Out-running the cops after a drag race or a burn out.....ever done it?

I have a couple friends who did in Colorado, HWY 287 between Loveland and Longmont. Cop got them both. I'm glad they dropped me off before hand.
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once before school......my buddy got caught. my car and everyone in it , went and hid out for a little while.......one of the more stupid things i did back in the day........... that was a interesting day in school

 

We used to race on a straight stretch behind the old Forest Grove highschool, everyone called it 3/10 because there was a 3/10 mile marked out and a 1/4.

Very common to outrun the cops on a Friday night. They usually wrote someone a ticket but couldn't catch more than one or two cars at a time. Only one town cop car and the state and county boys didn't seem to care.

Just lucky I guess I was never one to get caught. One hot Friday night the wife and I weren't racin. We were parked on the side of the road sitting on the hood of the merc havin' a smoke and just kickin' back when the cops showed up. They ran us off but figured we weren't participating because we were not in the Vic.

I guess they could have written us up for being a spectator or something, maybe they didn't have that law yet.

I do know some pretty funny stories about the street races but will probably never find the time to write them down. That's Jetter's job.

 

There used to be a huge street deal outside of Tranquillity CA, right near the LA canal. We were sitting in "Elvis", my buddy's 69 Polara ex-Glendora police car with a built 383 and 4sp conversion. Couple of CHP came flying up, and in all the confusion, we were totally ignored. The car was still black and white and still had the cage in it...

I still have that engine and trans in my 51 coupe.

 

Me and my cousin Vito got busted for drag racing each other with our 5.0's coming back from my little sister's wedding shower.. The bad part about it was that my mom, grandmother and aunt were in the car behind us and they seen the whole thing.. Man, were they pissed! The cop wrote us up for violation of bassic speed law instead of drag racing.

 

Nothing "cool" about street racing or outrunning the cops. Just lame!

 

INC...I take the 5th...POP.

 

My uncle told me stories about out running small town cops. He had a 65 Lemans and the cop had a Chevy with the inline six. He said he'd blast down main street to get his attention and then pull out to the highway. Apparently the squad car would run out of legs at about 85 so they would keep it around 80 to keep him chasing them for a bit. Of course this was rural SD 30-35 years ago, in the middle of nowhere.

These days I would never run, too much trouble. You see it everyday on the news, someone trying to out run police. One mistake or accident could ruin an innocent bystanders life forever. Take your lumps and live to drive another day.

 

Just once. I had a '66 Bonneville convert that I just put a 400 from a totaled late 60's GTO in, and took it up to the corner as a "maiden voyage". Car was in primer, no licence, no insurance, no plates, no tailights, no exhaust system from the headers back. Hey, it was only a mile up the road, what could possibly go wrong?

I turned around in the intersection and got into it, lit the tires up and went sideways past the little restraunt at the corner. At that instant, the local deputy came strolling out the door, and I saw him sprinting for his cruiser in the rear view.

It was only a mile to my folks farm, I ducked into the drive to my dads machine shed, had the car parked and door shut when he drove by and blipped the siren. As it was still warm, headers still ticking cooling down, and there wasn't another primered '66 Bonney convert around, he could'a had me but I got a pass that day!

 

Twice I figured a way out of a "speed Contest" pull over.

The first was on the freeway. I had a Chevy LUV truck, Chopped, Step side bed, Corvette Suspension and a high reving 331" small block. Honest 11 sec truck. I was going down the 405 freeway and some clown in one of the Black Firebird's with the giant screamin chicken on the hood wanted to race, he kept gassing it next to me and pointing. I figured what the hell, I'll blow him off. So I drop to second and just as i nail it I see a Hwy Patrol behind me hit the lights. Well Screamin Chicken boy nails it to catch up and I immediately let off, the Chippy takes off after him giving me an all knowing nod. About three miles down the road there they are, pulled over too the side of the road. The Firebird driver flips me off, the cop waves and smiles.
The other time I was at a VW street Race at the famed Nabisco plant in Buena Park. I was in a 302 powered Ford Courier truck. I was racing a bug when I see red lights every where heading towards us. There must have been 50 bugs there. I go around the front of the plant and pull into the Texaco Station and pop the hood and act like I'm putting water in it. A cop flies into he station and starts to ask about the street races. I tell him "Man, I can't believe it, my truck overheated ad I see all these little bugs racing all over the place." He says Thanks and heads out with the rest of the cops to round up the street racers. Turns out they were a little too late and didn't arrest anyone, just told em all to leave.

