Me, never. Why would I? But I know plenty of pistonheads who have. I remember a particularly coke-fueled neighborhood Porsche driver who was crazy enough to get some serious distance from the local po-po, who were Hell bent on throwing his dangerous driving ass in jail. He screeched into his [blacked out] garage, stripped, jumped in bed and pretended to be asleep. Mind if we have a look around? Long-suffering wife: with all due respect officers, talk to my fucking lawyer. These days, it's not enough to evade the long arm of the law. If you're way cool, you race the cops, videotape the result and share your criminal activities with the world. To wit: superspeeders.com, "where horsepower rules, and the rules of the road don't apply." And their teaser video for same, via Streetfire.net [Note to the SF guys: please don't pull the link. This is instructive stuff.] I guess discretion is no longer the better part of stupidity. If it ever was. Anyway, you ever done shit like this?
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This is a good way to turn a traffic ticket into a misdemeanor offense with special handling by pissed off Lawn Forcement occifers.
I’m a lawyer- trust me when I advise you to pull over.
I have heard many times from road cops as to why they hate bikers…because if they come up behind ten cycles and hit the lites, eight will run. The two who stop then wonder why they get the riot act-and seemingly a ticket for everyone who left, too.
Oh, and a word of extra warning. **Before** they hit the lites, they will get on the car-to-car radio frequency and line up some guys ahead and behind, if they are available, to do extra “pickup”
Now that dodge is selling police chargers, we can use this line again.
You can outrun the Mopar, but you can’t outrun the Motorola.
Well, this is less stupid than the woman who confessed to murder on the radio.
“Hello, what’s up ?….I got a cop in pursuit I can’t talk”.
Classic line, and a good excuse to get off the phone.
Idiocy. If you want to take risks with your own life, fine, but crap like this puts everyone else on the road at risk. Throw the book at em, I say.
Unless it’s in a video game, then no.
well i would if i had a ford gt… but alas, i haven’t ran from the cops
I’m all for higher limits and eliminating at least some of them.
But all of that right-hand passing and weaving in the video merits a reckless driving ticket, and the excursions onto the shoulder would make jail time a suitable add on.
Running from the cops is inappropriate. If they are doing that in order to sell videos, then that makes it that much worse.
Those roads were meant for high speeds, but they need to be managed safely. These guys give car enthusiasts a bad name.
What an idiot!
On a different tack, that engine/exhaust sounds great.
I’ve been very tempted to step on it a few times when I’ve seen a cop clock me with a radar. A few months ago I got a (in my opinion) B.S. ticket for doing 80 in a 65 at 1:30am on a very lightly-trafficked section of I-95 between Boston and Providence. The 3 or 4 cars also on the road with me were all going about the same speed as I was, but of course the cop has to pull over the Orange Corvette. My Escort was useless, by the time it flashed “LASER” I was already caught
I figured that I could have gotten up to about 130mph before the cop even had time to merge onto the highway. The only problem was that I was far from home and had no idea where to find a suitable hiding place. My car isn’t exactly the most inconspicuous car on the road.
I doubt I’ll ever have the balls to run from the cops though.
Don’t think I could try to run from the cops, even if I wanted to, in my Civic LX . . .
Crazy stupid stuff like this should only be done in the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto or a racing game. These clowns are endangering everyone else on the road while risking their own lives and a $100k sports car. For $2k they could get a decent 1080p TV, surround sound and XBox or PS3 and do this all the time with no risk.
Beware the power of the Motorola.
My step-grandfather was a CHP. When they would get a reckless or obnoxious driver they would always radio ahead so that the next CHP past the division point would be looking out for him. In some cases a driver would not take the hint and would rack up 3-4 tickets between Auburn and the Bay Area on I80.
Worst run ever. “Should we go” “did he say ‘watch it’ or ‘punch it’?”
I’m not sure if it’d be too smart to say I’ve ever done something like run from the cops.. but here is an experience of “someone i know”
the subjects vehicle was not inspected and saw a local cop comming in the other direction.. upon realizing the cop saw the sticker the subject prepared to pull over to comply with what he knew was comming… but then the cop insulted him by doing a 3 point turn instead of a U turn and the suject decided to proceed at the speed limit to the stop sign an 8th mile away and rather than turning left to go home he went right around the corner and was blocked by a building… then he pulled in the buildings parking lot and parked behind the dumpster and watched the cop fly by. Since his lights were still off i guess he just had to turn around! my friend (the subject) then drove back to the intersection and drove through and went home.
