Thank You Officer

[jaudette3]

As we know, these cars that we love are wicked in a way. As hard as you might try, it's almost impossible to resist that little P-car devil on your shoulder that's whispering in your ear, "This corner would be more fun if you took it a little faster." I sincerely try to confine my truly spirited driving to the track, but alas, being weak, I have had a few moments where I was unable to resist momentary temptation. Hopefully where it made sense (gotta love the back roads of Central Oregon) and hopefully out of the watchful gaze of local law enforcement.

But occasionally you find yourself being reeled in...

But a ticket is not inevitable, at least here in Oregon where law enforcement is maybe a little more mellow than some other places. I've heard about a number of instances where the transaction was concluded with only a warning. I thought it would make for an interesting thread to pass along some of the better ones.

One friend of mine (it's always going to be a "friend of mine") was stopped in his '73 S while going about 55 mph in a 40 mph zone. The road was open and dry and there was not traffic, so he really wasn't doing anything dangerous. As he crested a hill a policeman passed him going the other way, immediately hung a U-turn and pulled him over.

After the usual exchange of pleasantries and license and registration, the officer said that he had observed my friend doing over 50 mph. My friend replied, "Officer, I travel along here a lot and my personal policy is to never exceed 42 mph on this stretch of road."

The policeman had a puzzled look on his face as he had evidently not heard of someone having a "personal policy" for a stretch of road. He reiterated that it was his observation that my friend was doing over 50. And my friend replied by restating his personal policy of 42 in that area (notice he didn't confirm that he had actually *observed* his personal policy).

The policeman handed back the documents and said that he was going to let him off with a warning.

Anyone else have a friend with a good story?

Cheers,
JohnA

[Strato 102]

I have had luck in the past and I can only hope that the best is yet to be written!

[Martin A]

I used to have a Dinan S2 M5 that had the most wondeful exhaust note in the local tunnels.....driving home one afternoon there is a tunnel that exits out on a sometime speed trap.
Being that I was the only one on the road,but know about that trap I downshifted, got the revs up to 7K and enjoyed the symphony. As I exited the tunnel ( sounding like I was going 150) and yes, there was that cruiser that is usually there.
He comes up behind and pulls me over going 60......
"Nice car you have there.....sounds reall fast."
Yes sir, It is, but I reserve that for track days officer.
I explained that I was in a lower gear, hence the "fast sound"
He let me off with a warning, but asked if I would acellerate hard so he could hear it again......
So I take off, get a chirp from the tires on second, and then shift again.....hel pulls up fast, and figured I was about to regret falling for his "request"
He pulls along side, and gave a thumbs up!
Lucky me....

[Fishcop]

Your friend did the right thing, always be polite and never make admissions. It is the officer's obligation to prove his observation - you don't need to give him a free hit by admitting an offense

[joegt3cup]

My "friend" was once pulled over for doing 52 in a 25 was very polite and explained to the officer that he had dyslexia and it worked !

[berettafan]

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...&highlight=106

[jaudette3]

This one is probably apocryphal, but pretty good...

An Oregon senior citizen took his newly acquired Porsche SWB out for a weekend drive. While enjoying a spirited drive on some of Central Oregons finest roads, he hit the accelerator at the apex of a particularly fine curve.

"Amazing," he thought, as he flew down a long straight, pushing the right pedal even more. And then, looking in his rear view mirror, he saw the highway patrol behind him, blue and red lights flashing and siren blaring.

His initial reaction was to floor it - to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, "What am I doing? I'm way too old for this," and pulled over to await the Trooper's arrival.

Pulling in behind him, the Trooper walked up to the Porsche, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason for speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."

The old gentleman paused. Then he said, "A few years ago my wife ran off with an Oregon State Trooper. I thought you were trying to bring her back."

"Have a good day, Sir," replied the Trooper.

[jaudette3]

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...&highlight=106

This is a great story. It should be reposted here!

