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Greatest Face Palm Stories of All Time

SnailPower

Autocross Newbie
Location
North NJ
Car(s)
2017 GTI MT, PP, LP
I had an '84 Z-28 H.O. as well between the ages of 17 and 22. My buddy and I had the 'brilliant' idea to hook up a manual choke cable to the secondaries of the 4 barrel carb. We mounted the choke pull right under the e-brake handle. This enabled me to open all 4 barrels up at the same time. It surprised a few IROC-Zs back then. It was fun while it lasted and then that 'brilliant' modification blew cylinder #2 and the car would smoke like a mother-f'er at stop lights. One time, a couple next to me in the other lane beeped and said, 'I think your car is on fire'. I smoked up 4 lanes worth of road. I would have to carry spare quarts of oil and keep dumping it in because it was burning through it like crazy. The engine seized shortly thereafter. It was $900 back then to replace it. Lesson learned.

So this is probably what was wrong with a 1992 Ford Tempo that was my first car. Whenever I was at a stop light, smoke would start coming out from under the hood. I was too young and had no money (nor my parents) to car about trying to find what was wrong to fix it. It was super embarrassing but the car continued to run. My parents bought the car at a used car junkyard and thought it would be a good first car for me, lol.

Eventually I was at an intersection and the car just died completely. I had to help push it off out the intersection with the assist of a cop and we got it towed out. Had it towed right back to the junkyard, lol.
 

tdream1

Autocross Newbie
Location
MA
So this is probably what was wrong with a 1992 Ford Tempo that was my first car. Whenever I was at a stop light, smoke would start coming out from under the hood. I was too young and had no money (nor my parents) to car about trying to find what was wrong to fix it. It was super embarrassing but the car continued to run. My parents bought the car at a used car junkyard and thought it would be a good first car for me, lol.

Eventually I was at an intersection and the car just died completely. I had to help push it off out the intersection with the assist of a cop and we got it towed out. Had it towed right back to the junkyard, lol.
All the smoke from my Z-28 actually poured out the exhaust. It was just so much and so thick, it would look like smoke was coming from every orifice of the car. :eek:
 

SnailPower

Autocross Newbie
Location
North NJ
Car(s)
2017 GTI MT, PP, LP
All the smoke from my Z-28 actually poured out the exhaust. It was just so much and so thick, it would look like smoke was coming from every orifice of the car. :eek:

Ah. At least you would expect something out the exhaust, lol. Mine would look like when you open up your BBQ grill lid after it's been cooking for awhile and all that smoke billows out. As soon as light turned green I would floor it. Leave that smoke in the dust! :ROFLMAO:
 

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
Wasn't that the exact reason Toyota had a massive recall in early 2000s? Their OEM floor mats were catching the gas pedal and causing people to accelerate to their doom apparently? Just reminded me of that recall, was all over the news when it was a thing. I think that caused most manufacturers to start adding some type of clip to the floor mat to anchor it down so it wouldn't move or shift over time.
It was actually one incident where a Lexus dealer put Toyota floor mats in (a service loaner) and a customer got killed when the pedal got stuck.

That's why cars have clips to hold the mats in place now.
 

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
I had just transferred to a new location in Germany in the early 80's. I had only been there a couple of weeks and needed to go to another site to pick something up. The motor pool gave me a brand new (maybe 20 miles on the odometer) Chevy panel van.

As I was coming back a city bus pulled away from a bus stop and clipped the rear of the van.

The motor pool was not happy.
 

Rojito

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Florida
Car(s)
2021 GTI SE MANUAL
I had just transferred to a new location in Germany in the early 80's. I had only been there a couple of weeks and needed to go to another site to pick something up. The motor pool gave me a brand new (maybe 20 miles on the odometer) Chevy panel van.

As I was coming back a city bus pulled away from a bus stop and clipped the rear of the van.

The motor pool was not happy.
Reminds me of the time I blew an engine on a manual 5 ton truck on a highway in Korea.

I was over there for three weeks for an exercise and the trucks were basically brand new, but they had been sitting in storage for quite awhile.

The motor pool guys told us they needed to be reved pretty high because “blah, blah, blah” I didn’t really pay attention to the rest.

Man, I reved the hell out of that mofo all the way from Camp Carrol to Osan and halfway back it gave up the fight.

Good times.
 

Strange Mud

Autocross Champion
Location
Small Town CT
Car(s)
Assorted
plays this song and sing along with me
🪗

Revs, revs, revs for Peace

Revs, revs, revs for Peace.


if you don't know the Fugs give them a listen (NOT for everyone)
 
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swcrow

Autocross Champion
Location
Virginia
Car(s)
7.5 GTI
Drove my '29 Ford to a cars and coffee meet.....put in park and didn't think anything about the very slight incline in the parking lot. Enter '72 Ferrari Dino who parks directly behind me. Before I leave, I take off the '29's hood and put in the car......every so slightly moving the tall gear shifter from P to R to N....needless to say, two people put their shoulders into the rear of the '29 in time for me to shove the gear selector back into P......24" from the rear of the Dino.

I ordered wheel chalks as soon as I got home....haven't been back yet.....lol
 
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