Mounting a Fire Extinguisher Properly: Brackets, Quick Release and Roll Bar Mounts
Something lets go on the exit of a corner and by the time you are stopped there is smoke coming from under the bonnet. You are belted in, gloved, and the extinguisher is in the passenger footwell where it has always been. You get the belts off. Then you spend eleven seconds finding it, because it has rolled under the seat.
Almost everyone who takes a car on track owns an extinguisher. A lot fewer have one they could actually get to in that situation. The bottle is the easy part of this problem; the bracket is the part that decides whether you use it.
Where It Has to Be
The test is simple and worth doing in your own car, in the garage, with your belts done up: can you reach the extinguisher, release it, and have it in your hand without undoing the harness?
If yes, the mount is in the right place. If no, it is cargo.
In practice that means one of three places:
- Passenger seat rails or floor — the usual answer in a street-registered car. Within reach across the transmission tunnel, out of the way of a passenger's feet.
- Passenger footwell, bulkhead-mounted — good on cars where the seat rails are occupied, though it is a longer stretch.
- Roll bar — the racing answer. Nothing in the way, and an instructor or marshal can reach it too.
One thing worth saying loudly. A bottle held down with a velcro strap, a bungee, or a plastic bracket meant for a kitchen is not mounted. Under a heavy impact it becomes a two-kilo object moving at whatever speed you were doing. Sanctioning bodies require a metal-to-metal mount for exactly this reason, and it is a good rule even at a run group that does not check.
Three Kinds of Mount
Vehicle-specific brackets
These bolt to existing mounting points, usually on the passenger seat rails. No drilling, nothing to fabricate, and the bottle ends up where the designer intended rather than where there happened to be room.
The Rennline FE04 ($184) covers 997, 991, Boxster and Cayman. Brey-Krause make the widest range of vehicle-specific mounts we stock — 41 of them, covering most Porsches plus BMW, Mini, Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, Miata and WRX. The R-2050 for 991 and 981 is $137.84.
Quick release
A vehicle-specific bracket holds the bottle. A quick release decides how fast it comes out.
The Rennline FE12 ($347) uses a detent release rather than a clamp — you pull and it is in your hand, no thumbscrew, no strap, no fumbling with gloves on. It is a true metal-to-metal mount that meets sanctioning body requirements, and it bolts onto Rennline and most aftermarket brackets, so it is an upgrade to a mount you may already have rather than a replacement for it.
It fits 3-inch bottles (H3R and stainless Safecraft 2.5lb), 2.9-inch (Safecraft PB2 2.5lb — not PB3), and 2.63-inch (H3R 1.4lb). Check your bottle diameter before ordering; this is the detail that trips people up.
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Roll bar mounts
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If the car has a bar or a cage, clamping to it is the cleanest answer — the bottle sits behind the seats where nothing else wants to be, and it is reachable from either seat.
The FE12.23 ($368) is the quick disconnect and roll bar clamps together, which is the usual way to buy it. The FE24 carbon bucket ($200) is the weight-conscious version. For cars with no obvious mounting point at all, the FE09 universal ($223) and the Brey-Krause R-9540 ($186.08) are the fallbacks.
And the Bottle
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| Bottle | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Sparco Dry Powder 2L | Cheapest and effective. The powder gets into everything and corrodes what it does not clog — fine for a car you would rather save than keep tidy. | $129 |
| Sparco AFFF 2L | Foam. Better on fuel fires, far kinder to the car afterwards, stainless bottle. | $169 |
| Sparco Novec 2L | Clean agent — leaves no residue at all. The expensive answer, and the one to buy if the interior is worth more than the extinguisher. | $529 |
Note that mounts and bottles are sold separately, near-universally. Buy them together or you will have one without the other on the Friday.
Putting It Together
- Street car, first track days: a vehicle-specific bracket on the passenger seat rails, plus a 2L dry powder bottle. Around $310 all in.
- Regular HPDE, want it quicker to hand: add the quick release. You are buying seconds, and seconds are the entire point.
- Caged car: roll bar clamps and the quick disconnect, behind the seats.
- Car you care about cosmetically: spend the money on a clean agent bottle rather than a fancier bracket.
- Check the bottle diameter against the mount before you order. 3in, 2.9in and 2.63in are not interchangeable.
Browse the full Fire Extinguishers & Mounts range — 62 bottles and brackets from Rennline, Brey-Krause and Sparco.
Further Reading
- Fire Protection in Race Cars — where a handheld stops being enough and a plumbed suppression system starts
- Why a Fire Extinguisher Is the Most Important Safety Item in Your Track Car
Part of our Rennline for Porsche series. For everything else Rennline makes for your chassis, see Rennline for Porsche: The Complete Guide to Every Part and Every Chassis.