Toronto Motorsports Park, also known as Cayuga, recently held its first public open lapping session of 2020. The event should have been a fun way to kill some time amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead, things devolved into chaos as several cars wrecked, a fight broke out and a C7 Corvette Z06 caught on fire.
While the various crashes and wrecks are certainly a bad look for Toronto Motorsports Park’s safety team, the C7 Corvette Z06 fire potentially posed the greatest risk to attendees. It’s not clear how the supercharged 650-horsepower sports car caught on fire, but an Instagram video taken by the car’s owner shows it engulfed in flames as it sits dangerously close to a row of bleachers.
“Safe to say it’s not my best track day, given my f***ing car is on fire,” the owner says in the video as his car slowly burns to the ground.
While we can’t be certain how this Corvette caught on fire, the Z06 has always had issues with heat. As we reported back in 2015, the Z06’s exhaust valves can reach 1652 Fahrenheit when the vehicle is being pushed on the track, while the exhaust gasses can reach 1238 Fahrenheit. GM was also forced to redesign the Corvette Z06’s hood and supercharger cover shortly after the vehicle’s release in late 2014 to address overheating problems some owners were experiencing when pushing the vehicle to its limits. This particular Z06 does appear to be modified, however, so it’s possible the fire was caused by a non-factory component.
As for the aforementioned wrecks, we’re happy to report no one was injured in any of them, to our knowledge. A video shared on Facebook by a local Toronto area enthusiast showed an overeager Land Rover driver crashing into the side of Subaru WRX, while a separate video included in the same post showed cars going three-wide and exhibiting other dangerous maneuvers. The Facebook user also shared photos of a Mazda MX-5 with rear-end damage, a BMW M2 with rear-end damage and a Scion FR-S with front-end damage – all from the same day.
After the photos and videos were circulated on social media, Toronto Motorsports Park shared a post on its Instagram page indicating it would implement a zero-tolerance policy on drivers who break the rules and will be limiting the number of people who are allowed to attend its public track-day events. Perhaps they should keep a couple of fire extinguishers handy, too.
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Comments
if it was an electric Corvette, the internal temperatures will never exceed 200 F and not start a fire. The only exception is the Tesla Model S, which had several self igniting battery fires.
I wouldn’t say it needs to go electric but it definitely needs a better suited engine for the track. It’s 2020 and I can’t believe that GM is still putting pushrods in its performance cars.
And the pushrods are an issue why?
Ohc breathe better than pushrods. They also handle stress better.
There’s a couple of very good reasons why the LS/LT-series engines are pushrod rather than OHC. One has to do with the reciprocating mass of multiple camshafts rather than just one, and the reduction of the very large number of additional valve train components associated with OHC engines. Another is with the single cam down in the block, the COG is kept lower than if the engine had all that OHC hardware at the top of the engine.
Not in all cases, the pushrod itself can cause OHV engines to have more moving parts than a OHC engine.
There was a story going around saying the owners meth tank melted and caused the fire. It was a heavily modded Z
The first pic looks like a ZR1 to me
the high wing
Why the heck was there no fire crew to put it out quickly?!
That car is in the paddock. If there was a fire crew at the track I would expect them to be track-side, where the risk is. Very unfortunate for the owner as I guess he felt a slight sense of relief when he entered pit-lane in one piece… as we all do. It’s always a good idea to carry a fire extinguisher on track, preferably a built in system. I don’t know if it would have saved this car.