MERC: FIA investigates car fires

The FIA has launched an informal investigation into the series of recent fires involving World Rally Cars.

Prodrive Subarus have caught fire in Greece and Cyprus, both Petter Solberg and Toshihiro Arai retiring as a result, while Ford and Peugeot have also been involved, not necessarily on World Championship rounds.

Only one fire has led to injury, Ford crew Mohammed Bin Sulayem and Ronan Morgan suffering burns in their retirement from the Lebanon Rally.

The FIA is said to be examining a range of factors, including the use of magnesium alloy and kevlar, high-pressure hydraulic systems (which frequently operate differentials and gearchanges, as well as power steering) and high temperatures associated with turbochargers and catalytic converters. Engineers were reluctant to leap to conclusions or to identify patterns, but Prodrive's David Lapworth suggested that increasing fire extinguisher capacity might be a good idea. Fire has not been a major problem since Group B was banned at the end of 1986.

-rally-net