Who remembers the bad old days of muffler tickets?

I got one around '79 in my '62 406 Galaxie, had a 14:1, 324 duration, gear drive 427 in it with 5.14 gears and 3" pipes with truck resonator mufflers that have a straight, perforated core- real deep boom boom-deboom idle, and really starts to sing around 3500- really sweet sounding car. So I get out a dozen Coke cans, cut holes in both ends with the old churchkey, unbolt the pipes from the Hookers, and put 6 in each side- they slid back and wedged against the turn-down tips, sounded like a berzerk Electrolux out back, pffffffttt. Just made the Hookers ring louder, gear drive didn't help, and the old TRW's were pretty loose in the bores, sounded like beating on 8 tomato cans with sticks... So I head down to the CHP office. Ticket guy comes out, looks at the Americans/ Blue Streak "OFF HIGHWAY ONLY" tires and starts grinning, looks in the Harwood scoop at the Holleys inside, slip-together Hookers that wrap around the frame and 3-inchers- roll bar and rear firewall didn't help, either. I can tell he's trying not to laugh by now, walks around behind and says fire it up- pfftdiddydiddypfftdadapfft... So now he's grinning ear to ear, walks up front where all the rattling and whining is going on, shouts "It really hates trying to be that quiet, doesn't it?" Yessir, it's not too happy. "You get an A for effort- get it out of here before it frags itself from constipation" and signs off the ticket. Yessir, thanks. Get it home, didn't really want to pull off the hot pipes to get the cans out, so I try the throttle- it wouldn't go over 4000, then the cans started blowing out the back and bouncing off the garage door, went to 7300 and just howled
Saw the Chippy about 2 weeks later driving a Deuce highboy with straight lakes pipes...

 

I respect my hobby, my neighbors and my community just as Wally Parks did back in the day. The SCTA was founded to legitimize the hotrodding hobby and help it cast a more positive light.

There is a time and place for drag racing, unbaffled exhaust and burnouts. My neighborhood and community cannot, will not be that place.

My latest flattie has six short baffleless pipes, but that's gonna change. The tubes look awesome, but I value my hearing and a less distracted drive. The old rod will be getting a set of Porter's or Smithy's, for the sake of my hearing, my neighbors and my hobby.

The law will be wratcheting down on the noise issue and, frankly, I see no problem with it.

 

I remember getting excessive noise tickets back on the 60's. Doesn't seem to be a priority to law enforcement anymore. Kinda nice!

 

Say what ???????????? Hey, here in Chesterfield , uh Arresterfield and Henrico county Virginia just outside of Richmond , they have "Revenue Enhancement " programs all the time ! In legal terms , they're known as Defective equipment tickets ...... They're selectively enforced kids . Say you were warned too. scrubba

 

city lived off my loud tickets .. LOL ..............., steve

 

In 1963, I got pulled over for speeding by a RCMP cop on the 4 lane heading south out of Vancouver toward Seattle. I don't know how I did it, but I was able to convince him that I had just put on the 900x15s on the back and that I didn't realize it would make my speedometer under read so badly.
He asked me what was under the hood, and I answered that it was a stock GM, which was an outright lie because it was a warmed over Nailhead with my lakes pipes open.
He then asked me if I had any flanges or lugs on the car. Jeez, I just about fell over, because that is what they put on tractor wheels. I had a hell of a time not smiling because I knew that if I made fun of him that I was toast. I very politely told him that no, I didn't have any.
I then asked him if when we pull out, that I could follow him at the proper speed limit so that I would know what the error was on my speedometer.
He actually bought it!!! He didn't write me a ticket or even a warning, and I dutyfully followed him after he pulled away.
The best part of all this, was that my buddy was in the car with me, and he had seen me get away without a ticket so many times that he was trying to throw me under the bus. He was in total disbelief that I got away without getting a ticket again.
Life was good.
Bob

 

oh yea- and thank god for steel wool......but nowadays its these dam rolling boom boxes

 

used to have a glovebox full of "un-necessary noise" "un-necessary display of power" and "impeding traffic" when they were really desperate. Do they still ticket for that stuff?

 

Living in the birthplace of Harley-Davidson, I can tell you it is almost impossible to get a ticket for loud pipes on a Harley in this town. In fact, the only Harleys with mufflers are cop bikes. Harley riders bring a few million bucks into town every summer and the cops pretty much leave them be for this reason.

