“Between you, me, and the wall, I don’t know what to do!” I said as I snapped the wrench off the bolt for the 5th time. I have less than 24 hours to get his car show ready, and nothing is going to plan.

“Well, let’s just take a break, we can figure it out in a bit,” Owen said back to me as he rolled out from under the 2016 Audi S4 that we have been building for over a year now.

It was my dream car, manual with red and black leather interior, black paint, and the motor is a supercharged 3.0 liter v6. We have fully torn the car apart and rebuilt it, from the back seats to the entire motor. The car was built from front to back, top to bottom. We have been trying to perfect the wheel setup for a month now, and with the season opener happening in 24 hours, we needed to dial it in, and fast.

“It’s almost done, let’s just finish it and get ready for tomorrow,” I said as I grabbed another bolt from the pile of spares and got back under. We have been trying to thread a bolt through to hold the control arms on; it’s the last piece to the puzzle. Every time it has snapped with force when trying to get it to sit right, we lined up the bushing, pushed the bolt through, and “click” it went in. After numerous tries, it worked. I torqued it down to spec, and we lowered the car; it was perfect.

“See, it wasn’t that bad,” I said to Owen after throwing the broken bolts in the trash.
“Yeah, definitely,” he shot back with a smirk on his face. We went inside and packed our bags for tomorrow, it is right around a 4-hour drive to the show. We packed all our camera equipment, snacks, and drinks. We loaded the trunk with all our travel tools and a spare set of wheels; you never know what can happen on a 350-mile road trip. Around 8, we went to bed, gotta be up at 4 AM for the drive.

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‘“Beep beep beep beep” 4 AM rolls around, and we throw out bags in the car and head to the gas station.

“Want anything?” Owen says to me as he heads into the store.

“Yeah, grab me a Red Bull, thanks,” I say as I swipe my card to fill the tank.

Full tank, caffeine, and snacks for the road – we are set, so we thought. We hop on the road and hit cruise control on the interstate – don’t want to risk anything on the drive.

Almost 2 hours into the drive, I heard a slight rubbing noise. I tended to ignore it since the car always made some weird noises, then “bump bump CLUNK!”

“WHOAAA!” I yell as the back end of the car drops, and it pulls me off the road. We slide sideways, tires squealing, and wheels shaking, then we stop. “What just happened?” Owen says as we jump out of the car, I turn around to look and see the back right wheel rolling down the road right at us, it flew right off the car. I run over and stop it, bring it to the car, and open the trunk.

“How did that even happen?” I say to myself as I grab the toolbox and one of the spare wheels. “I’ll put this on and see if it sits,” I say as I sit on the ground to fit the wheel up. As I look at the wheel hub, it is torn to bits from dragging on the ground.

“Well, crap,” I say as I sit there staring at the torn-up rotor and hub.
Owen has already called 2 people at this point who are hours away from us.

“This isn’t gonna be fun,” I say as I stand up and walk to the back of the car, “honk, honkkk.” I whip my head over to see a big Ford F350 with a dual car trailer pulling over behind us. I slowly walk over to see who may be offering to help.

“Well, aren’t you in a pickle?” the guy says as he jumps out from the truck. He turns to me, standing there with his ripped-up plaid shirt and blue jeans tucked into his tall cowboy boots, and a trucker hat that says “Let’s Hit the Road.”

“JAKE!?’ I say surprised as it’s Owen’s brother who pulled over.

“Sure, right, it’s me,” he says back with his thick southern accent.

“Y’all boys need a ride,” he adds on as he walks over to our car on jackstands.

“Well, yes, we do,” I say as I barely get the wheel onto the hub and in enough to roll the car.

Jake pulls his trailer in front of the car and helps us limp it up.

“Well, we might make it to the show afterall” Owen says to me as we start to strap the car down.

“Let’s hope the trailer doesn’t lose a wheel,” I say as I strap the other side down.

We hop up into the truck with Jake and head back on the road with just enough time to make it to the show.