loudly "like I said, he should cut the GROUND
>wire".  With volunteer fireman, much like shopping at Home Depot, never
>assume that the people working there actually know more than you.
>(No disrespect to qualified volunteer firefighters out there, you do a
>hell of a job).
>
>My personal lessons learned from this little episode:
>
>- if you are going to carry a fire extinguisher, and you should, make it
>a big one.  The little ones won't be able to do much, but the big ones
>may buy you enough time to either save the car, your stuff or someone
>else.
>
>- if you do a lot of mods on the car, have it insured for actual
>replacement value.  Brandon Hull did on his eS2 and it paid off.
>
>- I am considering adding a quick disconnect or switch to the battery
>ground on my cars.  This is the second time I've seen the need to
>quickly get the battery unplugged - the first time it happened I got 2nd
>degree burns on my hand because the terminal was hot and I of course
>yanked it with bare hands.  I think I've seen something like this in
>Herrington or Griot's catalogs, designed for garage queen cars so it
>won't drain the battery.  Anyone know what it is?
>
>Like everyone said, the key is that Alex made it out alive.
>It's a shame about that car - it was keeping up with a 20v driven pretty
>hard, and when it was on boost, was actually faster.
>
>| Dan |

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