Brainstorming this....how about ignition points mounted several places in the engine bay, all wired to the ground wire of a single big warning light. Put a piece of thermo wax under the lift tab on the contactor arm. If any one of them melts the wax, the point closes and the light turns on. You can test the "turn on point" with a heat gun...just adjust the points for more or less tension to have a little selection range. All you have to replace after testing is the wax (or maybe use a soft plastic or soft foam pad for your melt down material.)
Of course, the melt material is flammable but if it burns, then the points have already closed, the light is on, and youve hit the fire bottle. You could monitor a lot of positions for about $20 or so, and it would be easy to check and maintain. If you wanted a little more info, you could wire each point set to individual lights. If only one comes on, and nothing else happens quickly, you can make a judgement call. If they all start turning on, you know how big the problem is. I like that idea best...still cheap and easy, but maybe less likely to mess you up with a false problem.
I am not wild about the idea of automatic cutoff or chute deploy. What if you are using power to straighten out before pulling the chute at the right moment? I pulled the chute on the roadster, once, when it was too sideways (back in the days when you could sneak up to ElMirage in the middle of the week to test the car). I would sure never want to have that choice made for me, now that I know what a dumb move that was! The other side of the snap back is worse than the problem you started with, is the way I feel about it....cant say with authority...only tried it once and wouldnt again.
JimL