With only 3,600 Ford GTs sold how long could it take to track down a red one with a moron in it from registration data?
Actually, I do it all the time…but safely. The small lane-and-a-half road to our house jogs off NY 9W in an inconspicuous way–if you don’t know it’s there you’re liable to miss it–and quickly disappears into the woods, though still paralleling 9W.
About two miles north of it, a Jersey barrier begins and is unbroken for miles to the south. Once I’m about a quarter-mile past it, I know I can go as fast as I wish and no opposite-direction cop in a Crown Vic will ever make it to the beginning of the barrier, do a U-turn and catch me, assuming I’m already doing 100 or so, before I disappear down our little road. And of course they typically assume I’m going to stay on the highway anyway if I’m going that fast.
A number of times, I’ve been halfway to our house while I watch through the trees as the trooper goes wailing past still on 9W. Of course I don’t do it when there are any other cars on the road.
Worst case, they’re smart enough to take a stab down the side road and they catch me, but I simply say I’m on my way to my house–which the address on the license will prove–and I wasn’t trying to evade them, just never knew they were following me…
There are situations where this would work.
This one in particular, with a red/white stripe Ford GT cutting off cars and semis and passing on the road shoulders, clearly was not one of them.
I would do it only if I had the boatload of money it would take to pay for all legal fees, fines, court costs, insurance increases, etc.
My friend however was racing I Mustang in his STI, on a divided highway when I cop going the other way clocked him with his radar. My friend punched it and made it about the quarter mile to a freeway on ramp. The cop didn’t manage to turn around in time. He also never turned his lights on.
Of course I have never “raced the cops”, or failed to pull over in the face of an unambiguous signal (lights flashing behind me, I change lanes and so do the lights) that I should pull over and stop.
I have, long ago, seen a police car alongside the road throw up rocks as I passed, and then be unable to enter the road because of vehicles behind me. I have no idea what caused him to do that, but having never received an unambiguous signal that I should pull over I continued safely on my way.
I’ve seen a CHP officer, in Nevada, follow someone (not me) westbound. Upon reaching the state line the lights immediately came on. Obnoxious to the core, but the driver _had_ to be oblivious, the signal was unambiguous, and of course the person complied and pulled over. “Welcome to California”. Not one of the CHP’s prouder moments, as I see it.
I ditched Johnny Law in my Subaru WRX, It was night time and i went around a quick bend and tucked into a parking lot and killed the lights before he zoomed right by, his crown vic screaming bloody murder trying to catch me.
But a high speed chase, no i never would do that on the highway!
My stunt was done at 45 not 105 like the guys in the video.
First off, they paid 039039309 dollars for that HP. Let them use it. ALL OF IT. :D Who cares if people get hurt? It’s exciting!!
The following text is made up, not real, does not represent real life experiences and is a product of my fevered imagination. This is pure fiction for y’alls entertainment.
First let me say that I think the driver in the Ford GT drives like an arsehole. I would never (and do not condone) having a speed differential. Sure, I’ve gone over 140 many many times on public roads, but never passing another vehicle. This ethos since I got back into fast cars/bikes as a “mature adult”. The below incidents were as an extremely immature teen with an unrealized death wish. There was a period in between where I drove slow family cars and wasn’t in the life..
July 1973, 2 A.M. rural area, driving past farms on country 2 lane road, 55mph speed limit. Extremely familiar with area. Long straight approaching a 4 way intersection with the cross road having stop signs, me the right of way, intersection lit by street light. No traffic. Windows down, awesome night, listening to roar of small block thru glasspaks (sounded awesome, btw), cruising steady 115, nuthin special, just going home. Note – my route home was to make upcoming left, which led onto 1.3 mile straight, then lil hill with slight bend, and a 4 way stop sign. After stop sign I was going to proceed straight thru, which led to a small road leading to a dead end at the beach. Before dead end there was possible left and right, each which led up hill into warren of small snaking roads with about 100 summer bungalows in each lil community. My family’s summer house was in the community up on the right.
