Because of covid, work, life, basically everything, my '73 BMW has been sitting for almost a year on a battery tender, unmoved in a storage building off-site of my garage. Any vehicle, old or new, left neglected will deteriorate exponentially, so it's been bothering me that she's been sitting like this. It was a great day on Sunday to finally go un-mothball the old girl, and arrangements were made to do so. I'm always apprehensive because I think about everything that could possibly go wrong, but I think I need to re-calibrate, and remember all the things that are so right. All the old smells, and of course the visual, which doesn't require explanation.
Tires aren't flat, and visually everything looks good. Coolant and oil - Check. All lights work, check. I stuck the key into the ignition, and she starts right up, and settles into a choke-level idle. She runs for a minute or so, I hit the throttle, and she comes off of the chokes, and settles down at a nice, lumpy 800-ish rpms. Beautiful.
The 25 mile ride home is uneventful, with a mix of back roads and the highway, and the soundtrack of an M30. Man this car-- Still tight, no race car but fast enough, and so much fun to drive. I'll be doing regular maintenance before the winter, so I have about a month or two of autumn driving that I can fit in. All maintenance will be logged here of course...