I once read an article many years about how arsonists were burning expensive cars in Berlin. The journalist indeed reported that they would light barbecue starters under the tires.
If I recall correctly, they would even place it a little bit further under the car (i.e. not the outside) so that any passerbys wouldn’t notice anything until the tire was properly burning.
This was before Tesla’s though, which have a sentry mode
With the more recent cases, I have read that they smash the windows and throw Molotov cocktails inside, but I think that would draw a lot of attention and make alarms go off.
On the other hand, I think this method might have less risk of the sentry mode filming.
My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If it were a sunny day and I wanted to conduct an innocuous experiment with my own property, on my own property, and it were legal to do so in my municipality, I’d place a magnifying glass, via powerful magnet and flexible arm, such that it concentrated sunlight on the tire’s sidewall. Then I’d sit back and watch until I either got bored or had to put out any resulting flames with an NFPA-approved extinguisher and/or garden hose. Then I’d record the results in a logbook and drink a beer.
Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Fresnel lenses (like the kind you can tear out of old projection tv’s) work great for that, but they’re kind of a pain and bulky, and very impractical. I have one I took out of an old 55" projection tv. I think charcoal firestarters by a tire works better and can be “deployed” in seconds, but concentrated light is still pretty cool.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbrXUBU_gkM
My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s awesome! I’ve tried looking for this giant lenses in the past, but never encountered any on the side of the road, unfortunately. Projection TVs are a treasure trove of awesome optical components.
This makes me wonder how well a 1W 980nm Infrared Laser would work for burning/igniting a rubber surface.