# Do cars ever really backfire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292 "2013-10-03T20:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/21 "2013-10-04T20:07:31Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Modern fuel-injected cars don’t. My 1985 fuel-injected Toyota pickup does. Rarely, under certain starting circumstances that I can’t easily reproduce, but it has happened. Or is that not what you call “modern”? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/22 "2013-10-04T21:40:00Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > [Here’s a little story from Click and Clack.](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-02-24/news/36803235_1_rental-cars-corrosion-battery) Does it involve a man named Jed? ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/23 "2013-10-05T00:26:55Z")
According to Mel Blanc, Maxwell cars do it every 3 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/24 "2013-10-05T00:55:37Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > My 1985 fuel-injected Toyota pickup does. Rarely, under certain starting circumstances that I can’t easily reproduce, but it has happened. Or is that not what you call “modern”? Many early fuel injection systems injected fuel into a throttle body before the intake manifold. I could see those backfiring easily. Modern systems inject directly into the cylinder. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/25 "2013-10-05T13:50:54Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > [Here’s a little story from Click and Clack.](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-02-24/news/36803235_1_rental-cars-corrosion-battery) I’ll quote what I think the relevant part is so folks can get the gist. > [@](#): > > Q Dear Tom and Ray: > > Back in the 1960s, one of my friends told me that he could get his old car to backfire whenever he liked. By switching the ignition on and off while manipulating the foot pedals, he could make the car backfire with a spectacular sound that attracted the admiration of any adolescents in the vicinity. Can you explain the mechanics for arrested adolescents like me? > > – Bill > > A RAY: Sure, Bill. How did you know we’d be the people to ask? > > TOM: First, let me assure any parents of adolescent boys out there that this won’t work nowadays. It only works on carbureted cars, and every single car made now is fuel-injected. > > RAY: We called it “banging.” When you turned the key off in an old car, the carburetor would continue to allow gasoline to pour into the cylinders. > > TOM: That gasoline didn’t get combusted, because the spark plugs weren’t firing, so it got pushed out into the exhaust system, where it sat there, waiting for something to happen. > > RAY: When you turned the ignition back on, that first spark would ignite not only the fuel in the cylinder, but all of the fuel sitting in the exhaust system too. And, kaboom! > > TOM: We have a friend, whom we won’t name, but Tony had a job during college returning rental cars to the airport in Boston. To get to the airport, you had to drive through a tunnel. > > RAY: And Tony H. found it particularly satisfying to “bang” the returning rental cars in the tunnel, where they made a tremendous noise. > > TOM: He also discovered that when he “banged” a Rambler, not only did it make an impressive noise, but sometimes it blew the entire muffler right off. > > RAY: So he would pull into the rental lot with the car sounding like a Gatling gun, and the supervisor would say: “What the heck happened, Tony? Another bad muffler?” And Tony would say: “Yeah. What a piece of junk.” > > TOM: So if anyone from Hertz wants to get in touch with Tony now to seek redress, let us know. We know how to reach him. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292/26 "2013-10-05T14:13:10Z")
About 15 years ago I was working for a tv station in Baltimore. One evening I was at the scene of a particularly tense midsummer police involved shooting - it was dark, hot, and the crowd was angry. Police working the tape lines were on edge. I was up at the crime scene tape along with the other stations. We had already finished chastising one photog for using his light (it tends to whip people up who are angry) when I was informed on the radio a coworker had showed up in a live truck a half block away. I thought nothing of it until a few moments later there’s a loud BANG! The crowd ducks & screams, cops pull weapons, I’m jolted and start scanning for the threat when I had a quick thought - I grab the radio… “Hey (photog), are you in Truck 20?!?!” I yelled. “Yes, why?” “Did it just backfire?” “Yes, why? … Oh.” I quickly informed the cops near my the source of the noise. Interestingly it helped break the tension a little. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cars-ever-really-backfire/670292.md?page=1)