Be glad it was only a warning,with so many state and city budgets in the toilet there are always greedy politicans looking for new revenue,I hope you didn't give them any ideas.
A big fine or a ten second lecture?......hmmmmmm...i'll take the latter.....and the comments regarding how to act when stopped are very accurate when I stop someone. If you are polite and admit what you did then have a nice day.
i just got pulled over two hours ago in my duster, i know not hotrod but still, he was pissed, told me my exhaust was too loud (3" open headers not illegal in IN with a antique plate and it was 12pm), driving to fast (was behind a 9000lbs utility truck doing the same speed), pulled out of a private drive without stopping(road was clear both ways for 100yds), my waist seat belt wasn't on(i made sure it was and that he saw it when he walked up.) and he said he has no idea why i don't have more tickets than i do after i admitted i didnt even see him, hear him and that i wasn't really in a hurry its just how i drive. Not bitching at all btw, i have no idea why he didn't give me a ticket... he did tell me im @#*$ed next time he pulls me over though.
If most of the hot rodders in your area are, as you said "young and stupid guys", I can certainly understand why the police have a negative outlook. Be responsible and don't ruin it for the rest of us.
Been stopped many times in small towns, almost always a congenial warning. Have only met one truly rude officer in all my journeys, in a small town over 40 years ago, and I still laugh about it every time I go through there. He accused me of everything under the sun, really tried hard to provoke me, but I learned the "Yes Sir, No Sir" routine from my Dad and stuck to it until he let me go. I really lost my temper though after I was outside the city limits.
Stupid is as stupid does....................... My Gasser is parked along the side of my house so it's loud. I push it out into the street before I start it so as not to annoy the neighbors. I know I wouldn't like it. I believe in treating people they way I would like to be treated.
Ruin it for the rest of us?...um I'm sorry but 60+ years of annoying the cops has already an engraved reputation. I agree on not being a jerk on the road but we drive hotrods and by that definition is a ticket even thinking about it...
i wouldve kindly informed him that most hot rods can keep up and also pass traffic without issue. I then wouldve proceeded to tell him that you made sure there was no people or cars around before trying to get a feel for how your car was going down the road. I then wouldve apologized for the fact that he felt so horribly towards old cars...its truly unfortunate; actually. You see; young kids could be doing a lot worse things in cars and in life in general...unlike you who is enjoying a by-gone era and taking pride in something such as your car. You couldve blown donuts in at the stoplight.
i dnt think its a matter of being responisble and ruining it for everyone. Christ. If you want to drive a hush hush putt putt mobile then go out and drive a complete stock model A or a late model car and quietly drive it around. Hot rods are...well...hot rods. Theyre known for being bad ass, cool to look at, works of art, fast, and often loud. Just like any custom-type car. Its okay to have fun in your car...safely. and yes; cops are out to get everyone caught or heard doing something that isn't permitted. god forbid if you make a little noise.
wow! this thread got going quickly. lol im not bitching im just telling my story. thought some of you guys on here would enjoy reading it since the second word of this website it "journal" anyways to answer some of the questions and comments... i know i was in the wrong, im not saying i wasnt, but with no cars around and houses a 14 mile away from the main street in diamond springs, they arent too close. i am very thankful for he didnt give me a ticket and im sure he was just seeing if he could crack me, i know the sherrif of eldorado county, i went to school wth his son, and so im not too concerned, just thought this was an interesting story to share. lastly, you guys need to see this town, of maybe even google map diamond springs and placerville, ca. Its VERY rural were i live. we werent in a neighborhood or a populated area. totally dead with no lights on type of street. the main street is 1/4 mile long.... anyways! thats all i really have to say. lol and im only 19....so thats why 40 and 50s age is older to me. lol no offense guys!
ohh yeah, and sorry guys who thought this was about the event/show. i didnt know there was a show called cops and rodders
I got pulled over on the motorway in Perth (aussie) when I lived there, little prick followed me for miles on his motorbike then told me I was driving erratically. I was going the speed limit and had cars speeding past me so what his problem was is anyones guess, he then told me he was going to fine me cause I was driving with my arm out the window!! the little fucker looked like he was straight outa cop school and hadn't even started shaving yet. Finally managed to talk some sense into him and didn't get a ticket, There are cops everwhere that are obviously bored or think they have the right to go hassling people trying to go about there day in an honest way. I like to say about our cops over here (only a small minority) that they are the biggest legal gang in the country.
