I'll go first It's 1983 and I have just purchased a beautiful 69 Skylark custom with a 350/4 and limited slip. my girlfriend and I are driving around and it's about 11:00 at night and we see my friend shorty changing the reader board on the restaurant sign where we both worked. I whip into the parking lot directly across the street which happens to be a bowling alley and do some smokey donuts in the parking lot. Just as we start to pull out of the parking lot police officers at the Denny's next door swarm out and surround us. That little event resulted in being checked for DUI and a complete search of the car and a couple of tickets all while my friend across the street laughed hysterically.
In 1971 while drag racing at Thun field in Puyallup Wa. in my 67 Gran Sport 400 4speed, I fried the clutch, resulting in a small grass fire on the side of the drag strip. I managed to coast to the shut down area and on to the return road, I was wondering why there were emergency vehicles coming down the strip. When I saw the smoke and fire, I didn't realize my clutch parts caused it. Bob H.
When I was 17 or 18 in my 72 C10 I restored with my dad. On my way out to a buddys house party, decided to do some donuts as a grand entrance. Ended up in the neighbors backyard, took our half of their side fence ended up a few feet from their pool. Dad was pissed, cops were more pissed. I paid for the fence and repaid my pops for all the repairs on the truck.
I'm still doing stupid stuff. Friday the 13th, I backed into my garage. A house I've lived in for 17 years and driving a car I've owned for 5 years. It has warning bells and a rear camera, something I didn't have for the first 12 years I lived here with a Tundra truck and a Tahoe. Well, I broke the folding mirror cover on my 2013 Lexus GS 350. It didn't fold! It didn't hurt the rest of the car and it didn't even break the glass mirror or hurt the weather strip it clipped on the garage door but it still cost me $200 for a new mirror and paint. I've got plenty of stupid things I've done in my Buick. Not the worst of it was letting friend drive it. He got into a drag race and I rode out to watch with another buddy in his Chevelle. My car won and high tailed it back to town. On the way back to town, a policeman pulled my buddy over and said he knew we'd been out where they were racing. The cop told my buddy, "Tell that Duvall boy we are looking for him. We know it was him." My buddy looks over his shoulder and says, "Hey, Duvall, the cops are looking for you." The cop says sarcastically, "How stupid do you think I am?" To his credit, my smarass buddy didn't answer but I spoke up, "Hi, officer, what can I help you with?" My buddy still got a ticket for loud pipes. When we got back to town, the other friend had stashed the car and threw a tarp over it behind another car. When we met up with him he said he passed the cop doing about 8oMPH. Speed limit was 55MPH in those days. We left the car there for the night and I picked it up the next day. The cops were always after us. We pranked them really good once. We were all talking about going out of town to try them out within earshot of a known unmarked car. About 6 of use drove out of town a little ways and parked in a church parking lot. One buddy with a truck let the tailgate down and we lined up our Stomper trucks and were racing them when the cops flew by, slammed on the brakes and pulled in. The one officer got out of his car and said, "What are you folks doing?" We said, "Lining them up and seeing who's is fastest." About that time, everyone parted and he got to see a Stomper truck drag race. He actually laughed and said we got him good. I could go on for several pages about my close calls in my Buick, both with me driving and as a spectator.
On my way to church with family in the 90s w my GS and pulled next to my inlaws at a red light. (He raced SS 409s in the early 60s when cops would actually block the road for their Saturday night races.) He wasn't driving anything special but I revved up the motor before the green light and then we both punched it. I of course blew him away but then saw the officer. He pulled me over directly in front of church and everyone in my congregation drove by me as I was talking my way out of a reckless driving charge!!
Back in the late 80s-early 90s, my buddies and I rented a shop in an industrial area in Clearwater. I had just put a motor in my brother's 73 Camaro and took it for a test spin with no hood and open headers. Went down the road pretty easy (speed limit was 30 mph). Turned around at the end of the road, where there was a busy street, stopped, looked around and did not see any police. I proceeded to pin the throttle, spinning all over, and ran down the road as fast as it would go. at the other end of the road (another busy street), I pulled off the pavement and did a 180, flinging grass and dirt everywhere. When the car spun around, a police car came flying up to the nose of the Camaro, so I shut it down. There was no tag on the car or registration for it in the car. The officer was not amused, at all! He saw me coming down the road the first time and was going to let it go, until I turned around and nailed it. Half way through his lecture, my brother drives by in his girlfriend's car, slows down, and then keeps going! He did come back in a few minutes with the tag and registration for the car. Apparently he had been pulled over on the way to the shop for speeding, by another Clearwater officer. The officer told him that this issue seems to run in our family. Eventually, after he finished his lecture to both of us, he asked me where my shop was. I pointed across the street and he advised me that he was not going to waste any more time on this, and to take the car back there immediately. He did not want to hear or see it for the rest of the day! So feeling like I could push the issue a bit, I asked if I could drive the car to the exhaust shop to get that issue fixed. He said, "Young man, I am going to sit in that parking lot over there. You can drive it there if you want to, but I already told you I don't want to see or hear it again today!" Needless to say, I drove it back to my shop and borrowed a friend's truck and trailer to take it to the exhaust shop. Sure enough, the office was still sitting in that parking lot!
