After reading threads here this morning it reminded me of some of the stupid things I've done car-wise on my road to learning about cars. There are many
but one particular event always pops into my head.
In my defense I was probably 19 or so...
I had a 71 Camaro, bought it completely stock as a 350/auto car. It went through a lot of changes over the years I owned it, starting with a single turbo kit. Made good power but the wastegate I used (Impco valve) was really bad at controlling the boost levels.
After blowing that up a couple times I sold the kit and put on a 6-71 Weiand blower with two 660's. This was my daily driver, rain or shine. Fun car, but I was always tinkering on it.
One day I was adjusting the carbs. I was in my driveway which was sloped upward. I had the car in gear idling, no parking brake, and it had just enough of a hill that the car stayed in place. I had finished adjusting the mixture screws and the car sounded fantastic. I was standing in front of it and without thinking I grabbed the throttle linkage and gave it a quick blip. You can guess what happened next...
The car shot forward, throwing me onto the running engine (no hood). Was able to just keep my hand out of the blower belt and rolled off the fender on the drivers side. After pulling myself off the ground I see the car heading up the driveway on it's own. Fortunately the garage door was open.
I dive through the drivers window and desperately try to shut the car off while doing my best Fred Flintstone impression with my feet. The car was in the garage and about 10 feet from my Moms almost new washer when I got the key turned, but momentum was not my friend that day. Smashed her washer pretty good but at least it didn't hurt my car.
When my Mom got home and saw the washer she was not very happy.
Of course I explained how I almost died and anger turned to tears and I escaped punishment. Pretty stupid thing to do but sometimes you don't think before acting. What things have you guys done?