As I’m approaching the 4 way, I see there’s a car sitting at the stop sign, to my left, ie coming out of where I’m planning on turning into. If I was going straight, or making the right, this car would’ve been able to come out behind me. As I down shift and start (fairly late) slowing for my turn, I see that the car sitting there is a marked state patrol. Big smile. They’ve been listening to me approach for probably at least a minute. Sound traveled incredibly that summer, no other night noises, dense sea salt air, the roar of my pipes woulda been audible for a long ways off… Just waiting for me.
My decision was made. I was almost home, and once up the hill into the rats nest of winding lil roads in the private community I was home free. I apexed on his bumper, as fast as I could take the turn and was 100% on the gas. He hit his lights and siren as I passed. I watched in the mirror as I accelerated up the straight as (it seemed he was in slo mo) he swung a wide 180 in the intersection and proceeded to start after me. I was already half way down the straight before he was even picking up speed, and I was still accelerating, and my power to weight ratio was way better than his. As I went up the hill/bend I lost him in my mirror. I slowed to 40 for the stop sign, there were no lights coming anywhere, blew thru it and made the turn up my hill. I parked out of sight near my house and didn’t use the car for the next coupla days. There were no (other than cosmic karma) ramifications to this ‘incident’.
Another time that summer, hot summer mid day, 2 lane 55 mph road, rural, lite traffic, I’m in the big block Charger, aggro cruising, doing bout 120-130 between traffic, which I’d overtake and pass on the left in a legit passing zone.. So I’m overtaking this semi truck, doing 55, a long straight, I barely slow as I sweep out and take him on the left. Jokes on me. There’s a state patrol riding in his front shadow, the truck was right on his bumper, they obviously had this planned as a moving speed trap. However, as I passed the cop I was full on the throttle, he was doing 55, so I had an instantaneous 75 mph and gaining jump on him, and luck be with me, a favorable short route to a hiding spot. There was a traffic circle coming up and my road opened up to freeway like with a couple of quick interchanges with other big roads and then a built up area, with large retail and commercial buildings which I was familiar with… never had any ramifications from that one either.
Did almost spectacularly die a few days later, almost same spot, I was approaching a line of “slow moving” cars (ie 60ish), with passing room on straight, but a line of oncoming cars in the distance. I went out left to pass, maximum acceleration, line o cars goes down (not so) real slow… however, at the same time I’m doing my pass, coming from the other direction, another young punk (like me) in a 67 hardtop GTO does the same maneuver. So he’s out passing and I’m out passing, each a line of 60 mph traffic. Now if he wasn’t there I was quite safe and had “plenty” of room to tuck in before the lines merged. As it was, our door handles missed touching by one inch, at about a buck n a quarter each – we each got a millisecond stare of the other drivers fearful face as we almost touched . I looked for that goat the rest of the summer to high five on our insanity but never saw him. I was out in the passing lane first before he came out. I think he only came out cause he saw me there, what a clown. Woulda been sumtin.
/fictionoff
Do Not Endanger Other Drivers.
Vroom Vrooom
Shiny side up
IMHO running from the cops is for thrill seekers, not those looking to get out of a ticket. It’s not like the wild west out on the roads in most places in the US.
It’s much easier and less risky to pull over, take your lumps, and fight it in court.
Uhhh well there was this one time… Flying on the FDR at 3am, friend’s like “hey I think that’s a cop van up ahead” I’m like “no I don’t think so”, then “oh damn that is a cop van, oh well I’m going too fast to slow down now” and I sped up from fast to really f-ing fast. They never hit lights at least not while they were still in sight, but they were only still in sight for about a second before we were gone.
Hmm…as an average student of statistics in college, experience shows that I have about a 50/50 shot of talking my way out of a ticket – or at the very worst, getting written up on a lighter charge. Average cost of such a stop is less than $100.
Compare that to a less than five percent chance of outrunning the law. Cost of the original charge, plus fleeing to elude, plus a possible mandatory court appearance, plus the value of my time that would be spent in jail during booking, plus the mark on my reputation in the business community if the charge ever made the paper in my medium-sized city…
Well, you get the idea. I can’t begin to count the number of levels on which outrunning the law is just plain stupid, especially for otherwise responsible adults.
