How Great Of Driver Are You?

[moab mark]

He actually showed me the radar gun. We were also spinning donuts. He was pissed.

[JP]

He actually showed me the radar gun. We were also spinning donuts. He was pissed.

[Rev. Coyote]

Used to drive one of these, a 1973 Plymouth Duster 340. Except mine had a 318 swapped in, posi-trac, torque flite, hooker headers. It was more of a rat rod with a huge doghouse hood scoop. Not as pretty as this picture.

Prior, I drove a 71 Demon with the venerable 198 slant 6 with three-on-the-tree and Mercedes Benz bucket seats (my mod). Also, antique carpeting from an old victorian house and gimbaled drink holders from a boat. A car with character that got 28 mpg.

[Iceaxe]

You were doing 50 on the beach

I don't know about St. Augustine, but the beach at Daytona invites speed. That is where World Land Speed Records were set until Bonneville was discovered.

March 7, 1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell went 276.710 in Bluebird on Daytona Beach.



They still let you drive on the beach but the speed limit is 15 mph these days.

[BruteForce]

Used to drive one of these, a 1973 Plymouth Duster 340. Except mine had a 318 swapped in, posi-trac, torque flite, hooker headers. It was more of a rat rod with a huge doghouse hood scoop. Not as pretty as this picture.

Prior, I drove a 71 Demon with the venerable 198 slant 6 with three-on-the-tree and Mercedes Benz bucket seats (my mod). Also, antique carpeting from an old victorian house and gimbaled drink holders from a boat. A car with character that got 28 mpg.

I had the same thing.. Paint was metallic blue with metallic blue vinyl seats.

Drove it in Germany on the Autobahn until I snapped the motor mounts trying to get out of the fast lane before a Porsche ran over me.

Drove right over the motor and sold the car to a German for a Diesel Benz and an Audi.

[Ih8grvty]

Two ticket stories that are in my own mind, fantastic.

April 24, 1987...
I got my license in the afternoon, headed home with a lift from my dad, picked up my car, drove it down to get it inspected. No, wait, I drove to the insurance place then to get it inspected...anyways, I then drove to teh courthouse where I had gotten my license just an hour earlier. registered the car for the first time since Id owned it and been working on it, waiting, dieing to drive it.
pulled out of the driveway onto main street... the lights came on immediately.
I got popped for exhibition driving :D
I framed the ticket and hung it up in my bedroom.
The cop walks up, asks for the license and says "Jesus christ this license is still warm!"
with in the month I had enough tickets to lose my license :(


the other one that was great is far to long but I was working industrial on the shores of the GSL, driving home we would have one or two :D beers on the hour ride home. we got pulled over in Grantsville for speeding at 1 am. (Worked 12 hour shifts of 12 to 12) the cop immediatly smells the beer, goes all batshit on us, takes the driver out and gives him a few test, that he passes all of.
The entire time he is talking to the cops, hurry your stupid ass up give me my ticket so I can get home i have to get back to work for 2 more days and its late. the whole time yelling at him and demanding his ticket.
Finally after about an hour the cop gives him a ticket for speeding, open container and everything he can think of to write up. Danny....I mean the driver :D then says now hurry your ass up and give these other guys their tickets to so we can fing go!
All of us were nice and polite, yes officer, no sire, 5 or I mean 1 or 2 beers on the road each....
The cop says why? you were driving and your the only one I saw with an open container, these gentlemen do not even smell like beer, your the only one that needs a ticket.
He blew up started screaming about all sorts of shit, they kicked us all out of the car, called us a cab to take us the rest of the way home, and impounded teh car pool car and took the driver to jail. We had to use personal cars to get to work for the rest of that set, but we skated with nothing but paying a cab.
He owned the car pool car and paid for its bail, but we never dared drink in the car again because every time we drove through there in it we got pulled over for anything they could find to pull us over for.
We eventually had to chip in 100 each and buy a new carpool car and not register it in that guys name. Course we then took the screws out of one a arm rest thingy in the back seat so it connected to the trunk, put in a plastic tub and all coolers for beer and all empties were stored in it. Always have easy trunk access from inside the car!

Keep in mind, I have not had a drink while driving in many years now, nor have I done any driving after drinking in nearly as many years.
But I did do it damned near daily in the mid to late 90s before i pulled my head out.

[LOAH]

Oh boy.

Kent, sorry about your friends. Not everyone who drives fast drives well. Perhaps someone ran into them while swerving to avoid the traffic hazard doing 55 in the fast lane...

