A sad picture for sure but this beautiful '56 Ford Thunderbird was part of our club caravan on the way to Cumberland Gap, Tennessee on June 22, 2013 when the rear brake started to "hang up" and before being noticed, a major fire started in the back wheel and in less than 20 minutes the T-Bird was reduced to a total loss.

The question isn't so much a discussion on whether a fire extinguisher would have made the difference but rather where it should be located in the car.

Most people carry an extinguisher but it is usually in the trunk. In this case it would have not been accessible as the fire started in the rear of the T-Bird and quickly consumed the vehicle.

Probably best to carry the right kind of extinguisher in the driving compartment, behind the seat of the driver for faster access. In this case, however, it is doubtful if it would have made any difference. Truly a sad story!

Ford Bronco in a whole pile of shit.

If you are a fan of alcohol funny cars you know the name Dale Brand. For many years he was a very strong racer on the IHRA circuit and when that dried up he switched his combo to an NHRA style setup and has been doing a great job on that side of things, defeating Frank Manzo at an NHRA divisional race at Cordova earlier this summer. That being said, even a guy like Brand who races a 3,000hp alky flopper needs to just get out to the strip and have some fun every once in a while. He recently took his old bracket car, a 1968 Charger to Eddyville Raceway Park just to make some laps and enjoy the night. Brand had not raced this particular car in 20+ years, so he was probably as surprised as anyone when he dropped the hammer in the burnout box, exploding the engine in amazing fashion.

The photo below shows the resulting carnage and it is totally epic in scale. We have seen lots of blown up engines in our day, but this one looks like someone stuffed it with dynamite and lit the fuse. There’s the crank, rods, even pistons showing. The only thing that kept the whole mass of the bottom end from smashing to the Earth was the front few bolts in the oil pan. Had the pan rails broken up front, it may have shot the crank and all of its associated components right out the bottom!