[A Navy Vet]

"The car was a Chevy Malibu, 1978 or 79. If it has the original drivetrain the timing is adjustable, and if the car was out of tune or the carburetor hasn’t been overhauled after all these years, it could be very well be prone to backfiring."

Of course for those us who know what distributor (relic) timing is and how finicky the jets/adjustments on a carburetor can be, entirely possible...not to mention a bad coil or spark plug wires shorting.

[Impala64ssa]

A friend of mine had an old VW Beetle, he claimed that when he drove it at around 35-40MPH in 3rd gear, if he heard a popping from the exhaust every 1-2 seconds he knew the timing was right. Sounds crazy, but that car ran very well.