Actually I did have a car burn up once, one of GM's fine X-bodies. The engine block caught fire during morning rush hour. In that case I didn't have much choice in stopping since all the wiring burned. I happened to be in the far left lane and coasted onto the shoulder. It still created a huge slowdown.
Sorry, your post just struck me right (or wrong, whichever).
I keep envisioning something like a Consumers Report study, saying ''Research has learned that people whose cars are on fire generally stop within X feet. One respondent in the study indicated that, in his experience over 37 trials, his average stopping distance was...''
OK, so I'm a little weird...(G!)