_______________________________________

The fastest I ever drove was somewhere around 130 (estimated...speedo stopped at 100, but I still had a lot of throttle left, which I used) in my '94 Cavalier. My struts were shot and the rear suspension wasn't much better, so it was very floaty. I wouldn't say it was scary though.

I drove to Pleasant View (above Ogden) from Orem in 40 minutes one day. My needle was pinned the whole time except when getting on the freeway and getting off. Needless to say, I was very surprised that traffic allowed me to do so. The only cop I saw was getting off at WX. Smooth sailing.

Working as a delivery driver for Airborne Express in the late 90's, I was expected to do the impossible given the allotted time (I had the Price route) and rarely drove less than 90mph through Spanish Fork Canyon (2 turns required slowing to 75ish...other times it was slower traffic). If the impossible wasn't accomplished and I wasn't back at HQ by 5:00pm, I then had to haul ass to SLC Int'l Airport to offload before the plane left at 6:30.

One particular day, my boss was contacted by UHP about a silver streak on I-15 with Airborne Express written all over it. Apparently, I was doing "well over 100" and had frightened the other motorists. Weak.

I could go on for a long time since I was quite the bad ass behind the wheel and tested that regularly. I've had a lot of white knuckle experiences that I managed to pull out of without incident and I've scared the crap out of plenty of folks, but I've never caused injury to anyone from my exploits.

Most of my best driving moments spawned from other drivers' stupidity.

Back in my party daze, I was always nominated as the driver by all of my buddies because they knew it didn't matter what the flavor of the day was, I could drive. There's some shame in admitting that I've driven under the influence of many things, but somehow I always pulled it off in spite of the intense hallucinations.

Though none of my adventures ended in death or injury, a couple ended with me in jail.

I'm sure glad that I settled down, eventually. There was about a 5 year period where I would get my license reinstated just to have it suspended again within a month or two.

Speeding isn't as easy to get away with nowadays though. I-15 has all sorts of cameras and gadgets along the roadside that make me think twice about it now. It's really too bad since I know my Sentra could really raise hell.

[Iceaxe]

When I was 16 CB radio's were at the height of their popularity.... I was heading to Salt Lake from Happy Valley and being like most 16 year old males I was well over the double nickel. Right on top of Point-Of-The-Mountain the Highway Patrol had a radar trap set up that I blew through hauling ass. Right about that time I heard a voice come over the CB "Little Camero... He tagged you and is pursuing....". So I immediately ducked off the Bulfdale exit and pulled under the bridge.... about 5 seconds later Smoky flies by with full lights and siren..... The voice again comes over the CB "nice move, he didn't see you duck off". This is about 1976, Bulfdale and Draper are nothing but open farms. So I'm deciding what to do and again the voice comes over the CB "Little Camero... Smokey figured out what you did and is hiding at 90th South waiting for you". So I had to travel the back farm roads to get home. I never knew who the voice on the CB was but I owe him a big 10-4 good buddy.

[savanna3313]

My friends and I used to do a lot of road trips and I loved having a CB in the car when I traveled. Great for speed traps, directions and just staying awake.

[Iceaxe]

What was your handle? I was "The Operator".... sometimes I'd use "Blue Goose".

[accadacca]

Rockgremlin and I used to talk shit to truckers all the time on my CB. Man we would always have people getting pissed at us.

I'll have to think of some stories...

[RedMan]

I rounded the point of the mountain one day on my bike at well over 100 and had a guy in a Mercedes drafting me about 10 car lengths back when this clown in a corvette blows past both of us.

As he get about 1/2 mile ahead a UHP officer nails him.

Of course I slow down and the Mercedes pulls along side and gives me a thumbs up as we pass the corvette and cop.

So I drafted him through the rest of the valley.

[savanna3313]

What was your handle? I was "The Operator".... sometimes I'd use "Blue Goose".

Since I was living in New Orleans for most of those years, I used the handle "Delta Lady" although most thought my handle meant I was a stewie for Delta airlines. I did get tired of explaining that it meant I was from the Mississippi River delta region. Plus I really liked the Joe Cocker song "Delta Lady".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOz6Mt2t084

[canyonphile]

Of course I slow down and the Mercedes pulls along side and gives me a thumbs up as we pass the corvette and cop.

I always laugh when I see someone pulled over and getting the full-on disco treatment by the HP shortly after they blew past me and everyone else speeding like a banshee: instant karma.

These ticket stories are hilarious! I don't have anything nearly as daring or interesting to write about; I've been pulled over a few times for speeding, but have never gotten a ticket . Prolly the combo of being a chick, not copping an attitude w/ the cops, not felony speeding and the randomness of the HP's mood at the time are all contributing factors.

