Over the last few days I’ve been racking my brain on how I could have better prepared for the terrifying California wildfire scare we experienced last week. Aside from my family and a few heirlooms and photos, the most valuable/sentimental/precious things that I own are my cars. I packed the family into the Land Cruiser, but had to leave behind others. In retrospect I should have moved them to a nearby shopping center parking garage where there’s not much vegetation long before the fires even got close, though that leaves them open to thieves.
We’ve seen videos of ingenious saviors putting cars on concrete blocks during a flood, but are curious what other measures have you come across? We realize we’re talking about objects here and human lives come first, but if there’s the opportunity to save a car we want to hear your ideas. Oh, and we’re talking all calamities, not just fires.
How do you save a car from a natural disaster?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What car and color combo is the perfect fit?“.
We start off these answers with absolutely iconic combos that, when you picture the car in your head, your brain defaults to that color. In that vein we had thelacerati‘s gold CSP311 Silvia, james‘ Platinum Metallic or Creamy Yellow over Dark Gray Silvia two-tone, Land Ark‘s Honda Civic and Integra Type R in Championship White, Bryan Kitsune‘s panda AE86, Sammy B‘s orange TE27, Daniel‘s Mariner Blue NA Miata, and Brett‘s “Black Gold” which is so famous you don’t even need to say what car it belongs to.
Then there were great combos that aren’t necessarily the colors most closely associated with that particular car, but are still somehow just right. Those included Sahir Virk‘s NSX-R in Motoharu Kurosawa-spec red, Franxou‘s late-cycle Mitsubishi GTO in black, エーイダン‘s R34 Skyline GT-R in police white and black, and Taylor C.‘s Lexus LS430 in Cypress Pearl (among many other excellent picks).
Next came colors that seemed to go perfectly with a number of models from a particular carmaker. Examples of those were Marc Lawrence‘s Nissan red, Negishi no Keibajo‘s Honda San Marino Red, and TheJWT‘s pearl white over silver two-tone for any number of 90s Toyota luxury sedans.
Finally there were those that were personal favorites rather than universally identifiable paint colors, such as Hansjorg‘s dark green for his Toyota Century and Crown Majesta, Fred Langille‘s blue metallic for his Nissan S-Cargo, Lee L‘s 210 silver for his Z31, and StreetSpirit‘s sunburnt red Mighty Max.
It was a long list but the winner this week was Maestro, who was obsessed with a single color and managed to find three wildly different cars inexorably linked with it.
I’ve got three yellow ones: Isuzu Vehicross, which admittedly looked cool in silver, but was just rad in yellow Ironman trim. Nissan Be-1, which just looks right in yellow; though maybe that’s just because that was how it was pictured in the Japanese Cars book that I pored over endlessly as a child… And, even though I had a red one in high school, the 2nd gen Honda Prelude in Si AWS trim in Barbados yellow.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Well, you could always put it into a rocket and blast it into space to orbit the earth.
No one would ever do that, Lee. ;D
Tesla did
Tesla did!
How do you save a car from a natural disaster? Why, bubble wrap, of course.
I can’t even imagine what you guys in Southern CA deal with as far as the fires, or even earthquakes.
In FL we have hurricanes and for the most part they are predictable. Its up to each person to inform themselves on how to prepare for it. When I was in college and a strong TS or hurricane was coming, my ’86 MR2 was getting moved up to high ground and/or a parking garage (we had a lot or the latter because of state buildings). I’ve avoided my car getting flooded at least a half dozen times by doing this.
Nowadays I have a 2 car garage that can fit one car. My USDM daily stays outside while my NB2 Miata is always garaged and the MR2 is in an enclosed/secured canopy outside.
We are fortunate that our natural disasters are predictable for the most part. The occasional tornado or sink hole pops up from time to time.
It is sad, but mother nature is always the strongest, most countermeasures only work to a point.
For water, go higher up, geographically, on a lift or on blocks.
For wind, you just need the strongest shelter you can make, but even concrete will break eventually.
For fire, it sucks because even if protected from the blaze, the immense heat could affect the car anyway.
For mobs, it sucks because it is against others, but try to make you car harder to reach than the others.
Then there are asteroids, cranes falling or pieces of buildings tumbling over, and of course the traditionnal fallen piano, you just have to put a strong hardtop on!