Hot rods are a different matter. Stereos and loud exhaust will get you a visit from the boys in blue. If you decide to run a few errands in your classic car or hot rod, then you need to plan your route accordingly. Drive up and down the wrong street twice in an hour and you risk getting a citation for "cruising".

Now, if you want to recall the good old days, I can remember having the height of my rear bumper and hood scoop checked as well as my loud exhaust and wide tires. This was usually followed by an all out safety inspection by the side of the road and a couple of citations to add to your collection. This was just a way to keep us all in line. We were most likely doing something we shouldn't have been doing anyway!

 

I have a 1973 Harley with drag pipes & it is WAY louder than my race car & no one ever looks at it. Last year I got pulled over in my race car & the did a decibel test. Here you are required to be less than 100 at 10 feet & I barely passed. They looked at everything on my car until they saw the 3 1/2" mufflers had no tail pipes, $75 fine. I only got pulled over because it is a 13 to 1 compression big solid roller big block... it sounds nasty!

 

Yeah, I do too. But today, I think that the proliferation of the "bumblebees/ fartcans" has saturated the streets with noise to the point where every other Honda & Toyota would be getting tickets. It's a case of the abnormal becoming normal.

 

That story made me laugh out loud.
Thanks

 

I had a 69 Boss 302 (damn I miss that car). It had headers and some form of dump exhaust just before the rear tires. It wasn't hatefully loud, actually rather nice and meaty sounding. In Southgate, MI there was this 1 cop who was just a dick. A real hater of anything unique or kool. He was 2 cars behind me but in the other lane. Saw it was him and decided I'd take a right turn and just get away from him. No luck and he nearly caused a bad accident cutting off traffic to get to me. Short story is I got the ticket, but as he was trying to "educate" me on civil behavior and all that bullshit 3 Harleys went by, 2 with straight pipes. "Excuse me dude, could repeat that? I couldn't hear you for the bikes." "Don't get smart with me!" he says. "Are you serious? I didn't fuckin hear you! What's your problem?" "You know you could go to jail. You're being insubordinate right now." "I held my wrists up and said "Well do what you gotta do. I'd love for this to happen. Go for it!" He slapped my hands down and said "You need to shut the fuck up!" "All over a couple bikes that are twice as loud as my car. This is classic. This will be the best ticket I ever got. Start writin." "What do the bikes have to do with it? I pulled you over for excessive noise." "Will you get those bikes too?" "No." Why?" "Because that's different." "How so?" "Cuz I said so, OK?" "Are we done yet?" I got the ticket and informed him that I'm heading back to the garage to remove the mufflers right now. "Good, that's the smart thing to do." "Yes sir it is..." I went back and dropped the mufflers completely off and proceded to drive around with open headers for the rest of that evening. Back then, once you got an equipment violation it stood until corrected so he couldn't write another one. I saw him going the opposite way about an hour and half later, gave a little nod and went about my buisness. He didn't look too happy. Funny thing is, the very next day I had scheduled for a full exhaust system in the afternoon that eliminated the headers and all. I was fortunate enough to get the OEM manifolds and wanted em on there anyway. I figure that if your car is loud you need to simply be considerate when you lay into it. Normal driving isn't much of a problem with most hipo systems, it's assholes that cause the grief. And asshole hater cops who don't like anything.

There's now ordinances on snowmobiles too. Even if you have a sled that's quieter than OEM, the DNR has the right to make you lift the hood. Aftermarket ehaust is a mandatory fine even if you're below the decible limit. WTF, huh?

 

I have a great one!! My uncle Mike was drafted(1971) and left his 63 1/2 falcon futura 289 4 speed car for his little brother to use (Uncle Dan is 1 year older than I) One Saturday afternoon the local police chief who had been chasing Mike all over the backroads saw us driving through town and pulled us over.. Seeing it was not Mike but his little brother he decided to give the Falcon a once over..The car was running cheater slicks and he did not like it but decided to instead make Dan rev the little 289 to life to check the mufflers,and he did very lightly.....This old cop told him to ,as he said WINDER UP! and when he did those cherry bombs were LOUD. He went to his car came back with a 5 day warning ticket and said boys lets see Mike fix this in 5 days..... Dan and I were both pump jockys at my Uncle Jims sinclair station so The next Day (Sunday) we put the Falcon on the Rack got some steel Wool and preceded to pack those cherry bombs. We figured if we crossed some brazing rod across the end it would hold the steel wool in at least until after the inspection. Dan lowered the hoist to about 4 ft jumped up there to rev the engine up to make sure they passed inspection. About that time the Lady down the block comes walking by with her kids on the way to church and as I now know you can't put steel wool in mufflers and expect it to stay. Yup hit her right in the Boobies making some huge black stains on HER GOOD SWEATER!!! I have told people over the years to get out of a loud muffler ticket its easier to change the mufflers than try fixin em and buying the church lady a new sweater!!!!

