omg Just twenty minutes ago I drove my Purple Metallic Wonder out to the local gas station just for another ride. Out on the non-limited access four lane, approaching a small mountain rise I notice a Big Black SUV of the type used by cops and presidents. So I am meandering along keeping an eye out. And he passes me. The guy has blacked out windows but no cop markings at all. And his liscense plate looks normal as well. So I keep going in the slow lane as he passes. We are now ascending a long smooth curved hill. He speeds up a bit. I speed up a bit a respectfull distance behind. He then speeds up a lot. At least a lot in as much as a 3 ton SUV can do so. And some of these things have real heat under the hood. I am in third, signal into the left passing lane and nail it. I scream by him near red line in third and then THIS. His entire front grill lights up red, white and blue strobe lights. Like Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Holliwood and Vine on opening night. OK. He has me dead to rights. About as bad as you can get. Put UNDER the jail. But I am thinking he suckered me fair and square. Put on my left turn signal to take my medicine in the bright light of CITGO. And then THIS. His lights go off. He does not tuck in behind me for the left turn. He keeps going and I give a respectful salute. Jeezee.
Well frankly, I was not all that surprised. First of all he was clearly playing with me. Also, clearly I was doing all do dillegence in my own driving as no other cars were involved and I was not invading his space till I passed at supersonic speed. Two other things. Whoever he was he was not on local street patrol. Also, and this is stretching matters, the South has a reputation for gathering municipal finances through speeding and other tickets. Although this is the poorest county in all of Georgia it is also a very very splendid resort location and the rumor has been for decades the cops do not tend to inconvenience potential property buyers. True, I wear local plates. But the same courtesy seems to extend to all motorists. And speed limits can be adjustable. Downtown Atlanta, for instance, with six lanes routinely travels at 80 mph and is let go simply to get the commuters the hell off the roads as fast as possible. But no local cop would have let me go without legal counsel. My favorite story, however, is travelling North on I-75 following a "rabbit" [my favorite way to avoid tickets] towards Cincinnati. We were only going 80mph, but I noticed a cop on the other side of the four lane switch on his lights and come lazily out accross three lanes to get us both. Law abiding citizen that I am, I know it is unlawful to pass a police officer with lights on. He had miscalculated and ended up IN FRONT OF ME. Law abiding citizen that I am, I slowed down so as not to pass him. He slowed down so I would pass him and get me dead to rights. But I just kept slowing down till both of us were damned near at a dead stop in the middle of I-75. So he gave up on me and got the other guy. This has worked endlessly, although I have never encountered a 'rabbit' doing better then 110 mph. With THIS very odd exception. I was driving my supercharged Mark VII East on I-80 in North Pensylvania. This is the route all the 18 wheeler trash trucks use from NY City to deliver trash to land fills in Ohio etc. On the way back they are not only empty and light weight, they are ALL in CB radio communications with one another for cops. I had NO idea an 18 wheeler could do 115 mph. At first I just kept up with them at 80-85. Then they started to play with me. Boxing me in for a while, then I would kick in 7.5 psi into my 5 liter MK VII and catch up. They went faster right up to 115 mph on slight downgrades. Seriously I expected two or three of them would go off the mild curves. This went on for an hour until we met traffic. I spent three years driving the autobahn and this was the fastest free for all I have ever seen. Eighteen wheel trash trucks on the move. Who woulda guessed.
Had a very similar thing happen. Fellow was wearing a big cowboy hat. He was playing with me, slowing down and speeding up so I couldn't get around him with traffic in the way. He was at times below the speed limit so at one point I cross three lanes and fly up the highway and when I get in front of him the lights in the grill go on. Same issue, standard plates. Figured he is likely a detective or some other under cover.
PV Good story. I believe most cops have a sense of honor. If they play with you and you play back fair its just a good time had by all. But as you point out you need to be very wary. I can tell you this. I will never ever play footsie with a Black SUV ever again. Let alone Black Helicopters. Don't get me started.
Hey Guys, great stories, I've got 2 for ya. Just really quick ones and I won't go into too much detail though. Many years ago I was out in my Aston V8 Vantage when suddenly up behind me came another V8 Valante (opentop) Aston same as mine. We played very briefly as our game was stopped by 2 black cars that were shadowing us. Within seconds I realised they were the Police and that the car I was toying with was in fact the Prince Of Wales, ha ha! The next was a James Bond style chase across the wiltshire downs.... There I was driving to work in my lovely Lotus, the morning was crisp and the road surface clean and grippy, the route twisty with large open areas and tree areas. Driving along, going pretty damn quick, I heard a throp, throp, throp sound and thought oh bloody hell my tyre is letting go. As I slowed and opened my window to get a better listen, a bloody great big army helicopter hoved into view only feet away. Within and instant I heel toed and dropped ''Çlaws'' the Lotus down into second, mashed the throttle to the floor and we were off like a jack rabbit being chased by a fox! The agile Lotus easily out paced the big chopper but it didn't take long for him to catch up, soon he was along side both of us seriously moving, it was amazing to see such a massive flying machine alongside me and only feet away! Then clumps of trees would shield me and he'd break away only to come back at me further down the road. This game lasted only about 3 minutes but it was absolutely fab and I''ve never forgotten it. There you go Chaps, a couple of old stories but slightly unusual ones I think you''ll agree ;-)
And I got all rapsodic about racing 18 wheel empty trash trucks at 115-130 mph. ]The 130 was the catching up which was the speed limiter]. No Prince of Wales on my roads, more's the pitty..... I do have my routine beer run down well enough now. Just 20 miles round trip but all good loopy mountain two lane black top. Two of the curves are wide open right handers which means I have the entire road to practice my 40 mph drift. That turn is followed immediately with another open right hander at 50 mph so I can throttle through both of them. And lots of normal clippity clip right handers. I never push left handers since we drive on the left and there are weeds to the left. The last set of tires lasted 5,000 miles. These new ones have a better wear rating but I now have a better drift rating. We will see if I wear out two sets of tires between cam belt changes