Cheers,
JohnA

[RickS]

Back in the 70s my father dropped off his Benz for servicing at his Bay Area dealer for servicing. They offered him a 911 (type unknown) as a 'loaner car' for a couple of days. Being a good German, how could he refuse? Another detail about being a good German; he always always always drove at least 20+ over the limit, "since the US limits are ridiculous" - and was seldom caught. The dealership is located in the San Jose area and dad's home is over the very curvy highway 17 (880?) in Santa Cruz. Dad knows his Benzes can easily make any corner at 15-20 mph over the warning signs, so he was especially anxious to see what a 911 could do.

According to his story, leaving Los Gatos at 80 mph for the coast he settled into his pace (posted limit is 50). There are areas where he punched it up to 90+ and was absolutely shocked by the P-cars cornering ability. Luckily the road was dry and relatively traffic free. He summits 17 with no problem and rapidly descends towards Santa Cruz. 5 miles from the city limits he sees the flashing lights of a CHP cruiser. He dutifully pulls over as a virtually breathless officer approaches the car. The officer said that in his 30 years that was the scariest pursuit in his carrier. In fact the pursuit began 2 miles outside of Los Gatos, and proceeded for 15-20 mins. His Dodge Coronet with a Bubba Hemi - was fast in the straights but turned into a death sled in the corners. Then the officer informed dad that he wanted to learn everything he could about 'that little German car', and would not cite him, but would make him sit there for a full 20 minutes, until every last car he passed saw him pulled over. Dad not knowing much about the car, BS'd for a full 20 mins about horsepower, top speed, cornering G's, 30 MPG and anything else which came to mind - while the cop stood there slack jawed. After a few laughs the cop admitted he was scared-s___less but wouldn't break it off and was too busy fighting the car to use the radio. They then shook hands and the cop told dad that next time, and hopefully there would never be a next time, he would cite him for excessive speed and reckless driving. What the cop said made a real impression on him and on the return trip to the dealer, dad kept his speed down... to a meager 70.

[john rice]

I enjoyed the other stories. I hope there will be more. This is a copy and paste from a letter I wrote a long time ago to a very good friend who wanted to know all about my car insanities. Please forgive the typos, but they are part of what was then and I will leave it in it's unprettied state. Hope you enjoy..........................[this took place in 1972. Speedie was my wife's name for our modded '54 Speedster daily driver]


A few years later I had moved to San Francisco. I still had Speedie but it was becoming clear that I had to either sell it or it was going to be stolen. I had no garage and could not find one that I could afford. Still it did not keep me from wildly enjoying Speedie. By now I had "built" the engine. Being young and optimistic, I did everything that I could imagine. Racing pistons with LOTS of compression, the most agressive cams that I could find, ported, the biggest carbs that I could find [ex Carrera 2 44 mm Solexs]. In short, it was a mess. And I loved it! It idled at about 1800rpm. It would not run below that. It became "driveable" at 3000RPM. It did not make any real power until 5000. At 5 grand it felt like a freight train had just slammed into your from the back. It just SHREIKED from 5 to 8K. People never belived me when I told them about this engine. I used to adjust the valves every 500 miles. They were so radical that the valve train sounded like a 365HP solid lifter 327 Corvette. [Some of your will understand and enjoy this]. My little Speedie had become an absolute beast. You just never lived till you were driving this thing up the hill from the S.F. Marina district [it might be the worlds steepest hill] and suddendly someone pulls out from a driveway and makes you stop. And, of course, there were stop signs right up at the peak of the hill. All I could do was rev the hell outta it and dump the clutch and pray that nothing blew up. Yes.. a Speedster CAN burn rubber.

