Well being that I am a cop I know most of the guys in my area with "cool" cars but when a new one rolls through town I usually catch them at a store or something and talk shop. I make it a rule not to pull anyone without probable cause due to a violation of civil rights. Also I make it a rule to not write tickets to anyone with a HAMB plaque!!!Im just cool like that...
The way you check out a car that interests you makes sense. Even though I suppose its nice to know your not getting a ticket when you get pulled over because a cop just wants to check out your ride, it just seems very wrong that this happens at all.
About ten years ago I was in my "shop truck" a chopped '56 F-100 with a 460. I had left a big car show and was heading to the house. As I left a McDonald's about 35 miles from the house, I kicked the tires just a little too much and eased it up through the gears pretty quick. I didn't see the town's only LEO on the side street, but he saw me. He blue-lights me and I pull over and he wasn't impressed to see a middle-aged guy driving like a kid. I told him (truthfully) that I really didn't mean to squeel the tires, and he sarcastically says what kind of motor you got in that thing that spins them like that without trying?" I said it's a 460. He broke out in a grin and said 'Man, I remember when we first got 460's in our patrol cars, they were some fast cars... blah blah blah..." Anyhow, we talked about old cars for 15 minutes or so, with the lights still flashing, as my son and a bunch of friends rode by, lookin', laughin' and pointin'. He sent me on my way without a ticket.
I pull into a Micky D's to get a breakfast inroute to a car show one morning, 2 local officers are coming out, look over the car and one says now there is a real car.
I got pulled over once in my 67 mustang 390 4 spd just hit 2nd gear and winding up the rpms fast when I noticed a cop off to the right in a parking lot . I pushed in the clutch & coasted down the street so as not to rattle the mufflers he followed me & pulled me over . He said I was going 48mph in a 35 zone in 2nd gear when I saw him or I would have been going a hell of a lot faster than that . I said yes sir I would have sure would have, he laughed and said he knew we were always messing with cars. My car was having carb issues and we were testing it he said go further out of town to get on it . Then he said his Ford ran good but mine sure sounded good ! After that he started to stop in on a regular basis at our garage some of my younger buddies who always had a bad cop attitude from self inflicted cop incidents changed their attitude . He became a friend and a member of our car club .
I live in Ct. and both my sons lived in the south 5 years each, One in NC.and the other in Ga.I was riding with my oldest when he got pulled over in Mass on 290 in sort of the same situation with his OT mini truck,My son was employed by a NC car dealer at the time. The officer started giving him a hassle about all the "Illegal Modifications"done to the truck and threatening to write him a boat load of tickets even claiming he could have the truck impounded!My son was very respectful but told the officer "I have done nothing wrong ,my truck is legally registered in my home state and has passed inspection there, With all respect sir your state recognizes my registration as valid you do not have the right to ticket me in your state for anything that is legal on my truck in my state (here he refered to some part of the reciprical code)(My wording) if you think I'm wrong please check with your supervisor!The officer returned to his cruiser with a "we'll see"And typical bad ass attitude a few minutes later he returned my sons papers you could see he wasn't happy said"Sorry sir here's your papers have a nice evening!"And that was it surprised the hell out of me my kid even knew this stuff !Not 2 weeks later his younger brother got stopped on the same section of 290 because his window tint was too dark he got brave and tried the same thing "This car is legal in my home state "He had the same results but this cop was nicer right from the gitgo!If your vehicle is legal (or they think it is)They can not give you a ticket in any state that recognizes it under the reciprocal act which the feds put in place way back when to stop each state from requiring you to register to drive in them.
i was pulled over 3 weeks ago. going 90 in a 45 in my roadster. i was lucky, no ticket. he just told me to slow down.
l.o.l. I was a N.J. cop for 25 yrs and way back in the mid 60's i would pull over guys with nice cars just to see what they had under the hood.My fav was a chic with a 50 plymouth 4 dr with a hemi squeezed in there.Only noticeable thing was the tall floor shifter and dual pipes out the back.Thing really moved out.Not that i witnessed her laying rubber at a traffic light or anything like that.
Wasn't pulled over but while parked at the coffee shop a cop is crusing through and all of a sudden stops and backs in beside me in my OT 80 camaro t top. Rolls down his window and in his best Jackie Gleason says "Hey Bandit! I'll give you a 5 minute head start!"
When I was in the USAF and lived on base in SD one time I was trying out some tuning I had just done. I lived in a cul-de-sac and went ripping around after a nice burnout then pulled it in the garage. Base police came circling around but nothing to find. Well a couple days later when coming in the gate in my Sedan the officer hinted around to he knew about someone revving a big V8 and doing a burnout. I simply said I don't know what you're talking about with a big smile. We both knew.
Back in '83 I was just north of Hannibal, MO heading back to college. The '56 had just been painted and I "thought" the speedometer was correct but Mr. State Trooper told me otherwise. He liked the car and motor and just told me to watch the speed. No ticket. I did get pulled over shortly after that in Kirksville one evening for going a bit too quickly around a corner but again the local cop liked the car and since there weren't many of them around we just talked cars for a while and I went on my way with another warning.
I got pulled over by a forensics van... I was doing brodies in a grocery store parking lot in my jockey throttle (linkage was broken, I had a string to the carb through the vent window) '66 Olds Starfire... When walked up and he saw the BB gun in the back seat and the empty bottle of cheap vodka... along with the fact I had no brake lights.... He said, "Just get the hell out of here, I wouldn't even know where to begin."
Got stopped in a new 78 Trans AM, Junction City,Kansas. Trooper says " I'm just curious how fast are these damn things"? Reply "well officer i'm not sure, the speedo only goes to 100 mph, and with the 2.20 rear end it's turning 3,000 rpm at 90. All i know is that it will turn 5,500 in high gear, so how fast is that"? He just shook his head and said be careful and have a nice night
I was going home after closeing the gas station one night around 11:30 p.m. . There was a long straight stretch with no intersections and I was hauling fast. Down at the far end of the road it made a left hand 90 degree turn where there was a county road crew shop. He was shooting radar right at me the whole mile and a half. He just turned on his lights, I flashed mine to acknowledge, and pulled into the parking lot next to him. "what are you running in this thing?" he asks. I pop the hood to show him the flathead six in my old Chrysler 4dr. "You were doing 76 mph. I didnt think you could get past 55 with one of these!" He was another gearhead and we bs'd for over an hour.{thank goodness I had the next day off!} He let me go with a verbal warning of"Slow that thing down a little. Flathead stuff is getting hard to find!"
I got stopped last week by a State Trooper who had been following me for about 2 miles. I had a Flat Head Ford V-8 and a few 9" Ford rear ends along with a 327 Chevy engine on my car hauler. He said that he just wanted to make sure that I wasnt hauling them to the scrap yard! I was relieved to say the least.
In my first T, I was pulled into a parking lot by two city cops, both car guys, I was impressed by their knowledge. I was even more impressed when after they left, they waited in their work Camaro, pulled alongside at the light and we both left under heavy throttle. I won, got thumbs up, roared home to share and no one believed it. It was a great evening though, never happened since.
A friend of mine built a pretty sweet '68 Firebird resto-mod for a customer & was driving through a snooty part of town.... perhaps a bit agressively. When the cop pulled him and asked "what'cha got in there... a 400?" he knew he wasn't getting a ticket. The officer said, "you weren't doing anything wrong but all the other drivers were looking at me like; why aren't you doing something about that noisy, fast car. Plus I wanted to see what was under the hood"
The Jalopy Journal
