On October 18th 2008 Velocity invited our extended family to Cars and Coffee. As we debuted our 7th issue we showcased all the featured stories that graced the pages of Velocity Magazine. The early morning gathering at the Ford Motor Company in Irvine draws about 200 cars every Saturday. It was different this past Saturday… it was as if the cars drove off the pages of Velocity Magazine.
Since Laura was on vacation, Sarah and I manned the Velocity area selling subscriptions. Steve Emmert owner of Corporate Image Mobile Detail donated a Cilajet exterior polish for our contest drawing. Thanks Steve!
We normally leave around 8ish and the crowd starts to pack things up around 8:30 or 9:00. When I was getting ready to leave Jan Tarazkiewicz, owner of the Pinnacle Pantera (issue 7) asked if I could help him out by jump starting his 1972 Ultra Hall Pantera GT5S. I was driving the HHR Velocity Panel (company car) and thought sure I hope nothing goes wrong cause it’s not my car. Well I must have foreseen the future…
We (about 5 of us standing there) open up the hood of the car and didn’t see a battery… oh, there it is said Jan… he hooked up the cables to his car first then the Velocity Panel… was that supposed to happen I ask… a yes response from Jan. hmmm, I thought to myself, my Dad used to do this to my first car all the time and that never happened. Moving along, to make a long story short, Jan tried to start the car multiple times and nothing. So, he called his wife, said thanks for the help, and I was about to be on my way… I started the HHR Velocity Panel up and backed up… WHOA I can’t turn the steering wheel.
I told the three guys there about the wheel not turning and they didn’t know what could have happened. 20 mins later… looks like we blew the ABS fuse which handles the power steering. We kinda did a quick fix so that I could drive it. Genevieve Chappell was on hand filming, check it out below.