We stuck 500,000 matches to a Lada and...

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[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Meh.

These Russian car guys know nothing about pyrotechiques. There are easily a dozen ways that car could have been better burned.

I've seen vehicles on fire, intentionally and not intentionally, at Burning Man.

In 1999 we had the first Car-B-Q in Gigsville, at Burning Man. It burnt out. The next year they tied the steering wheel of an American and Japanese cars and drove them in circles while unloading their guns into them. The Japanese car just wouldn't die. Because it won it was the next Car-B-Q. It was a hatchback so it was better for warmth and cooking. The Car-B-Q that lasted the most years (with reinforcements) was the "Hippie Bait" Volkswagen van. After several years it was just an unrecognizable mess.

Also, before these vehicles were used as a fire pit (protecting the playa from raw fire and polution), all the vehicles were stripped of their interiors, rubbers, and plastics, then reinforced with more metal, then pre-burned to get rid of extra pollutants.

[–]Optimus85[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Agreed. Perhaps they would've been more successful if they had glued matchboxes on the car instead of individual matches. Yeah, they don't seem very eco-friendly burning a car with all the plastic components in it...

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Match boxes would have been better, faster to do, but cost a bit more. It still wouldn't have burned the metal car - but it likely would have made a far better show and likely wouldn't have needed the extra fuel. The way a box of matches goes up makes me wonder how fast or effective at spreading it would be - especially if all the matches faced the same direction.

[–]Optimus85[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

With the air inside the boxes and all the matches from one box lighting up at the same time, i'm sure it would make a nice chain reaction.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But is it enough air? How long does it take to burn through a box to get to the next box? How long can a box maintain enough structural integrity to actually hold the matches? Will that be long enough for them to catch and start burning? How much difference will it make on the vertical or horizontal? Does starting from the bottom help?

I suspect that a nice "domino" effect spreading across the car would be a very narrow target between excessive explosive and a dismal slow burn crawl - if at all.

People underestimate how much art and craft there is to being a pyromaniac.

A friend in Vancouver does pyrotechnical effects for film and TV. That man and his team have serious engineering skills.