[Schulisco]

Here's such a horror story from last august in northern Germany on the Autobahn - thankful not mine, but still a horror story for every historic 911 owner all over the world :

https://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/hamburg-aktuell/porsche-oldtimer-verbrennt-auf-a7-112-hier-brennt-ein-911-77284132.bild.html

No Google translation available. I translate it separatedly:

Schleswig-Flensburg district – At the dealer, a nine-eleven Porsche from 1976 costs at least 50,000 euros. Depending on the weight, you might get another 500 euros for this one at the scrap dealer...

The A7 southbound on Wednesday at 7.46am. At the level of Tarp (Schleswig-Flensburg district), the silver sports car with the Schleswig H license plate catches fire!

112, HERE IS A 911 BURNING! ("112" is the german version of "911" emergency phone number)

Luckily, the driver (58) notices in time, can steer the car onto the hard shoulder and jump out uninjured. Because there are already high flames coming out of the engine compartment!

Two volunteer fire brigades are quickly on site, but they cannot get the fire under control. That's why the professional fire brigade from Flensburg comes with a special fire blanket.

One lane of the Autobahn towards Hamburg was closed for more than three hours, the Porsche is a total loss.









Further reading with more photos:
https://www-bos--inside-de.translate.goog/historischer-porsche-brennt-auf-a7-vollstaendig-aus-berufsfeuerwehr-flensburg-unterstuetzt-mit-spezieller-loeschdecke/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

The problem is - especially on the earlier CIS engines up to '77 are made of magnesium instead of aluminium and because magnesium quicker catches fire and those magnesium fires are pretty hard to extinguish...that's why the '76 911 was a total loss: It took more than 2 hours of work of the firemen until the fire was extinguished and the car could be towed from the site...

On my SC i did and still do the following:

1. Replaced all old, awful looking rubber fuel lines with fresh ones and with higher temperature and pressure specs than on common cars
2. always carry a fire extinguisher within the car (foam ABC, not a tiny one)
3. after working on the engine with dismantling of fuel lines - make a long test drive and always carry a huge fire extinguisher with me extra
4. in the days after the work on the fuel lines before the next ride I touch all fuel hoses by hand to feel if there's something wet (which is fuel for sure)
5. if there are some torque values given by Porsche for the fuel lines I make sure to keep them

I'm thinking of having a fire sensor unit in the engine compartment with a alarm horn in the cockpit...but I didn't find any proper yet

I thought of mounting a system like the https://proteng.com/ system in the engine compartment. But never did it yet because it would help only in the first seconds of a fire and furthermore it gives a false sense of security. But there's not that much more security without such a system, because you're won't get warned if it's releasing and so the problem might be hidden until a bigger fire afterwards...and then you need a real big fire extinguisher...

Thomas