Do cars ever really backfire?

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”?

Does it involve a man named Jed?

According to Mel Blanc, Maxwell cars do it every 3 seconds.

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.

I’ll quote what I think the relevant part is so folks can get the gist.

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.