The last time I remember getting pulled over was when I was living in Prescott, AZ, and was driving to Flagstaff for a surgery (this was back in the old days). At the time I had an old Forest Service Blazer in the mint green color that I'd bought at an auction. It was a worthless piece of shit, but I digress... Anyway, driving east on I-40 from Ash Fork up through Williams there is a significant elevation gain over about 10 miles. So, in order to maintain speed, you've got to keep on the gas. Well, after it levels out, unless you back off the gas, you of course start going faster, which is what happened to me. I wasn't really paying much attention to how fast I was going, as I drove this route all the time and it's not like I'm ever worried because even when I used to speed, there were *always* people going faster than me (that's another reason I've never gotten a ticket).

So, I'm busting a move along just outside of Williams, and I see a HP in the median strip. I go blazing past him and realize too late I was going a wee bit over the speed limit. I see his disco lights go on, and of course, it's for me.

HP: Did you know how fast you were going? [speed limit is 75]

Me: No, but I know I was speeding a little because of the momentum of coming up the hill back there. Sorry, I was on my way to a surgery in Flagstaff and wasn't paying attention to the speedometer.

HP: You were doing 88.

Me [being totally serious]: Wow. Really?? I honestly had no idea this thing could go that fast.

HP: [laughs]. Yeah, well just try to keep your speed down, okay? [maybe writes me a warning, not sure]

Me: No problem! Thanks officer - have a good day.

No ticket and I'm not even sure I got a warning. I got pulled over one time a few years before that when I was driving down I-17 from Flag to Phx. for "aggressive driving" (because there was some dickhead in the passing lane that I was tailgating a bit...I think it was actually the cop). I told that cop that I'd recently moved from CA (true) and that I'd probably picked up some bad driving habits while living there (also true). Also managed to skate out of a ticket .

These days, I don't speed at all. Mostly to save gas, but I drive a Wrangler, and they really aren't designed for speed. I don't want to destroy the engine any earlier than I have to, so I just drive the speed limit like a granny now . I hope it pisses off all these idiot CT drivers that I drive 65-70 (in the slow lane, of course).

-SJ

[BruteForce]

This is the car that got me 6 tickets in a single day, one of them doing slightly over 140mph on I-15 North bound (heading to Ft. Lewis, Washington) outside Tremonton.

[Iceaxe]

Rockgremlin and I used to talk shit to truckers all the time on my CB. Man we would always have people getting pissed at us.

I got the shit kicked out of me once because of the CB....

As you read this please understand we were just dumb young kids... This happened in 1976, I was 16 and things were a little different back in the day...

The best thing about the old CB radio was you could hook up an external speaker. The speaker was about $5 at Radio Shack and turned your car into an instant rolling PA system. I was with my buddy "Cool Rick", we called him that so as not to confuse him with our other friend we called "Big Rick". Besides, Cool Rick thought he was the hottest thing since sliced bread so the name fit....

Anyhoo.... Cool Rick and I are sitting at a burger joint at about 7th South and State Street. We are parked with the front end of his Camero facing State Street so we could entertain ourselves with the PA while eating lunch.... normally we used the PA to try and meet girls, but today was different. This Tiger Woods type dude is walking down State Street and Cool Rick ducks down and says a word that sounds really a lot like "Bigger" into the PA. Rick sits back up with a straight face. The Tiger Woods type dude looks all around trying to figure out what's up.... Rick does this again.... The Tiger Woods type dude is turning circles trying to figure out who is messing with him.... Of course being young and dumb we thought this was hilarious.... right up to the moment when we turned around and discover 8 Tiger Woods type dudes standing behind the Camero. Now I'm not sure exactly how many Tiger Woods type dudes it takes to really kick my ass.... but I do know that 8 is more then enough....

[Iceaxe]

Anther CB story.... we would park behind the menu at the local Artic Circle drive through. When girls would pull up we would ask for their order over the CB PA system... the CB PA had the same crappy sound as the normal Artic Circle drive through system.... the girls would give us their order and than pull forward to get their food.... which would always result in a big SNAFU at the window...



Yes.... its very funny when you are 16 and the girls a hot....

[Iceaxe]

In honor of Acca's brand spanking new ticket I thought I'd bump this thread.

[live2ride]

I must have missed his new ticket, it was fun catching up on some of these stories!

[dbaxter]

I used to have to drive from Beaver to St George to work. I never got a ticket doing that, but I did get a phone number from a guy who was totally surprised a "girl" could keep up with him. He wrote his number down and held it up in his window as he let me pass...