Who remembers the bad old days of muffler tickets?

Your statement reminds me of another one. Local cop pulled me over (at least 25 years ago) and told me that my car was over the "legal decibel limit", to which I responded, "What exactly IS the legal decibel limit?". His reply? About five seconds of silence, and then "I'm not sure, but I know you're over it!".

 

Now thats funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah I agree.

People should'nt steal - your Government hates competition.

Rat

 

The cops are different now - they don't know anything about cars - sometimes they don't even know if the engine is in the front or the back of her own car...

 

I use to get a ticket every time I drove to blackies in Newport beach
in my 72 vette 12 1/2 to1 427 big nasty cam hooker side pipes
but dam it sounded so good echoing off the buildings late at night

 

it's the age of the car, and the age of the driver- i can run loud exhaust, black tint, and wrinklewall slicks- the cops see an old car and grey hair behind the wheel, and figure that I'm out for a cruise and not blatantly fingerbangin' the traffic laws.

They seem to focus on the ricers dippin' through traffic, driving like asshats.

Now my young friend Curtis has a 90's TransAm that was pretty loud- he got a ticket, and went to court- there was no decibel reading taken to enter into evidence, but the judge saw the dashboard video and stated how disgusted he was.

Curtis was puss enough to roll over and take the fine-not even stand up for his rights about the lack of a decibel reading- then he put full exhaust and tiny, restrictive tips on it. Then got rid of the bigs/littles and put on 18's and 19's that dont have a chance of hooking up- totally clipped the nuts of the car......

-rick

 

i think that the hot rodders have gotten smarter when i lived in va. i was given a ticket by the fairfax county police.improper equipment on a passenger veh. before court i went to several auto parts stores around the court house and bought an glasspac muffler at each store taped the rec. on the box showing date and time i bought them and went to court.i explaned to the judge that if they are illegal then how can i buy them.he through out the case. i went to the top of the cops sh## list and then they really got there panties in a wad when i got a consealed weapon permit. but that is another story.

 

I spent the eighties doing the Cal look VW thing, and built several high compression, nasty cammed, bad mannered engines. One of the calling cards was a stinger hanging off the tail where the "quiet pack" muffler should be. Stingers, or megaphones if you will, could be run open, or with an insert to quiet them down. If you had big stuff on tap, and lots of compression, on the weekends, you ran them open! Oh god what a glorious noise! Damn, what a stack of tickets! Always switched off to the quiet packs, went in got them written off, went home and put the stinger back on, repeat! Oh and something to size up when racing a quick street bug... A quick glance at the stinger could tell all. Dents on the very end? Backed into something. Scrapes at the flange? Probably too low and drags. Car is not super low, but the stinger is scraped the length of it? Watch out, that's a wheelie bar too!

 

Got my first ticket in my 55 Chevy at 16 for open headers...from the Mayor. They used to do that in small towns without cops.

Mikey Did it
www.mikeyspinstriping.com
Pinstriper Protege Program...sign-up for pinstriping classses before Oct 2010

 

I can say from experience don't have an older sister that dated a cop ,then dumped him.This was a small town in NJ in the late 1960's.Every time he saw me I got pulled over for some bogus shit cause he was pissed and took it out on me.That and he probably figured my sister told me he had a small dick.

 

I have to say there is a difference between loud pipes and a mild engine as opposed to loud pipes and a full tilt race engine on the street as the difference is day and night. If you know what I'm talking about it makes sense that loud pipes with a bad boy engine are a certain recipe for a meeting with the man. Compression is everything, on the far end of this think of a fueler exhaust noise! WOW! Nothing like it! Yes, I have had several tickets but the real fun is with a big engine and every car alarm for blocks going off as you drive down the avenue...........

 

my harley ain't loud officer .

 

Maybe I'm getting old, but when I got Bad Bob's old '49 with the sidepipes, I drove down the freeway to Huntington Beach. Man, that thing gave me a headache. I put a full exhaust under her and now its mellow. I was afraid of losing my hearing..........

 

Now rods and hawgs are owned by bussinessmen. All ya gotta have going for you is good credit since the whole outlaw thing became a thing of the past.

But back when rodders and bikers were considered to be dirty no goods I recall getting excessive noise tickets and or warnings on a regular basis. Things change.

 

Yep...I have a cousin in Concord Ca that got an excessive noise ticket in his 9 sec. mustang...idling in a burger king parking lot (well maybe revvin a little!) It has mufflers of some sort but not a lot.

 

My O/T daily driver has longtube headers with an X-pipe and sweet thunder chambered mufflers dumped before the rear axle.

It sounds pretty rowdy but I've never had any trouble with johnny law, I think around here they have better things to worry about than a punk kid in a loud muscle car.

 

I got pulled over and the cop asked,"Do you have a muffler on this thing?" to which i replied" yeah I got two of em!"
He didn't think it was as funny as I did! I got two more, loud muffler and expired inspection!