@buzzdog,
Just curious, where did you arrive at the %5 chance of success?
romanjetfighter,
Hypothetically, say that I went out and paid $20,000 for a 20mm anti-tank rifle. (If you have the proper paper-work, it is a legal purchase. I saw one for sale at a gun-show yesterday.) Despite the irrationality of my purchase, I want to use my new cannon. Ammunition is $10 per round, so naturally I want to get my money’s worth. Since I paid that much money, I suppose it is fine if I use it indiscriminately in a somewhat populated area. Of course I wouldn’t be targeting people, but some might get hurt (killed) while I had my fun. It sucks some people got hit by some ricochets, but I paid so much money and it was exciting!
Super cars and large-caliber military-type guns are very similar purchases. They’re irrational places for disposable income to be spent. They’re amazing machines to behold, but lack any semblance of practicality. They’re both legal to own, but are very powerful and to exercise their full potential, there are only a few highly controlled places to do so legally and ethically. I pray you were not serious in your comment and even if you were not, it is never ethical to casually dismiss injuries to innocents in a public forum.
Sure, as a stupid kid. Once or twice. Ok, maybe more than that. But in the 1980s police cars were not capable of more than 60 or 70 mph! Picture early/mid 80s Dodge Diplomats. Usually the cops were fine, if you got home before they caught you…you were free to go. It was a game to them too.
@Detroit-Iron:
The 5% figure was totally arbitrary, based upon my agreement with speedlaw in the first post: “You can outrun the Mopar, but you can’t outrun the Motorola.”
I also think I was being generous in stating 5%, especially when you figure in traffic, and the fact that my vehicles have license plates.
Like I said, stupid on many levels…
My friend Ryan outran a cop in his 400 hp (or so) 1967 Mustang. In high school. With me in the back. That was crazy.
I knew a guy in college, who was on a motorcycle, and led the cops on a 12 mile chase. He got the book thrown at him, and had to wear a tracking unit on his ankle for quite a while.
I asked him about it after the fact. The reason he ran was because over a kilo of dope on him, and he had to get out of visual range so he could toss it.
Had one experience, but it’s nowhere near as high speed as that one.
I was on a semi-residential road with an inexplicable 25mph speed limit. No one else on the road, so I go 40mph on this long, sweeping turn. It’s partially blind, so sure enough, here comes a cop in the other direction. I try to roll smoothly and firmly on the brake to prevent the nose from diving, but I’m sure it was obvious I was speeding: the cop gazed at my car as I passed. So I take the next turn and proceeded to get lost in a maze of streets. I do that for a few minutes until I hit another major road and got as far away from the point of contact as possible. Guess I got lucky, or the cop just didn’t bother. I’m just happy I never got to find out.
/fiction
you guys in the States are still lucky – youve got WIDER and FASTER roads, and less curves…!!! very easy…!!!
i would like to invite the driver of that Porsche to try his little stunt here in the middle of Tokyo along the “Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway” (known as the “shutoko”)…
anyways, its just nice being in japan (ALL cop cars have a fuel cut/engine cut/speed limiter of 180 kph), and if you have a car with a reflashed ECU, etc. – you can easily go past 200 kph… during that time? you can just imagine what the cops would be doing…
coupled with slanted “license plates” – what is there to catch?
*just having a bad day*
Completely by accident.
About six or seven years ago, going to pick up a friend before heading to a park. Speeding somewhat (about 10 miles above), I heard a clanking. I pulled over into a parking lot to tighten down the bike up top, and noticed a squad car race by at high speed. Didn’t think anything of it…
Tightened up, got back in and proceeded on my way. At an intersection about three miles away, I had another squad car pull in behind me while waiting to take a right-hand turn. Once I made the turn, he immediately turned behind me and flipped the lights. I turned into another parking lot and was immediately surrounded by three squad cars boxing me in.
Full lights, guns drawn, and scared shitless. I had the window down, and the officer that approached yelled for me to place both hands on the wheel. I, of course, complied and yelled for an explanation. He said to wait. He didn’t have his gun drawn, but rather had his hand on the revolver. I got the message. The others held them down.
