Was thinking of vapour escaping when the engine came out

Very little actually, as Graham explained.  Plus the hot engine & turbo were even further removed from the fuel tank than when the car was built.  You're quite right about diesel being very difficult to ignite though!  Ever tried pouring some into a metal tray and igniting it with a match?  Near impossible!  [Thinks: "Don't try this at home" warnings apply mind!!  I did it at fire station during a training course, wearing flame resistant overalls and with some rather large extinguishers standing by!]

 

Graham's point about car fires in films makes me smile!  100% of the time those are created by deliberately exploding incendiary devices in the vehicle as it crashes. Witness why so many appear to burst into flame as soon as they've left the road and BEFORE actually impacting with anything.  Old Bond films are the worst (e.g. Dr. No, Russia with Love?).  Modern films generally and Bonds in particular are better.  Hence in Casino Royale, when Daniel Craig supposedly puts his Aston off into a multiple barrel roll, there is no hint of fire and Craig only suffers a few minor abrasions.  Sequence was filmed at Millbrook, with rally driver and Aston test and development driver Mark Higgins at the wheel. By all accounts the effects achieved were much better than planned, with Higgins getting double the number of flips they had anticipated. Even then, the initial flip was "assisted" with some explosives, to ensure the roll started where the cameras would be positioned.  Brave lad though Mr Higgins. I wouldn't fancy deliberately putting an Aston into a roll, knowing the techies were going to be exploding stuff under my arse at the same time! 

 

Sorry - veered Off Yeti Topic there!  Bit like that actual Yeti in the OP??

The current brochure states that 2WD have ESP but it's called ESC and it has all the elements the 4WD has i.e. ABS,EBV,MSR,ASR,EDS,HBA,DSR & ESBS.

 

As for Yeti's prone to coming off the road it can happen to any car depending on who is at the helm and their speed.

 

In fact the Yeti has quite a wide gate at 1540mm.

 

Yes Skoda eventually got round to making ESP or ESC as they now call it standard but it was not on the classic Yeti unless you had a top trim level, 4x4 or DSG.

 

Experienced first hand the back end of a Yeti stepping out and spinning the car round 180 degrees, albeit on ice/snow but it alerted me to two things, a need for winter tyres and even with a haldex at the back, the rear end is light and prone to the pendulum effect if grip is momentary lost.

 

This is what IMHO has caused a number of Yeti's accidents I've come across in the media, where they have come off the road on bends, particularly the S (as in this case) and SE without ESP to help.

 

 

TP

Yank cars always seem to catch fire on those police/camera shows.

One of the things you learn in rallying, is this type of very spectacular, unplanned off-road excursion, with multiple rolls, etc. and end over end flips over a long distance, with large bits of vehicle ripped off in all directions, are much more likely to be "walk away and take own photos afterwards", than the much less spectacular sudden stop against an immovable object kind of off. Theory is that the kinetic energy of the vehicle is dissipated more gradually, in a series of smaller, less violent jolts, as bits get torn off, etc. The human body inside, provided it is strapped in properly and doesn't impact on bits of hard surface during the roll process, can survive this kind of abuse quite well.  It is the sudden, unspectacular stop from speed that rips internal organs out of their mountings, ruptured aorta, etc. Best known case being a certain Princess in an S-class into a tunnel support pillar in Paris one evening a few years ago.

 

I can testify to this. 6 years ago I was in a crash in my Seat Ibiza Mk4. Glanced off another car at approx 50-60mph, through a dry stone wall at an angle, smashed through 2 foot-thick stone gateposts, rolled twice and came to a stop the right way up on top of the wall.

 

I had severe bruising from the seatbelts, burns to my wrists from the airbags, bits of windscreen glass up my nostrils, and 5 weeks off work with agonising neck pain.

But all in all, despite the car being pretty wrecked, I came off fairly lightly.

If that had been a single impact into a tree or oncoming car I wouldn't be here now. But as it was, the energy was dissipated over several impacts.