 

The first time I was ever pulled over was for loud pipes. It was New Year's eve, 1962. It was a state cop driving a gray '62 plain-Jane two-door post Chevy. I was driving my best friend's dad's '55 T-Bird & the mufflers were stock. I think he let us off for the pipes, but I did get cited for driving past the curfew for my "learner's permit." What a kill-joy.

 

I got a ticket for no mufflers at Cruisin the Coast this year (open headers) does that count? The judge through it out when I went to court! They would have measured the bumper height and given me a ticket for that back in the day. Speeding tickets are just a tax nothing to do with safety 90% of the time.

 

now thats quote worthy

"I'm out for a cruise and not blatantly fingerbangin' the traffic laws"

 

Back in the 60's I had a 52 chevy with 6 and a split manifold. We were always playing with the exhaust. I had straight pipes on it that would rattle the windows! That was alittle too loud so I put a couple stock mufflers in front of inclosed drive shafts that we cut off, gave it a nice mellow purrrrrr.

One day I'm driving down the highway and I come to one of those safety checks. After the patrolman had done the light check he came over to my window and said rev it up. I just touched the gas. He said really rev it up, so I go about half throttle. He gets out his book and starts writing. I told him it had stock mufflers, He said that exhaust is NOT stock, son! I just signed the fix-it ticket and sent it in never changing a thing.

 

Mid 60's I lost my license for a year right after a Loud Muffler ticket.....of course, the 3 Reckless Driving tickets prior might have had sumpin' to do with it !

 

why? are the doctors and lawyers who ride those things gonna rise up in rebellion? you know the difference between a harley and a vacuum cleaner?.... it's the location of the dirtbag. that was told to me by the head of the HD service dept. here in town.

 

What's fun is blowing the steel wool in the cops eyes while he's looking under
the car and asks you to step on it.

 

I had a beautiful 58 Impala. 348 with twice pipes and semi burnt out glass packs. Did a back off right next to a semi hidden cop in Vancouver Washington. He said it almost broke his ear drums. Ticket!! Went to work and pulled the tail pipes off and put 2 Campbells soup cans over the end of the mufflers. Poked a 1/2 inch hole in the end of the can. Car would not do any more than 35 in 4th but it was QUIET!!! ticket signed off. Went back and pulled the soup cans and put the tail pipes back on. All was good in Mudville!!

 

i might be young a 25 but i like a good sleeper, that's why my rides have electric exaust cutouts, when im in the middle of nowhere i flip the switch and stomp the gas and make the countryside shake.

 

I resemble that remark..and im not a doctor or a lawyer , but play one on a Hot Rod forum..

I was riding and building them waaaaay before the R.U.B.'s existed..

(Rich Urban Biker) Check book bikers,, you know just like this hobby's gold chainers, more money than brains or tallent

I liked it too when most people wouldnt approach us..than all the fancy panty wastes felt they wanted to be included , but they couldnt keep up.

on to the subject, 1979 FLH Shovel in Daytona Fla. the cop did a doubble take, but decided not to stop me.
I am respectable in neighborhoods and areas with a lot of people, the Twist of the throttle is not required, and with out putting a load on the engine it doesnt sing that loud, you just need to be in tune with your power plant and where to let her sing, thats all

 

Buddy of mine got one this past April here in San Antonio, he was headed to my house for the Lonestar Roundup, he got Excessive Noise for open headers on a y-block, then the cop told him his Hot Rod should be TRAILERED because it wasnt street legal cause it didnt have turn signals and seatbelts! and its titled as a '34!! uuuuuhhhhh yeah

 

I remember very well. Back in high school (mid '80s), I was pulling in to the teen club in Griffin, GA (think it was called "The End Zone") in my red '57 BelAir hardtop with a carload of friends, and saw a girl I knew about to go inside. I revved the 327 (I don't think the horn worked at that point), and got her attention...and the attention of the off-duty cop working the door. It wasn't THAT loud...headers, maybe 2 1/4 pipes out the back, with fresh glasspacks. The asshole walked over to me before we got out of the car, and said that he had just called to get an on-duty officer there to write me a ticket for loud exhaust. I asked him why he didn't do it himself, and he told me he couldn't since he was off duty. I said good, told him I'd be out of the jurisdiction before they got there,put the car in reverse, fish-tailed out of the parking lot (gravel), and laid rubber halfway down the block.

A little immature, maybe, but I was 16 at the time and Griffin GA cops were (and probably still are) the biggest assholes in the area...well, except maybe for Butts County (appropriately named)!

I have had much louder cars...the loudest being a blown 5.0 Mustang with 3" exhaust, no cats, and X-pipe, and 1 chamber Flowmasters, and turndowns...but never got a ticket for it. Exhibition of Speed, Laying Drag, etc...too many times to list!

 

I remember that----