 

No one said they condoned it.

But you have to realize most of us that are older were not racing in town very often and a drag race was just that, not a randy race through the neighborhood. Although there where sports cars back then there was only one kid in the school who owned a Porsche and he didn't run with our crowd if you catch my drift.

Most of us older fellas were rodders when it wasn't socially acceptable. Hoodlums so to speak. Hell we still are who am I trying to fool.

 

I think we all are clear that racing on the streets isn't cool.

At 18 I had a 1967 GTO convertible. (in 1979). A 1968 GTO pulls up beside me and blips the throttle. The light turns green and neither of us took off like we were actually on a track but we both got on it a good bit.

The next day I'm in my driveway washing my car and a police car pulls up. The officer rolls down his window and asks me if that was my car. I told him it was. He said that he also had a GTO. I said that was cool and how I would like to see it some time.

He told me that I had the day before. LOL I didn't know what to say but he just told me to take it easy and drove off.

 

i was on Grand in KC around 2 in the morning when two cars pulled up one on either side of me. revving their engines. i was in a POS and i could see the police station so there was no way i was going to get involved. not another car in sight. light turns and both cars take off tires smoking... both cops... in cop cars.

 

I definately couldnt out run the cops in my 54 Buick back in the day... factory 1954 equipment in the early 21st century, no way, no how. But I did get pulled over all the time for random ass stuff. Ever heard of braking erratically. Apparently its illegal up until you call him on it. Flames on a 54 in a small town, I think I was their practice dummy for traffic stops.

 

You got lucky! I got pulled over once by a Dearborn cop.. All he wanted to do was check out the then new black '88 5.0 I had with the window sticker still on it. He told me that he was in the middle of buying one for his wife.

 

THAT IS A COOL STORY!

 

nope.

 

Pulled out on the main street about 30 years ago, my then wife was ripping on me so I lit them up on my sleeper nova, I mean just smoked the $hit out of them and as I was drowning her out with all the noise I looked over and there was a cop with his jaw draped wide open. There was nothing I could do but coast it to the speed limit and by then I was a 1/2 mile from him and pulled in to a store lot, Wife at the time goes in and I stay outside waiting for him. Few minutes later he pulls up and asked what my problem was, so I told him the truth. He laughed and said don't do it again, one of my lucky day's for sure.

 

Which time?

 

I've done it several times. I also got caught 3 times. I once had to go to court for two "drag racing on the roadway" tickets on the same day.
The last time I got caught was in 92 or so. I was racing a 442 in my Nova. It was out on the highway on the way out of town so I don't want to hear a bunch of crying about it. I had already skunked the 442 once and he wanted to go again from a roll. I told him alright, but I had just burnt out third gear so I'd only race to 90.
We slow down and on his third honk we're off. I whopped him until 90 then he pulled ahead because I had to get off of it. Just about that time a Highway Patrol car comes ripping out of the gas station parking lot. I pulled over and the 442 pulled over about 4 cars in front of me. When he saw the cop walking up to me he took off in a hail of gravel from the shoulder.
The cop said "don't worry, we'll get him later." (I didn't see the other guy in court so he must have got away.) A few minutes later and the cops partner comes running up sweating his ass off and he's holding a cup of coffee in each hand. The cop had left him at the store when he saw us.
Most hot rodders have done a little bit of stupid shit along the way. I'm older and hopefully a little bit smarter now, but if that 442 rolled up beside me in the same stretch of highway tommorrow......I'd be on like Donkey Kong.

 

I used to live in a small town and drive about 35 minutes to work in the city. One morning I was running late and making up some time in my O/T beater (76 Cordoba, transplanted 318 with headers duals and a four barrel) I came around a curve and there was a cop coming in the other direction and the adrenalin kicked in. I watched him do a 180 in my mirror and flip on the lights so being young and dumb I opened up the AFB and went for it. Thankfully his Caprice was a pig and couldn't catch up. I lost him on one of the back roads I slid sideways onto. I drove hard the rest of the way to work and parked the car behind the dumpsters and ran into the building. I was on time BTW. I drove a different way to work for a week or so and nothing more came of it so I guess he never got close enough to get my plate number.