One night in my final year with Speedie I was driving back to S.F. from the Laguna Seca Can Am race. I had finally sorted out the engine in Speedie. In fact, the final "sorting" took place on this drive. I had a "CHP encouraged" , referred to as California Legal muffler on my header exaust. It was quiet. It WAS restrictive. The engine just did not do anything well. It was awful and frustrating. I was driving back via Highway 1. In the course of this I hit a large ..something. and my exaust got loud. I noticed that the weld in front of the muffler [which was all that held it on] was cracking and the muffler was hanging slightly. Well, I had 2 passengers and luggage and places to be so I decided to keep driving. Each mile the car got louder... and faster!! Suddenly I realized where all the power that I thought I was building into my whacko engine were being eaten up. God, this thing was just awsome. Finally I had to stop and wrench the muffler away as there was only a small amount of weld holding it on. So now the car was very very loud..and for the first ever time.. it was very very VERY fast. I was just besides myself with glee. After all this work and all this time the damn thing was actually running like I had only dreamed of. Suddenly I was passing entire lines of traffic instead of one or two cars. I was delirous with joy. At some point I passed a brand new 911S. He was having none of this. He proceeded to make a point of catching and passing me. Of course, I had been driving very fast and we were running out of traffic to show which way the road went. I was beyound the limit of my uprated driving lights. I was glad to let him lead the way and do the hard work. I followed a discreet distance beyound with my low beams on and driving lights off. ..there... He decided to really show me. He started pressing faster. Finally we were in lock step at a 125MPH cruise. Speedie was very happy at this speed with all its newfound GO. My wife was ..quiet but uncomplaining, so I followed. Finally he realized that he was going to have to drive faster to "show me" and backed off to 110. We cruised at what now seemed almost sedate speed up to the open area approcahing Half Moon Bay. This had always been a sleepy little place which had just started expanding and now had a four lane highway here. I could not resist! I pulled next to him at our now crawling 60MPH and stomped on Speedie. We just FLEW throught the gears and I got up to 140MPH, open exaust and all.. and he was a speck back there.. ... but I had a new thought. What were thoese flashing lights behind me? Ohhh yess. I threw it out of gear and braked and got over on the shoulder. I was thinking. Well, they were so far behind me and never could have gotten a clock on me? Naaah. My ..open exaust..was.. a tad loud and that was surely what attracted them.. but my..speed. Gawd, I knew that I was In BIG BIG trouble. I noticed that wife was still quiet..but I thought that I saw steam coming out her ears. I knew that maybe the aproaching Sherrifs would be the least of my problems. So they pulled up... like they like to do. Two abreast in the middle of a totally deserted highway with every light they could turn on pointed at our poor little beastie. I waited. I waited some more. God, what were they doing? I knew that I needed to have my license and registration out and ready and politely wait. It seemed like hours we waited in that brightly light up Speedster. Finally I saw a figure approaching from all that light. As he walked up to my door and paused, I then finally opened the door. Now you have to remember that this was a Porsche Speester with the top up. A Speedster with the top up is somewhat unique. A normal driver like me has the edege of the roofline level with the tip of his nose, you then have side curtains which by design have only a 3" slit open on the sides. This means that you cannot even see straight out the side, much less open the door and look out-much less ...up. So you learn the art of hunching down forward, leaning out radically to the left, and then trying to crain your head up to actually see what is up there peering down at you. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES. There stood the driver of the new 911S. He was all alone in this bright light and absolute black atmosthere. It was like some eirie movie set. Just the two of us. That was when I realzied that he was...... smiling. [ w h y was he.. smiling???!] I was so confused. What was going on? THEN I noticed that he was holding something in his hand and showing it to me..smiling.. ???!!! With all the light and dark it was hard seeing what he was trying to show me.. it was so shiny and that the lights glared off it making it difficult to make out what in the...... oh. He was smiling..and showing me his police badge. He leaned over and quietly said " I told them that I had egged you into this for the last 70 miles and that it was really all my fault. Of course I was showing them my bage as I told them. .... NOW, I want you to close your door, fire it up and putter away as quietly as you can make that thing run and get out of here -at legal speeds- befoer they change their minds and take you to jail. Goodnight!"

I have always hoped that someday I will meet this guy again. I spent the next two weeks suddenly breaking into this wild crazed smile for ...no reason. At least this is what I am sure most pepole who saw me thought. I am smiling again right now too.

[and trust me.. I am smiling as I remember this!]