The whole question of safety keeps popping up when I read of people who like to pre-heat their engines with an open flame, like a propane torch, butane torch, cigarette lighter, etc. Lots of fuel residue around an engine and the potential for a fire. Then there's always the "I hit a kid in the ankle and he had to go to the hospital" stories.

So my message for the New Year, is no matter what your hobby, Play Safe. We're careful when we do things known to be dangerous, but some times our seemingly innocent hobbies offer their own dangers.

Here's one of my not-so-bright adventures:

This particular story wasn't with fuel, although I have mixed my own. It was when I was a teenager and made a rather poor-man's version of home-made gunpowder. I had used turpentine to help blend the ingredients and had it all on a cookie sheet drying in my downstairs bedroom.

Once it appeared to be "done", I put a little bit in a teaspoon and lit it on fire. A little blazing chunk flew off the spoon and landed on the cookie sheet. An immense collumn of blue flame shot to the ceiling. Just behind the flame was an assortment of shelved items, like glow-fuel. Luckily nothing caught fire, but I did melt the ceiling tile above the cookie sheet.

The whole room filled with smoke, white and sickly sweet in smell as I had used sugar as one of the ingredients. The whole floor of the house was full of the smoke. I ran upstairs and looked in the Living Room. There, dim through the haze of the smoke, and barely illuminated by a table lamp, sat my father, a man who would undoubtedly not take kindly to my experimenting. I could barely see him reading his newspaper through the smoke, and apparently totally oblivious to the situation.

My mother did notice however, and she helped me rig a large fan by a door to remove the smoke. My father never did find out.

Again: Play Safe !!!

Good call. A second part of playing it safe is to be careful of other people when running your vehicle. Whether it's bystanders in the area or someone you're letting drive your car, make sure that you choose them wisely and make sure that they understand how everything works.

In high school, my girlfriend's dad was a pretty big car guy. He let me drive his '57 Bel Air one time, so I couldn't really say no when he asked to have a turn at the wheel of my RS4 3 Evo. I made the mistake of handing over the controller before explaining exactly how to work everything. He figured out steering and throttle pretty quickly, but he was too busy watching the car going in circles to see my explaining how to apply the brakes. Sure enough, he got it moving fast enough to hit second gear and started approaching the curb at the end of the street. "You probably want to hit the brakes now," I said. "The what?" Was his response. Crash. Awkward situation, and a seriously tweaked chassis. Luckily, nothing that couldn't be hammered straight.

In terms of bystanders, be aware of your surroundings when bashing. It can be hard to notice kids/spectators coming up from behind you when you're focused on the car. Multiple times I've actually had to stop running for a while when young kids came around and wanted to be part of the action. You can't blame them, but it's simply not safe when they start riding their bikes around in the parking lot and trying to chase the car.

I totally hear ya, when people get close, I slow down to nothing, I am just not willing to take the chance of people getting hit. Little kids, I make them stand behind or out of the path of the car.