A minute or so later yet another squad car squeals to a halt Starsky-and-Hutch Style and an incredibly pissed officer charges up to me. I give over my information, and repeatedly ask what’s happening.
He asked me if I thought I could get away, and I yell back that I have no idea what he’s talking about. His demeanor seems to change at me yelling back (I’m confused as hell at this point), and he informs me that he clocked me speeding and that I ran. I inform him I did no such thing. At this, he tells me to hold on and heads back to his squad car. A few minutes later he hands me my ticket and tells me to have a nice day in a manner that makes it clear he has not real intention of wishing me a nice day.
I’ve been told since by an acquaintance that is a police officer that he probably was checking his video to see if there was any indication that I was intentionally running.
The saddest part of this is I almost got away without knowing I was being badass. I almost got away in a Jeep Cherokee with a mountain bike sticking off the top. Without even trying.
Once. I was in a bad way at the time, and had little to lose other than the license that would be taken from me had I got another ticket. It was 01:00A without another soul on the road and I was doing some joyriding. Once I saw him I cranked it up to 125 until I could get to the next exit where I went down some country roads and hid behind what seemed to be a natural gas station. Easily the most terrifying experience in my adult life because I knew that if he caught me it would be Game Over.
Many times. The town where I grew up only had two pursuit cars and they were both automatic v6 commodores so getting away wasn’t particularly difficult.
The following is fiction…..yeah.
In 1980, on a trip home (back to Detroit)from spring break in Florida, I tried to let a cop outrun me….
Driving through Tifton county in my Chevy Van….solo, after the guy i went down there with hooked up with a honey from NC State and wanted to stay down there a few days extra, but that’s another story….
Caught in a speed trap on I-75 North, I was doing about 75 or so, in a double nickel zone….
Smokey bear pulled me over….I was hoping my nervousness over the ounce of columbian contraband wouldn’t show….having heard the horror stories of the lack of southern hospitality in their small town jails….anyway, the trooper instructed me to stay on his bumper and follow him to the local courthouse….thankfully without searching me or the vehicle….
So, we do a 180 on the emergency turn around on the median…and head back to the county courthouse. The trooper lights up his gumball and roars off at 75….yep, the same speed he pulled me over for….well, no one is more self-righteously indignant than an undergrad….so, I eased my van up to 55 and held it…and watched him fade into the Georgia darkness…..losing sight of him around a couple of tight turns. Just as I was about to do a 180 on the next median turn-around…when I came upon the cruiser parked on the shoulder, door open and the trooper standing, hands on hips, in the right lane. He did not look amused as he waved me to the shoulder, again. He strode to my open window, and just stared at me for a second. “Boy”, he said, “are you trying to be a smart-ass?”
“No”, sez I, “I just didn’t want to be speeding on the way to the courthouse.”
He looked me over for a minute, apparently trying to decide if I was one iota less than completely earnest. “I said, stay on my bumper. Let’s go”
Back on the road again, within minutes we pulled up at the courthouse. Minutes later, I was in front of the judge. After ascertaining that I had $40 in cash, and a mastercard for gas, the judge pronounced sentence. My fine: exactly $40 and 10 minutes later, me and my van and my contraband were back on the free road….
So, I didn’t try to OUTRUN the cop, I tried to get him to OUTRUN me….
Ok, I hate saying this but I really can’t get on my high horse and hate these guys even if they are endangering my family and friends on the roadway.
The logic is simple. Speed traps aren’t set up for safety, they’re their purely for revenue collection. These guys running away from the cops are just getting away from an arbitrary fine. If highway patrols were more concerned with stopping actual reckless drivers then I’d think differently, but they don’t so I don’t. Of course, these guys are endangering everyone else by doing so… but that only makes them just as bad as the guys chasing em; that is to say, not that bad at all (again, both the cops and the guys running from them).
Personally though I’d never run from the police. The ticket just isn’t that bad. Still… I can only imagine it’s a thrill.
I’ve ran from the cops once, by accident.
I was heading towards work on a Sunday morning. I was speeding (like I always did back then) when a cop parked on the median saw me. Luckily for me, a massive group of cars getting out of church were behind me, so the cop had to stop and wait for the cars to go by. I floored it towards work, parked behind a hedge in a small lot behind the mini-mall next to work, and nonchalantly walked in.
