Capricious Starts

Jen slid into the Impala to rejoin Sally. Moral support might be handy, plus the wind was not friendly either.

“Is this car carburated?” Sally asked Jen with a puzzled look.

“I have no idea, this car is old. Should it?” Jen replied with confusion etched across her brows.

“Let me try something else… might be” Sally answered.

Several hard pumps later, the slight smell of gas started to fill their nostrils. Sally turned the crank and the motor coughed, protested, lumbered, labored, then turned over.

The car sounded horrible. It was chugging and coughing and barely running.

A loud backfire sound shook the car and the engine fell silent. The darkened plums of exhaust trailing quietly off into the distant sky, leaving the girls flabbergasted.

“What should we do?” Jen wondered out-loud.

“It’s carburated, I guess we do more of the same” Sally sighed.

It wasn’t too difficult to allow gravity to lean her forward. Sally embraced the steering wheel and began to romp the gas pedal frantically.

Just when the smell of gas started to fill the car, Sally turned the crank while stomping the pedal furiously.

The car caught instantly and the motor revved a little before returning to a labored struggling chocking sound.

Sally squeezed the throttle hard and begged the motor not to quit on her.

The motor slowly started to clear itself and painfully rise up the tachometer. Sally held the pedal down hard. Jen was gripping her seat and moving her lips in silent pleas.

Eventually, the motor came up to full song and the body rolled as the engine found all of it’s power.

It was a veritable beast. The motor sounded throaty and mean. It growled and announced it’s might with great heft.

Sally smiled. She loved the feeling of a mean powerful V8 obeying her commands.

With the engine warming up fast, Sally let off the pedal and let the motor do it’s bidding at idle.

“When are you turning up the heat, it’s freezing” Jen asked, breathing more relaxed.

“The car hasn’t warmed up yet, but we’ll turn it on shortly” Sally replied.

“Hope the car can get up this driveway” Jen’s worry was becoming evident.

“Only one way to find out” Sally said, sensing that Jen was not wanting to attempt to get the car out on her own.

Slipping into reverse, and releasing the parking brakes, the car rolled forward towards the wall of the garage and came to an abrupt rest against the wheel blocks.

“I don’t think we can make it. I have no idea how my grandpa use to do this” Jen lamented as she tried to hide her concern that the car had rolled so quickly forward.

Sally, not wanting to show her own worry, applied the gas to back up. The motor revved up under pressure, but the car sat perfectly still. As Sally’s brows furrowed, she applied a lot more gas than she would have felt comfortable doing.

The body of the car twisted under the torque and power of the motor. The car didn’t budge however.

With butterflies and nerves taking hold, Sally pressed the pedal past the 50% mark and hoped for the best.

Instead, the motor started to hiccup and rumble. Instinct had Sally plunge the pedal into the carpet. Instead of a strong surge, the motor just flattened out and spat protests before shutting off. The body unloaded and the car rocked forward onto the blocks.

“What happened? What did you do?” Jen nearly shrieked.

“Easy! I’m not sure. Just hold on” a bewildered Sally retorted.

Sally flicked the car back into Park and cranked. The motor sputtered a bit and shook as it hesitated and backfired again.

“What was that?!?!” Jen nearly jumped out of her seat into the dash.

Sally romped the pedal a few times and cranked again. This time the engine caught without much fuss as Sally sternly throttled the motor, as if reprimanding it for the embarrassment.

Slipping into reverse again, Sally aggressively got on the gas to muscle her way out of the steep driveway. The chassis twisted as the big blog roared to life. The left rear tire struggled to hold traction as the car started to roll up the steep incline.

“You got this!” shouted Jen.

The encouragement caused Sally to enthusiastically urge the big motor and quickly overpowered the tires. Undeterred, Sally pressed on. The car started to emerge from the incline as the left rear started to protest in loud screeching of spent rubber.

The motor coughed and Sally immediately flattened the pedal to keep it alive. The surge of fuel proved too much and the motor sputtered and hesitated. Instead of holding the pedal, Sally flogged a rapid salvo of thrusts which overwhelmed the motor and it flooded over and died.

Slamming on the brakes to prevent rolling down and crashing, Sally, flustered, slammed the parking brakes on. With a flick of the gearshift to park, Sally twisted the ignition.

Bouncing on the pedal, she hoped the motor would catch. The motor struggled to find footing. Before it could sputter and die, Sally dropped the gear into reverse and dropped the pedal hard into the floorboard as she released the parking brake.

Jen, wide eye and adrenaline soaked, gripped the dash as the motor started to elevate itself and pull the big car up. The rear tire sputtered as it struggled to hold traction.

The Impala emerged from the driveway and landed in the street as the motor spat it’s last before stalling again.

It took some effort to get the motor fired up again after a few massive backfires. With a few long intense revs, Sally finally had the engine warm. Their trip to deliver the beast was well on it’s way, but their troubles were far from over.