The Lotus 340R - slight design flaw?

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Touring Mars

Touring Mars

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My mate's brother had a Lotus 340R, with it's cool, F1-style magnesium wheels. Unfortunately, it developed a slight problem (possibly a fuel line rupture) and the car went on fire - below is a picture of what burning magnesium wheels look like - the evidence of what really happened was a bit difficult to come by since the car was basically a pile of dust about 30 minutes after this picture was taken!...

Before :) .... ....................After :crazy:
 
Oh man, i've never gone from hard-on (1st pic) to full out crying (2nd pic) so fast in my life.

I remember burning magnesium in science class during my high school days, and I never realized that rims made of the same stuff would flare like that, pretty crazy.
 
I always wondered about that, whenever a car company mentioned something made of magnesium was involved in their car - what happens if it catches fire? Guess I was right in thinking it'd be spectacular.
 
Ouch, and how much does this thing cost?
 
I'm not sure, but they're pretty rare and weren't produced in big numbers from what I heard.
 
Magnesium is used for parts other than wheels too. Some (all?) of the old VW Beetles used magnesium engine blocks. I know on the Kawasaki ZX-6R motor the valve and stator covers are magnesium, I wouldn't be surprised if they are on other bikes too. There are a bunch of other cars it's used in also.

I don't think you have to worry about magnesium burning in a car... obviously it can, but I think to get it started you are going to need a pretty hot flame, probably fueled by gasoline... at that point your car is toast anyway.
 
retsmah
I don't think you have to worry about magnesium burning in a car... obviously it can, but I think to get it started you are going to need a pretty hot flame, probably fueled by gasoline... at that point your car is toast anyway.
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Yep, magnesium has a very high ignition temperature. It's hard to ignite in bulk, but goes up relatively easily if powdered or in ribbons.
 
What's worse is that it can glow pretty bright. Bright enough that we have to use light filters when we put it over a bunsen.

I hope your mate's brother didn't stare at it too long, can't have done his eyes much good.
 
Looking at it (especially at night) can cause permanent eye damage! :crazy:
 
We had some metal shavings off of a Kawasaki valve cover that we tried igniting at school... we couldn't get them to burn. Hitting them with a torch caused some of them to ignite, but we never got the whole pile to light up.
 
Isnt Bimmer's new 3.0L I6 made partilly of Magnesium?

...Just thought I would add that...
 
Touring Mars
My mate's brother had a Lotus 340R, with it's cool, F1-style magnesium wheels. Unfortunately, it developed a slight problem (possibly a fuel line rupture) and the car went on fire - below is a picture of what burning magnesium wheels look like - the evidence of what really happened was a bit difficult to come by since the car was basically a pile of dust about 30 minutes after this picture was taken!...

Before :) .... ....................After :crazy:
Click to expand...

All you needed was 35kg of thermit for that to ignite and you'd have been set.

How did the road underneath it look afterwards?
 
How's this a design flaw?

Sucks for the 340, but as long as he got out alive.
 
Shame about the 340R the main thing is he is alive.
 
eliseracer
How's this a design flaw?

Sucks for the 340, but as long as he got out alive.
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personally i don't see very many cars go up in flames, especially ones were recently made.
yeah, if he is ok all is sort of well :ouch:
 
The car didn't go up in flames because of the magnesium wheels. Road and race cars have been using identical OZ (I think) wheels for long time without major incidents. Whatever ignited the magnesium is the faulty bit. The fact that the suspected part is a raptured rubber hose, then the fault is of the manufacturer, which I don't think is Lotus.

The possible design mistake is the location of the hose, but considering this is the first case I've heard, I suspect it's an isolated incident.

He should get a bunch on insurance, which will put him well on his way to owning a Circuit Car, the 340RmkII
 
The 340R had plenty of design flaws - how about a 10+ hour body-off operation just to change the battery?!
 
Oh wow that sucks ass... they actually made that car? I didn't know that.
 
eliseracer
How's this a design flaw?

Sucks for the 340, but as long as he got out alive.
Click to expand...
Indeed, apparently he was quite calm about it (hence the pic!), but the whole car went up like this just a minute or so after he pulled over...

My mate has a picture somewhere of the aftermath, but couldn't find it, I'll post it if and when I get it later... there certainly wasn't much left of the car, don't know what the road looked like afterwards though....
 
Touring Mars
Indeed, apparently he was quite calm about it (hence the pic!), but the whole car went up like this just a minute or so after he pulled over...
Click to expand...

I bet he's quite relived about it getting torched, they are so incredibly labour intensive to maintain and repair he'll be glad to see the back of it.

The guy behind EVO mag used to have one, he may still have it?, and i remember reading about all the problems he had with it. The body work is a one piece composite shell meaning if you damage it, you have to replace the whole thing - which costs 10K!
 
The only design flaw in the 340R is that it hasn't got a body
 
Right on. The shell was a pain the the arse. There's a Lotus engineer (the name escapes me) who has his own. He has a custom shell, made out of some other composite. I'm sure many of you have seen it, it's transparent.
 
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