I didn’t mean to run, but when luck hands you a free pass, you take it.
so the cop had to stop and wait for the cars to go by. I floored it towards work, parked behind a hedge in a small lot behind the mini-mall next to work, and nonchalantly walked in.
Similar experience for me. I rounded a curve and got nailed by a radar gun. The police officer hit his lights and started forward. Fortunately, no one slowed to let him in. I took one look at him stuck at the side of the road and floored it for about 10 seconds. I got a good head start and then dove into a residential neighbourhood. Slowing right down (I wasn’t a complete idiot) I wound my way down some back streets and squeezed between a parked car and a hedge. I could hear the cruiser charging up and down the adjacent streets. After half an hour he gave up. I waited another half hour and snuck home. Like Campisi said, if you get handed a lucky break.
However, the guy in this video is in idiot. Stunts like this lead to news stories that start with ‘401 westbound was closed this morning due to a high speed crash, with two people dead and another 4 taken to hospital…’
Back when I lived in mizzery, and until recently here, all the highway patrols, local cops, and the like, drove slow ass Crown Vics and the occasional slow ass Impala. All cars I have ever owned are faster than them by a substantial amount (1g Eclipse, E46 3er with more work than I should have done to it, right now a Mazdaspeed3 with a good bit more power than stock). So, why wouldn’t I?
No, but my father once drove away from a southern highway patrolman in , I believe, a 1950 Olds 98. No contest.
Yes. Once. Back in the 90s I travelled alot between TN and Norfolk. I drove a $150 CR-X with a 1.3L engine that would cruise on the flats at 80 mph getting good mileage. So I did run 80 mph in a 65 mph state (VA) which had outlawed radar detectors and which I used religiously despite their law.
Once was heading south again. Detector announced that somebody had tagged me and it was a northbound trooper. He saw me and I saw him and we both floored it. For me that meant an increase of 5 mph and I immediately exited the highway and stopped at a gas station. Moments later VA’s finest blew past running I guess triple digits. A big risk of life and limb to tag a guy running ~75 mph in a 65 mph zone. I waited 20 mins, drank a soda and headed south again at the legal limit for the next 75 miles.
As for the guys in the Dodge – did they get nabbed? I hope so. Because of the shear stupidity of their driving the troopers ought to fine them several thousand dollars, give ’em a couple weeks in the pokey, and force them to watch while their steed is squashed flat by whatever means the troopers have at their disposal. Make sure that their insurance doesn’t pay off for the loss.
Hey jerks – those people out there are my friends and family. Keep your behavior off the regular streets!
That said I had my “stupid phase” in Italy driving like a lunatic. Not the part where we regularly ran triple digits on the autostrada – because out there it is accepted and expected. To do it safely we ALWAYS stayed in the left lane and NEVER passed on the right side and NEVER on the shoulder. And we got passed by 140 mph sedans too.
We did some Ronin style city driving too but while it makes for a good movie, the reality is the chance of a pedestrian/scooter/2CV death is very, very, very high. We did it b/c we were military police and had to.
I had the opposite once: I was on a CBR600 on a motorcycle ride one early Sunday morning and passed a car over a double-yellow line on a short straightaway. As I went past the car, I saw a Chevy S10 Blazer-mounted county sheriff sitting in a turn-off at the side of the road behind some bushes. As I went past at something just north of 100, I saw him turn on the lights. I completed the pass, went around the next corner and found a pull-off where I stopped, figuring I was in for a couple of points on my license. The sheriff pulled up, looked at my license and registration and asked if I knew why he’d pulled me over; I said I assumed it was for passing over the double-yellow. He said yes, plus I suspect you were 40 – 50 miles over the speed limit (55). Then he surprised the hell out of me and said, “I’m sure you’re on your way to breakfast, so just keep the speed down. Oh, and thanks for stopping.” No ticket, no big lecture. I didn’t crack the speed limit for the rest of the day…
This may or may not have occured:
The wife and I were driving home to Maine via the Mass Turnpike. I think I was going about 75, and of course it was a 65 zone. There was a black Crown Vic sitting in the median pointed toward the eastbound lanes that I didn’t see until it was too late because of all the hills in that area. After I passed by, the car pulled out on to the road. He hadn’t turned his lights on, but I was pretty sure he was observing me, since he was back a little bit in the same lane as me. Since I don’t like getting tickets, I pulled off at the nearest service center, which just happened to be coming up. I didn’t plan on turning in there, but since the cop was not visible in my mirrors when the service center ramp came up, I pulled off and drove in and parked. The service center was elevated from the highway, so we watched the cop fly by on the turnpike. We weren’t 100% sure he was after me, but it sure seemed like it. We waited a while before getting back on the turnpike, and didn’t have any further problems.
