Story Peeps Change Lives

My Crazy Car Fire

Written by VinceM

This story takes place when I was sixteen. it was a typical weekday in June. I picked up Fred and Larry, and we took the little Horizon on another fantastic teenage voyage.

My mom handed down to me a baby blue 1988 Plymouth Horizon. The car wasn’t a rocket but I sure had lots of fun in it.

The car was an automatic, but I used the first, second, and overdrive gear positions to its fullest.  Now most people would tell you that a front wheel drive car with a measly 100 horsepower is not going to be any fun, but then again most people are not me. I could take any moving vehicle and probably scare the pants off you; at least I used to do that, until I learned some unfortunate lessons.

So how do you take a little car without much horsepower and burn rubber and race people? It’s easy really. I used the car as if it had a manual transmission, of course now I know I wasn’t doing the car any favors, but hey I was only sixteen back then.

One of my favorite things to do was to floor it in first gear around a corner, so that the tires would kick loose and I got to burn some rubber. Front wheel drive cars are actually pretty fun around corners if you like screeching around curbs and ripping the road instead of just driving on it. It just happened to be that I loved that sort of thing.

Another fun obsession that I had, was to pull up the parking brake while fully stopped on wet pavement, and floor the car in first gear until smoke bellows from the tires and my friends begin to choke on it. Hmm, thinking back on these moments, maybe I liked to torture my friends… But they never stopped calling, so I guess we were on the same page.

Yes, I was a tyrant when it came to driving cars. I would take the average car and put it through such abuse that sometimes I’d be surprised how resilient the car was in the first place; because it didn’t blow up or fall apart. Hmm, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Back then I used to really enjoy scaring my friends by pulling stunts.  I remember driving down the highway one night, when without warning I opened the car door and stepped on the door sill with my hand grasping the door frame as if I’m about to jump out of it! My friends were caught so of guard that the looks on their faces was absolutely priceless, before they started cracking up with laughter. Can you imagine driving 70 mph on the highway and then the driver opens the door and attempts to jump out? Yeah, I was a little crazy, and pulling little stunts like that always kept my friends on their toes. I used to get my kicks doing silly stunts and driving like a maniac.

Well on the day this story takes place the pavement was a little wet, because we had some drizzling rain a few minutes before. I loved these types of days, because that meant that I could go smoke my tires at any corner.

With Fred and Larry safely unbuckled by seatbelts in my car, I began my rampage around my town. That meant going to my favorite street that has a little bump at the bottom of the hill, past its intersection in a quiet neighborhood.

I drove down this 45 degree hill at 70 mph, which was quite fast for the road conditions being wet and all. Plus I didn’t exactly plan to stop at the stop sign, because that would mean that we would miss the little bump that can send a car flying and give you that strange feeling in your stomach; like a roller coaster.

I hit the bump and sure enough the little Horizon gets a foot off the ground and my friend’s stomachs find a new resting place in their throats. Silly teenage laughter breaks out in the car and my alter ego, Mr. Speed Racer takes over me.

This neighborhood is filled with turns and hills and almost no traffic or pedestrians to look out for. At every corner I take advantage of the slick pavement and melt all the rubber I can before the tires grip again. Of course I’m really heavy on brake usage too, because there’s plenty of stop signs and intersections to slow me down. Picture someone flooring it from the get go and screeching to a halt whenever you need to stop, that’s how I drove my friends around to kill time.

Well after a couple of hilarious and thrilling hours, we all decided to part company and I dropped everyone off. Even on the drop off, I’d make a loud exit by drifting around the nearest corner, still within view of my friends’ house.  Their parents must have not been thrilled by my driving, but I never heard any complaints.

So I began driving home, after I put the car through another torturous session of transmission and engine abuse. I decided to go for another quick run around my favorite neighborhood before I called it quit that day.

The car smoked the tires more easily without the excess weight of my friends. I burned around my last corner and headed up the street that is perpendicular to mine. I started to notice smoke coming from my front bumper and decided to avoid my street until I figure out what’s going on. I surely didn’t want to park a smoking car in my driveway.

I drove onto the street that is directly behind my house when I noticed a small flame protruding from the hood vents.  I pulled over immediately and unlatched the hood.

Oh my God!!! The plastic fuse box in the engine compartment was completely engulfed in flames and the fire was spreading quickly through the wiring looms. I panicked and ran to the nearest house and rang their door bell frantically.

A gentleman answers the door and I yelled “I need a bucket of water, my car is on fire”. Can you imagine being that guy? The guy said he has a hose and he’ll open the garage to get it. I asked him to please hurry because the car was on fire directly behind my parents’ house. I could actually see the back of my house from where I was standing on this guys door step.

As soon as I heard the garage door open, I also heard a fire truck in the distance, which gave me a small sense of relief. The closest fire station was only ¾ of a mile away from my house.

The guy hooked up the hose and I poured water into a small bucket and ran with it towards my car to dump it on the flaming engine. I dumped 3 buckets of water on my engine before the fire truck arrived at the scene.

The fire fighters put the fire out quickly and during that time I explained to the neighbors that were observing, that I don’t know what happened,  I was just driving home and the engine started smoking. This of course was a lie, because the fire was most likely caused by a very hot engine from its abuse, which must have melted the plastic in the engine compartment to start the fire.

Well the fire was out within a few minutes and I was left with a torched car that’s not drivable and the most horrible story to tell my parents.

I hopped the fence as the tow truck driver began loading the car on the flat bed and prepared myself to tell my parents what happened. My parents were in the kitchen when I walked in and I told them immediately that the car caught on fire behind their house. My parents asked me what happened, I told them the same story that I told the nosey neighbors.

My parents didn’t blame me for that one, Thank God! Apparently those cars were known for engine fires and the insurance company covered the repair without any issues.

Lesson learned. Listen up kids, if you beat the daylights out of cars like I did, don’t be surprised if one day your car ends up in flames or pieces. It happened to me many times and luckily I’m still alive to tell the story and hopeful deter you from being as crazy as I was.

Author Profile: VinceM

This author has published 26 articles so far. More info about the author is coming soon.

Comments  

 

0 #2 BTW" — VinceM 2010-03-06 14:31

The picture in the begining of the story is not mine... I just found it on google

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0 #1 Not too pretty, but here it is — VinceM 2010-03-04 00:09

1988 Plymouth Horizon AKA Fire Starter

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