In 1985 I had a job building greenhouses all over the world. My boss dropped our crew off at Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport in his brand new Renault 25 V6 Turbo, for a flight to Italy. On the way to the airport he bragged that his car had all those cool options, like voice activated radio controls, airconditioning, a board computer and even a car alarm, something not many cars came with in 1985. When we arrived at the airport and removed our luggage from the boot of the car, my boss told me to tap on the rear window, to trigger the alarm. I tapped the window, but nothing happened. "You have to tap it like a man, not like a pussy!", my boss told me. So I tapped it a little harder and the rear window shattered into a million pieces...... (no rear safety glass in those days). In the end it turned out that the alarm wasn't activated, because the driver's door was open...... I had a very hard time abroad, worried that I had to pay for that expensive rear window. But when we returned home, 3 weeks later, my boss told me not to worry about paying for the window. He said he had a good laugh about it, especially because he forgot to activate the car alarm.
Hit an undercover cop car in an empty parking lot with my dad’s ‘66 Impala convertible. I wasn’t even drinking.
Someone got me as a joke or payback, don't know because I never found out who did it. It was 1978, and I'm a Senior in High School. I was cruising in my 1958 Impala Sport Coupe and the right rear wheel came off. I was meticulous with this car so I'm sure someone loosened the lugs. Luckily, there was no damage to the car or another car.
Driving from tn to ft stewart ga back in the 80's I had 3 other people with me and i was bragging on how fast my car was...... I told them i could do over 100 in 2nd gear... So out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around i turned her loose..... 5 miles down the road i seen lights behind me Georgia state trooper in a mustang...... He was not ammused..... .. Scott
1983 - I was out driving the “family car” (the ‘73 Stage-1) and got busted for racing another kid from high school in a 1971 GTO, two weeks after getting my license. No, they weren’t amused either. My saving grace was I stopped and the GTO didn’t. They were waiting for him at his parent’s house when he got home. I got a ticket for speeding, he got reckless driving and some other fun prizes. I didn’t stick around in court to hear the rest. The GTO was supposed to have a “Ram Air” something with headers, side pipes… the Buick still walked it. My dad was proud (but didn’t tell me to waaay later).
3 come to mind. Theres many more but I dont feel up to typing that much... 1, Drove a 65 chevy van with a 327 between the seats to the ins agent to get a policy so I can get tags. New ins in hand I get into the van and back into the side of the agents car. Sat there a min then went in and fessed up. He'd seen the whole thing from his window. Oops! 2, Same van in the Myers thrifty acres parking lot. They had just watered the plants in the garden center. Big wet staging area and a stop sign. Freid the tires , made a huge smoke show. Looking in the mirror to admire my handy work I see red and blue lights coming through the fog. Oops! 3, 68 Javelin. Going to the drive in with some friends . Sitting at a stop sign on a dirt road with a busy 4 lane road to cross then directly into the drive in ticket booth. Nailed it, threw gravel and supn across the 4 lane. Paid for the ticket and went to the back row. A cop had been behind me at the stop sign, threw gravel all over the front of his car and he followed me into the place. Wrote me a ticket and said enjoy the movie. Let my buddies out of the trunk after he left . Doh!
Coming home one night from hanging out with my car buddies. I was probably 18 or 19. I'm in my green 69 Riv. It's probsbly 3 or 4 am and I'm on the parkway half asleep doing like 100 or maybe a little more. All of a sudden I see a state trooper doing 55 in the middle lane. By the time I realized it was a cop, I pass him with my brake lights on....practically stood the car up on the front bumper trying to slow down. First words out of the guys mouth- "didn't you see me?" I bit my tounge and thought better of giving him a smart answer back. Figured I was in enough trouble. I think he wrote me for 14 over which was a gift. I think I hit 120 at one point.
I had a '64 Malibu SS with a 283 that I put on dual exhaust and a four barrel. One Saturday morning I decided to see how fast it would go. At that hour the road was pretty wide open and you could see a long way. I ran it up to 120 and was slowing to take a curve posted for 50. I was doing 105 when a CHP passed by going the other way. Of course, I slowed down and he turned around and pulled me over. I might have been able to whip in behind the used car lot of the dealer I worked for, but didn't chance it. They didn't have radar in those days, and he asked me how fast I was going. I told him 75 or 80. He only wrote me up for 65. Nice guy!
In the mid ‘90s, when the Bowling Green Red Roof was still the Scottish Inn, Nick Sloop and I were drinking beer and rebuilding my carb in the hotel room, and when finished put it back on and went for a test drive. We pulled onto the access road and I power braked it, loaded the converter and then let it launch-WOT past the McDonalds and the cop sitting in the parking lot. He immediately pulled us over and questioned us about what the hell we were doing and how many beers we’d had. He then wrote me a warning and said ‘go back to the motel and stay there!’ Patrick
19 years old, doing 105 mph in a 1978 Toyota Corolla racing my brother home on back country roads. Hey at least it was a 4 speed on the floor Not embarrassing, but very stupid. I could feel the car floating and it took about 5 miles to get it up to speed. Not my car but the same model and color
I had a couple different Corollas of that vintage. 105 mph in that thing must have been very interesting, I didn't even know they would go that fast