So yes, it is possible to outrun a cop in a Jetta TDI – with the help of a service center.
Of course I’ve run from the cops – that’s part of why I became one.
Not to be devil’s advocate, but that looks fun as hell. Dangerous? Probably, but he’s probably the only driver even paying attention.
I’ve raced my cousin, who happens to be a Howard Co., MD, cop. Does that count? :-)
For most of my life, I have respected the long arm of the law and pulled over. As a certain ex-brother-in-law once advised, radio waves are always faster than you are.
There was that one night around the summer of 1990, however, where that all went right out the window. The ride: 1988 Honda Prelude Si – my first taste of 16V revving. The scene: A party.
I decided to give a long-not-seen friend a taste of my new (to him) car. We made a right on to Farm Hill Road and I stabbed it, cracking off red line shifts first to second, second to third. Around this time, the flashing red lights in the distance drew my attention to the rear view mirror.
The split second delusion came into my head: I was faster than radio waves. I kept the hammer down as we came up the rise and rounded the bend in the road that obscured me from Johnnie Law’s sight. Quick right turn on to Jefferson, next immediate right turn, then around a bend and parked.
As my friend and I walked a short distance back to the party, we saw a two more of Deadwood’s finest heading up Farm Hill, light blazing, to join the pursuit. For this night, though, a pursuit would be all they would get.
Of course, I have never tried a stunt like that again.
As an engineer, I’ve been involved in forensic investigations on accidents. A good look at the accident scene pix and a while figuring out what happened is about all I need to keep speed within reason. There are different meanings of the word reason depending on vehicle and circumstance, but there is no “reason” whatsoever involved in that video.
That said, the only time I got stopped in a 911 C4, the first thing the cop asked was if I’d thought about outrunning him. Didn’t have the wit to make the comment about not being able to outrun Moto. Because I’d shut it down and pulled over when I saw him, and because I was only about 10mph faster than the SUV-driving soccer moms zipping by perilously close to him, I was admonished and sent on my way.
I was actually pulled over in my Boxster S by two cops on bicycles. They were so shocked I stopped they let me off with a warning.
These Alabama State Troopers had a good day yesterday. 12 bikers tried to run and the troopers caught the entire bunch. Bikers Going 140+ Busted.
There is one small error in the story. Mile marker 55 is 11 miles west of the Florida state line, not east as stated in the story
Cops don’t like you to run away. In the good ole days before cell phones and the like, there was an unwritten rule among many police that if you ran, when they get you, you get a nice bit of the extra special sauce when they catch you. Now, there’s less of that, but if you ask any cops, they will tell you nothing gets the adreniline flowing like a good chase. That’s why so many of the excessive force cases you see come after chases; the cops get wound-up and can get out of hand. The clever one’s let the doggies do the work; let the guy run and hide in the ditch and then send Fido over who will proceed to tear the shit out of Mr. GT; cop can rightly say, I didn’t lay a hand on him. . .
As an attorney, I see those chases that end up the wrong way; you can go from 65 in a 35 mph ticket to 2nd degree murder in a blink of an eye if you run through that stopsign when another car is there, or more commonly, 1st degree suicide when you hit that tree.
Bottom line, pull over . ..
Not quite. But…Long ago, I was speeding down a hilly two lane U.S. highway. I passed a police car while I was still “exceeding the legal limit”. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw his brake lights. I waited until he was on the other side of one of those hills, then took an immediate turn onto a side road. He had to wait for traffic to clear to turn around. Never saw him again.
