V6 Vandals - D5 8-10a - “Blaze of Glory”
The mortally-wounded Ishu Truckling screamed through city streets on the rev limiter, creating a huge cloud of smoke behind them as Luke kept pushing the engine harder, demanding more distance from the failing micro-truck. The valves started rattling as the top end lost oil pressure, and soon after, the engine spun a bearing, letting out a sharp screeching wail as the revs dropped.
Luke pulled off to the side just as the engine stalled, kicked in the clutch, pulled it out of gear, and coasted to a stop. The trip meter said they’d covered 2,813 miles since it’d been reset in Canada, and the oil light was flashing at him. The fuel light, just to add insult to injury, lit up as well.
“Looks like that’s it for us. Our V6 has died.” Luke said.
“Well, had to happen sometime. We’ve breezed through two of these with the car in one piece at the end. And they made it through their first run before their car broke down.” Amy said.
“So, what’s the plan?” Cody asked.
“Normally, I’d say we go get cleaned up, then get on a plane, but some twisted part of me wants to finish this.” Jake said.
“With what car?” Luke asked.
“Good point. Though how do you plan to get back?” Jake responded.
“There’s a scrapyard about a mile from here, I think. Should be a running car or two I could make it back with.” Luke said.
Luke’s End-of-Day Social Media update.
“So, looks like we broke down 222 miles from the finish line. Rear main seal went on the engine, lost all the oil, couldn’t keep up with it. Hopefully the other teams hold no ill-will toward us for oiling the roads, but we weren’t giving up. Luckily for my team, there’s an airport nearby. For me, I’ll have to see what’s available to drive back in. Though there’s a scrapyard not too far from here that might be worth a look.”
So, the V6 Vandals abandoned the Ishu Truckling in Jackson and made it to a hotel, got cleaned up, and had a night of rest. The morning came quickly enough, and three of the four team members made it to an airport, and they got on the first plane back to Chicago.
Luke took a bit longer to get moving, though eventually found something in the scrapyard worth driving.
Back in Chicago, Amy, Jake, and Cody got into the waiting Storm Surge at the airport. With almost 1.3 million miles on it since they’d built it in 2004, the little hybrid was showing its age, but still going strong.
Around 12 hours later, they heard the not-so-quiet sound of a 1.8 liter inline 4 in a 1976 Ishu Myriad. Amy looked out the window just in time to see a mostly-white car with a red trunk-lid and green rear bumper fish-tail into the parking lot.
“That god-damn maniac!” Amy said. “He bought one of those deathtraps anyway!”
“At least he finally got to drive a rear-engined car, then.” Jake said. “Let’s face it, he really wanted to before the run, but we convinced him the Truckling was a better idea. Now I wonder if that was such a good idea, or whether the squirmy rear-engined sedan would have gotten us there. Guess we’ll never really know.”
“True. So, let’s keep our eyes out for more of these to do. Luke seems to like them, and I’ll even admit, there’s a fun amount of challenge to them. We’ll just have to see if we can squeeze that old hybrid under the rules, or whether we’ll be in one of Old Man Sinistra’s deathtraps again.” Amy said.
“Sinistra? That’s right, the Savage you guys ran the first time. Funny you should mention that. I keep seeing some going really cheap. Couple of cheap Minerva’s, too.” Jake said.
I have to admit, that was a lot of fun. I’m glad the breakdown happened near the end of the run, admittedly, but hey, you can’t finish every run you’re in. Thank you to @VicVictory for hosting this, and thank you to everyone who participated or helped weave a bit of the story together. It’s more fun to have mild team-conflicts than to have to keep having conflicts within the team, after all.
As for my next car, I’m really hoping to get that 1.3 million mile Storm Surge into one of these, though I do have backup plans in the event that the hybrid isn’t allowed. Just because I haven’t started a thread doesn’t mean Sinistra isn’t alive and well. Just means I haven’t gotten a good start yet.
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