Pardon My “Backfire”

I heard something last night that I haven’t heard in years. About 10 PM I heard a big noise something like a firearm going off. That’s not unusual for us since we often fire our rifles, shotguns, and pistols from the porch at night at pesky woodchucks or skunks. I peered out the door and suddenly heard another explosion. This time it had a deep bass sound like a big mortar firing. The next morning I ask Tim about it and he saw that it was a truck backfiring as it slowed to turn down the intersection east of our place.

This is very unusual in this day and age because all engines are run by a computer and I haven’t heard any backfiring in several years. It must have been a very old truck I assume.

When we were kids, long before engine computers, we used to love backfires. There were two ways to produce backfires. One was by removing the “vacuum” advance hose on our car engines. As a result, several neat backfires would ensue while slowing down for a turn. The other way was the best, but often resulted in dire consequences. This was performed while traveling at highway speeds, then turning off the ignition key for a few seconds, then turning it back on. The result would be a gigantic backfire that sounded like a cannon going off! Unfortunately now and then it would blow our mufflers apart. Oh well, a small price to pay for a cool backfire. When our mufflers exploded as a result, we would just go the Norwalk Bargain Center and buy a new Cherry Bomb muffler for 5 dollars.

My one regret is that I turned off my ignition while going very fast one time and blew up both of my beloved dual glass pack mufflers. Most agreed that my dual glass pack mufflers on my 1955 Ford had the coolest sound around in 1966. Cherry Bomb mufflers never sounded the same after that. Oh well, the backfire was one of my all time best since it was in stereo and all our friends who heard it were impressed and said I was “cool”. I guess it was worth 10 dollars to be cool for a few minutes.

The pics below are of my 1955 Ford that I had in 1966. Note the cool duals with the glass pack mufflers before I blew them up!!!! :-(