A friend of mine related a not-so-funny “ran from the cops by accident” story a few years ago.
In the mid 90’s, he was riding with a bunch of guys (about 10) that worked at an airforce (now closed) base in UP Michigan. They were cruising back towards the base maybe 20mph over the speed limit on 750-1000cc sport bikes. Apparently the leader went from 80mph to 125mph+ in very short period. They figured he was just having a little fun so everyone followed.
After they got to the base, the leader jumped off his bike after parking next to a whole slew of other sportbikes and ran inside and told everyone to do the same.
About 10 minutes after th elast bike got there, 2 cruisers showed up with flashing lights….to try to figure out which of the 10 bikes of 60+ bikes were speeding.
Nobody did get a ticket, as the cop was too far away to see license plates and everyone had gear on.
He told me whenever they went riding after that, the cops always seemed to be around watching any motorcycles going into/out of the base. He told the leader if he ever pulled that crap again he wouldn’t ride with them.
Ironically, he eventually became a copy in Indiana :)
So i had just gotten a new exhaust and intake on my WRX. These two parts really opened up my car. So im pushin about 280 whp and im about to show my car enthusiast buddy my car. I-94 and 8-Mile road = speeders heaven… we check all mirrors, windows, everything to make sure we are clear of “The Po”. 5000 rpms and a clutch drop and im doing 85 before we actually hit the freeway in decently busy traffic. And of course a state trooper is right behind me on the on-ramp. “well im already doing 85” runs through my mind. F-that, i pulled over and the female officer (i called her Sir out of sheer nervousness) told me about the 3 tickets she could easily give me. Somehow i got out of it, i think its because of my perfect record or maybe the fact that i was completely honest with her and told her that i was just out for a joy ride with my friend. Never thought that the truth would work in that situation.
RF – ya wimp.
ScottGSO – words of wisdom there. Couple of reasons cops don’t like runners. 1)lots more paperwork and maybe a court appearance as your lawyer tries to get you out of serious charges 2) if you do crash, even if its only your own self you’ve done in, the images of your brains sprinkled around whats left of the interior of the car are hard to forget. And 140 on a bike – not even the satisfaction of knowing that the organs will go to someone who will be more careful with them than you were.
What I don’t understand is why he ran in the first place. He wasn’t much faster than traffic when he supposedly passed the cop. It doesn’t help that his radar detector sounds like the war room in the Pentagon after Russia launches all of its nukes. Slowing down to a reasonable speed and a “I was just opening it up a little, officer,” would have avoided getting him a ticket. However, doing that would have been a waste of the radar detector, CB radio and camera equipment, not to have run.
I have a couple good ones. The ones involving me (I was a passenger in both cases) are somewhat typical…friend in the back blocks cop car on road while driver pulls into a neighborhood and hides. Or, doing doughnuts in front of a cop car while cousin blocks the cops’ getaway.
Here’s a few good ones I’ve heard from others:
A friend of a friend gets pulled over. The officer comes leans in and says the usual, “Do you know how fast you were going?” The driver immediately replied with the wave of his hand, “These are not the droids you are looking for.” The officer, without cracking the slightest hint of a smile, replied, stood up and walked back to his car. This was back in the 70s when Star Wars had first come out.
In another incident, somewhere in the south, a different friend was pulled over doing about a buck twenty. The officer stomps up, leans over, and yells “Show me your pilot license right now, and I’ll let you go.” The driver was a pilot for the air force base and produced it. No ticket was issued.
RF, here’s something for MR car owners: Two guys in an MR2 from a street race and get away long enough to pull into a grocery store parking lot, jump out and loiter. A cop car approaches, a spotlight thrown on them as they’re approached. The driver says “I’ve been here for half an hour. Feel the hood, the engine’s been off,” he says, putting his hand on the bonnet of his MR2. No ticket.
And by the way, a little tip from someone who’s chased and been chased – make your car unremarkable. No stickers, special vanity plates, stripes, anything unusual. Blend into your surroundings. I still do it to this day, just out of habit.
(Also a tip to you criminals fond of tattooing yourselves…you’re just making it too easy…)
A group of cyclists doing 140+ busted this weekend, couldn’t outrun the Motorola…
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1219050956270500.xml&coll=3