 

I had a cop try and give me a no muffler ticket on my 4 cyl. S10 a year ago. It has a cat and muffler! As far as the bikes. It is actually illegal to modify the stock exhaust on motorcycles in most states. About the only ticket written for Harleys IS for loud exhaust, other than blatant speeding or something like that. I got pulled over twice last summer on mine. I have to admit it is loud when following behind it, but it has a Supertrapp muffler with extra discs added and the end closed off. It isn't getting any quieter. Most towns in the twin city area have street signs the say Vehicle Noise Laws Enforced.

 

My dd has dual cat back 3" pipes, no mufflers. It is ridiculously loud.....when I hammer it. Driving "normal" I never get a second glance. I ride bikes a LOT, usually do Daytona and Sturgis. Now, those towns will ream you a new one with noise tickets, I expect that, but the town beside me is stopping bikes for loud pipes. It will soon get worse all across the country. Boston is just as strict as CA about "Factory equipment" violations. peace

 

When I left for Viet Nam in 1967 I had a '55 210 2 dr hdtp with a 4 speed 301. Had headers and very small mufflers and it was VERY loud! Got three loud muffler tickets while on leave to go. Dad had to go to court since I had three of them and he wasn't happy!! When I got back the car had stock mufflers with 1 7/8" pipes welded to my 2 1/2" collector reducers!! LOL! It WAS quiet though!!!

 

they still like to harass people, it hasn't changed, it's just now they harass the younger people.

 

A cop driving a police car, while talking on a cell phone, pulled me over once and said that my car was so loud he couldn't hear the person on the other end of the phone when he pulled up behind me.

He didn't give me a ticket, so I didn't make any "wise remarks".

For the most part cops in NYC are pretty cool about Hot Rods, I guess there aren't enough around to make it a headache for them.

 

I used to get harrassed by the cops when I would drive the japanese car, it doesn't have that annoying sound at all, but a very mellow sound due to a lot of work on my part, they are just profiling based on the type of car people drive. I agree with the annoying weedeater sound, no reason for any car to sound like that, they always sound like they are going to blow up. if they want to enforce the sound laws, forget the exhaust, go after the kids who drive down the street with the bass going full out at 3:00 am, I've had stuff rattled off of shelves here, and they don't do a dam thing.

 

It's nostalgia now, back then it was new and annoying to the older generation, now us older guy's think it's music can't hear shit ...but it's music. Got me one of those tickets back in about 70-71 went and got some steel wool stopped about 2 blocks from the cop shop unbolted the header collectors and stuffed the wool inside with a wire hanging out (think tampon) for easy removal. The guy they sent out to clear me even looked in the end of the pipes with a flashlight.......trick fucked em...2 blocks away I'm back in action.

 

How about receiving a ticket and summons to appear in COURT for running exhaust dumps on my '57 Chevy and they were CLOSED !!!!!
They were the shorty chrome sneaker pipes that exited behind the front wheels and as I earlier stated they were closed up tight.

Yep, happened to me in Maine in the mid 60's.
In court I was told to run those on the street you needed a state issued permit.

Goofy huh?

 

I got a few back in the day, my current ride sets off car alarms as I pass by and cops don't even give me a second look. Go figure...

 

Been there, know all about it!

Trooper Roy Beal out of Macon, MO stationed in Moberly, MO got on my case after I blew by his tripod radar post running 145 mph early one Monday morning in my '67SS/RS Camaro early summer of '67.

About three or so years later, I ripped the pass. side pipe's clean off it and was only running the drivers side exhaust pipe when he nailed me idling through town that summer evening.

I flat told him what was under her so he didn't have ta do his one-arm push-up to see, but he did anyway.

Then I went on to tell him that I'd ordered a new kit for my car from Sears and Robuck and that it was coming in about the middle of the week.

He told me to install the kit and then come out to the Scale House so he could inspect it and I did fine!

pdq67