It depends on the disaster … earthquake, fire, flood, civil disturbance … all require different work. If its possible, a quake proof enclosure with a fireproof tarp surrounded by sandbags and, a barbed wire fence. That covers the above mentioned. For those of us not so financially gifted well, the best to cover anything approching that. Ben’s idea of a parking arage, seems the best … although not on the roof!
I only have the one car so I’m evacuating in it.
My extensive collection of scale models gets a higher priority for space in it than it would if I wasn’t single, but not that high since I may need to sleep in it and I’m in a part of the country where a snow/ice emergency’s more likely than fire.
Again, glad things are somewhat controlled on your end.
So, it looks like when you guys were instructed to leave last week, the final direction boiled down to a quick mental trade study of what to get the hell out with, and hope the best with the ones still on the driveway.
It’s hard to save the car from the natural disaster, but I guess it all comes down to preemptive planning and execution. Before we moved to our current house, I parked the summer cars on the driveway, and come winter, I would just winterize by finding some strong outdoor car covers (NOAH), add fuel restorer, put steel wool in the tail pipes, desiccant inside, and up the pressure and put some plywood against the tires to shield from the windchill. When the blizzard hits, the cars will be largely protected from the snow dump. I had previously thought of suspending the cars on jack stands to avoid flatspotting the tires, but a fully extended shock is not good for longevity as well as the bushings; pumping the tires to lower 40s help.
If everyone in the family was old enough, I’ve thought of each person loading up whatever they can into the most fuel efficient and utiliarian cars, and then we’d roll out Autobots style. Can’t really hope for much if the cars are staying at the scene of events. This would help save the cars, but it makes evacuations a whole lot more selfish.
I would hope that most homes in CA are more-or-less design and built with earthquake resistance in mind. My sister and I made it through the Loma Prieta quake while our parents were coming home from work; fortunately no down’d powerlines and no leveled homes.
If thieves and looting was considered a “natural disaster,” I guess the only way to do it is to extensively lock the car, mechanically and electronically, and throw a good car cover with cable lock securing it. Nothing a switchblade can’t cut through, but at least there’s less eye candy for would-be looters to gravitate to.
I was flipping through the latest copy of Hagerty’s Driver’s Club and came across this ad for this full-on car cover called the FloodVault. Looks like it prevents water from getting in, as it’s literally this belts-and-suspenders soft enclosure that completely wraps the car up.
I find it is good to have friends in different locations with property. Friends or family can help you move your vehicles. Having friends in different locations allows one to place your vehicles potentially out of the fires path. I put valuables in my Z, then Z on a car trailer and haul it to a friends property that has a freshly disked field as a fire barrier surrounding their home and park it there. Then I go home and to the same with my Natique ski boat. Do not leave covers on boats as they catch fire easier than the rest of the boat from flying hot embers.
This is all being done while my wife and daughter are loading the AIrstream trailer. While all of this is going on you have your AM -FM radio on a local news channels as many other sources of communication fail and you need local information not national. This allows you to hear what roads are being closed while you drive. Then we drive the truck and trailer to a location we can get a hotel or camp until we can return.
So much has burn around us that large really hot fires will not be as devastating as they have been. The fuel is just not there any more. But I am sure we will still see less intense fires. But wind is always a huge factor with fire and fires create their own weather. We frequently have 20-40 with gusts to 60 MPH and our wind meter has clocked 164 MPH.
We also live on the side of a mountain so snow melt and water run off can also be an issue and water diversion is an issue every year. I have been able to keep it water out of the
garage so far. One must be able to think on their feet and use what is available location and situations are different everywhere.
Did you lose cars Ben?
Thankfully no. The fire was put out and we returned home.
My heart goes out to the people in California, stay safe out there.
Back here flooding, storm or a severe hail is the biggest issue i might face.
luckily there’s a pretty sturdy concrete parking garage next door so i’d take the top floor for safety from those. honestly the way the apartment building shakes on a windy day I’m more worried about my house pulling a ‘three little piggies’ and being huffed puffed and blown away.
Keeping a car in the garage, I suppose. We had plenty of natural disasters in this side of Texas, but I had plenty of luck keeping my 1.6 NA Miata safe.
So far, we had a number of hurricanes, tornados (new DLC disaster pack), floods, freezing weather, extreme heat. The car has done okay in the garage. The NA looks like time hasn’t moved. I thought that the soft top would only last me a couple of years, but it’s been the same reliable thing keeping it inside.
Grab the keys, put them in the ignition and drive away from the disaster. Post haste.