I need a cop on my corner just about every night at about 2:30am. That's when the jack-a55 from up the street comes by on his Harley. Not that I have anything against HD's, my step-dad has been riding since he was young, and my mom rode for a while. But this dude likes to stop at the stop sign, and then go balls-to-the-wall on the throttle with loud pipes at 2:30am. I need to put out some nails for his a55. I tell my wife all of the time, that when I get the '30 going with the flatty, I won't do that to people in their neighborhood. I'm in the old historic part of town, so it's not busy, and the dude is in no danger of getting hit, he's just a mid 30's aged butt-head..
I was just leaving a local cruise night at a shopping center, needed to make a right out, looked left at the nearest traffic light, it was red and all I could see were headlights. A couple guys had said lets hear it when you leave, so I did (Blown small block in a 28 ford roadster). I look in the mirrior and see the flashing lights. The officer comes up to me and gets a look on his face and says I thought I had a hot assed teenager, my reply was, I didn't see ya. Gave me a warning saying I had to stop you with all those people looking. He leaves and I look at my wife and she's cracking up, said you didn't see the other cop, he had tears rolling down his face from laughing. She said I was white and the cop talking looked like he was in shock, the other cop waved to my wife and got back in the car. I should have been ticketed but wasn't. I have never had a ticket I didn't earn !!
A local traffic cop turned up at the monthly Hot Rod breakfast a couple of weeks ago. He spent a good hour or so looking around the cars in the carpark and chatting to a few guys. The breakfast ended up being one of the biggest yet as several cars that didnt have Warrant of Fitness stickers or Registration tags had to hang around until he was gone. Having both of these expired in NZ will cost you 400 bucks in fines. He couldve ticketed cars just for been parked there but he didnt. I guess they arent all bad..The diner emptied out pretty quickly once he left tho!! Cops in NZ seem to keep busy with the huge amount of Jappas driving around with cut springs and bald tyres etc-most old car guys get left alone..
Cops are people ,sum are dickheads and sum are not.I had a run in a few years ago for doing about the same thing you described ,but i got arrested for "Reckless Driving" and spent $1600 for a lawyer and bail to get it knocked down to what you got a warning for (excessive noise) .Hadnt even been pulled over 11 years prior and havent been pulled over in the 3 years since .Sounds like you got off pretty easy to me ...
I live in a mostly rural county, largest of the 3 towns in the county is population about 15,000. Working for Department of Family and Children Services and having about 3 or 4 weeks of after hours on call per year, I know most of the law enforcement people in the county. Most are decent folks, and I know a good many gearheads in local law enforcement. The only time I've ever been stopped locally in my entire life (including teenage years, I grew up here) was about two years ago in my '38 Ford pickup--a Rockmart Barney Fife was going to give me a ticket for improper tag because he didn't know the law on year of manufacture tags. Nice guy, and he was OK once I explained the law to him. Now I keep a copy of the code section about YOM tags in the truck in case I encounter another one who is unfamiliar with the law. Georgia for the most part has cleaned up the speed trap rackets that we used to be famous for, including some criminal prosecutions (Ludowici and Long County), and the law around here doesn't bother hot rodders, they're generally more concerned about how you drive than what you drive. Likewise to the west of us in Alabama, never had a problem over there. Alabama used to have some real bad speed traps (Glencoe was infamous years ago), but they have clamped down on them in more recent years. Tennessee still needs to work on cleaning up speed trap rackets, being home to one of the worst speed traps in the entire US. Benton TN is every bit as bad as Ludowici/Long County GA was at its worst before the state shut them down. Benton has been running an illegal speed trap for decades. Don't know if they hassle hot rodders--they basically don't bother local people, they just watch for out of state tags on US 411. In Benton, an out of state tag, especially one from a distant state, can get you a speeding ticket regardless of your actual speed. When we were living in Maryland, I went through there in a late model Ford Ranger with MD tags, running UNDER the 35 speed limit and got a ticket for 51, cop (the chief no less) lied under oath in kangaroo court. I was obeying the law and driving a plain-Jane inconspicuous late model--no telling what kind of hassle I would have gotten if I'd been in a hot rod running 36 MPH with glass pacs.
You don't know how good you have it now a days. Back in the 1980s I would get three to low tickets in one day and racked up more then 100 fix it tickets on one car. I could never make it a week without getting a loud exhaust ticket (no I am not exaggerating) and it was just a glass pack nothing extreme. When I tinted my side glass I could not make it a day without getting a ticket. Most of the time the cop would give me the added bonus of threatening to impound my car if I did not go home and fix right then. And they never gave me a warning they always wrote the ticket
I run open lake pipes with a big block and also live in a small town,you have to know how to run them!!!! there is a time and a place to be loud,when I`m in populated areas back off the throttle and cruise.....If I`m doing something stupid and get caught,I would expect to pay the price.
"America is all about speed. Hot, nasty speed." — Eleanor Roosevelt Tell the cop The presidents wife said it was ok.
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