Firing Up

Nothing blew up, so it’s all good

- Nick Licata

For those who have built or been involved with building a vintage car from the ground up know what it’s like to hear your project’s engine fire up for the first time. It’s exhilarating, to say the least—especially when all eight cylinders are working in perfect harmony. It’s impossible to explain the mental effect it has on us to anyone not into this addicting muscle car hobby. There’s just nothing like it. So, you let it idle for a while, get it up to temp then give a couple yanks on the throttle because you need to hear what it sounds like throughout the whole rpm range. And if you are like me—the angrier, the better. Once you shut the engine down it’s time to enjoy the overwhelming smell of newness that just burned off every heat generating part. Afterward, you check for leaks, give it a mental “thumbs up,” then realize the workload that lies ahead. Not the physical labor of heavy lifting, but the time investment necessary to learn the car and its many idiosyncrasies. The suspension isn’t going to tune itself and the brake pads need to be bed into the rotors properly to ensure that expensive disc brake system stops the car like it’s supposed to.