 

My Toyota out speeds everything on the road!!...im kidding i dont have toyota

 

not drag racin, but livin in esco, ca at the time and working in oceanside, had my 66 plym as a daily driver - cept no registration at the time, only a drivers seat and quarter stick as an interior - 383/727 - I played cat and mouse with the chips and esco PD at least once a week - this went on for about 6 months before I grabbed a legal commuter and took her off the road

and yea, nobody said this was a smart thing to do, but I for one have never been accused of only doin smart/safe shit!

 

I was at the bank one day in my 59 F100 with a built 390. A police officer in uniform was walking out to take a smoke break while working the security detail. He looked at my truck and yelled for me to rev it up as I was rolling by. I did. Then we takes both index fingers and makes a twirling circle with them while nodding and smiling. A cop, in uniform, telling me to smoke the tires. I looked at him blankly and he did it again. I lit em up all the way across the parking lot and he just smiled. "Cool truck" he said and then he walked away. I was pretty sure I was being set up for something bad.

On a more on topic note. I ran three times as a kid and got caught twice. Both times cost me over $700 and a night in jail. The last time I ran was a state police officer that got me for that was in 1987 on I-69. First day of the unmarked camaros. He wrote me a lovely bouquet of tickets...wreckless driving, fleeing an officer, and more. It was going to be bad... six month loss of license, impounded car, and jail for 104 in a 55 (not sure if they were all realistic threats or not but he seemed convincing). He cut me huge slack with a a ticket for 84 in a 65 and said that if I showed up in court to fight it, he's see that I never drove again. I paid the fines and never went to court. Two weeks ago, and twenty-three years later, after working for me for two years, my marketing director introduced me to her father, a state police officer. Same guy. We had a nice laugh over that. He's still a state trooper but I don't drive that fast anymore on the street. He wins.

 

I knew this guy a long time ago that was seemed to get in a lot of trouble but his mom was a lawyer so he knew all the rules and how to get out of things. Anyways one night he does this big burnout taking off from a convenience store when he looks up to see some cops sitting a block ahead. He goes screaming up to them, hammers on the brakes, jumps out and runs to the cops screaming that someones robbing the convenience store so the cops take off and he hauled ass out of there.

 

On it's own even

 

Back around 1955 we raced near Trotwood and Brookville, OH. My girlfriends brother, sheriff's deputy, had a 1950 Frazure (sp?) with a hot flatty in it. Went to her house for dinner on Sunday and he and his wife were there. Sat down at the table and he said "Boy Jim we really made a haul at Trotwood last night. I took the Frazure and conned some into a drag race. We ticketed 36 cars". I found another road to drag on after that.

Jim

 

14 times 68 camaro with a 502 and a 150 shot of gas. caught once in my model a at 105 with a plus sign on the ticket. cost over 300 to get out of it.

 

At 14 years old my older cousins used to take me to the street races in Pacoima CA. There's a huge stretch of Glenoaks Blvd with no one around. One lone Cop would come by every 15 minutes and everyone would bail, obviously he couldn't chase after everyone so most of the time he didn't even try. The last time he came around and we jumped in the car the damn thing wouldn't start (shitty Toyota). The Cop literally sat there and watched as another buddy of ours had to pull his car up, pop his hood and jump our car. This must have taken at least 3 minutes and the officer sat patiently as we struggled to get away. We eventually got the car started and had to drive right past him. I guess he could have been a dick and arrested us but he probably just sat in his car and laughed his ass off.

Had a friend die in a crash during a street race on the same stretch a few years back. Nothing cool about that.

 

Sure, a few times. Many years ago (31, to be exact), four of us were racing to the next town up (five miles away) on a nice summer night when we roared past two state trooper cars parked in the parking lot of a Honda motorcycle dealership bullshitting. They both took pursuit; about a mile up the road, one of us continued straight, two turned right, and I took the left hand side road that was on a 30 degree fork at about 100 mph ('64 Chevelle SS, 327/300 hp). I went airborne and remember thinking after the resulting bottom-out when I landed, "God, I hope I've still got a gas tank!". Luckily, I did, and kept going. Upon exiting the other end of the road, which was about a mile long, I saw that one of the troopers had anticipated my move and was going full bore up Rt.8 in an effort to catch me. He was gaining on me when I took another left hand fork (lucky it was a fork, as I never would have been able to negotiate a 90 degree turn at the speed I was going) which was an unpaved, dirt country road. He followed, but the combination of the dust cloud I was putting up and the darkness sealed his fate, and I escaped, although my parents wondered why I parked my Chevelle in the back yard out of view for a few days.