Only once... I was haulin down the interstate one night and saw the cop go through the median in my rear view mirror there was traffic so he couldn't pull out right away. Put the hammer down to the next exit, killed the lights right before the exit and used the console mounted parking brake to slow down. (good thing it was a long ramp) hung a left, went over the bridge lights out and saw him go under the bridge at a pretty good clip. I figured I got really lucky so I never tried that again. In fact, a few years ago a cop radar'd me in traffic and I went up and pulled over and waited for him. He was so shocked I waited for him he just gave me a warning.
Not an 'out running the cops' story, but kind of related... My Dad was a law abiding, cop supporting kind of guy, but had a high 'fair-is-fair' outlook. My folks owned a little Ma & Pa grocery store/gas station at a "T" intersection of two major, highly travelled roads. The "T" was quite wide, with a big approach for the right turn lanes to and from the leg of the tee. It was pretty common at night when there was virtually no traffic, for people to do a 'Hollywood stop' while turning right onto the main drag, and then punch the gas. He wasn't aware of it until one of his renters told him about it, but the state and county cops were hiding between our store building and a house next door (that my parents owned and rented to the guy that told him about it), then swinging out on the road with red lights blazing. The renter had been watching all this take place, and had noticed what time of the night it usually occurred. Like I said, my Dad had this fair-is-fair attitude, and didn't like the 'trap', and especially the fact that the cops were using HIS property to do it!! It took a few late nights/early mornings of trying, but he finally caught a cop lurking beside the store and promptly informed him that he was on private property without permission, and therefore technically trespassing, and he didn't like him hiding beside the building. He told him they were welcome to park in front, by the gas pumps, but NOT hide beside the building. The cop knew my Dad was right about no-permission-no-parking, and they had a nice chat, afterward they went their separate ways. Amazingly there were no hard feelings... the cops (including the one my Dad confronted) continued to stop at the store to shop occasionally, and also cruised through to keep an eye on the place when we were closed. A couple of years later, one of the state cops pulled me over (for a burned-out taillight) DIRECTLY across the street from the store and took great delight in 'chewing me out' (he really didn't chew me out, no ticket, just a 'heads up' kind of talk) while my Mom and Dad were BOTH watching the stop take place!! We all (including the cop) had a good laugh over it.
There used to be an Exxon station in town, on the busiest intersection in town, and all the guys working there had musclecars, and was a hangout- owner was cool (had one of those big red 71 Eldorado ragtops) and as long as you bought gas from him, hang out all you want. So my one buddy that worked there had one of those lionhearted 340 Dusters, bright yellow, and we cruised up to the red light, with about 15 guys in the parking lot. I was one car back from him in my 69 Mach1, and the guys start yelling and waving at him "light 'em up!". Light goes green, he torches the tires and then pulls into the lot- followed by the city cop that was in between us, right behind him. Never sees the cop until he gets out. All the guys are busting up- and so is the cop- he says hey dumbshit, don't you ever look in the mirror??? He caught so much hell the cop didn't even give him a ticket- turned out he had a 440 Roadrunner of his own, and there was a Six Pack car in the lot, went over and checked it out
It's interesting to read the stories from you guys that lived out in rural areas, such a different scene than around here, where there really isn't a stretch between towns, cities are developed right up to the border of the next town, it's kind of one big town, with different city govt's. Anyway I have a couple of tales, 1 successful, 1 not so much; other than those times before I even had a license when we would ride our dirt bikes up in the undeveloped hills on the north side of town, and the cops would try to chase us on their Harley's, because we weren't supposed to be there, and that was a joke, I could outrun them on a Honda Trail 90, I think they knew they couldn't catch us, they just enjoyed getting offroad for a little bit. But, I digress. Let's get back on track. First story, I wasn't doing the driving, my brother was. In his sweet little 68 Chevy Nova w/ transplanted L82 350, which was nothing great itself but a nice upgrade from the stock 307. That car was just a sweet little cream puff. In those days we concentrated more on handling than outright straight-line acceleration, so with a few simple mods I won't get into here we had that little car handling like a slot car. So there we were, running West down the local freeway heading home late at night cruising along not too fast, probably around 75 or so (national speed limit at the time was 55), and here comes a CHP with lights on. Just about then we were coming up on an interchange with another freeway, so my brother just flips the car from the #1 lane into the transition lane for the North bound fwy, the cop couldn't make the change, he couldn't hang with the little Nova. Audios MF'er! We're gone. Never saw him again. Second story, didn't turn out as well, but not too bad. I was heading home from work on a Friday night, in my 68 Chevelle, 327 mouse motor. Again, I had it set up for handling, that was the emphasis in those days. The 327 ran strong, but it was not set up for drag racing, it was set up for canyon carving (I used to enjoy toying with the guys in their Euro cars that thought they were fast through the canyons). So being a Friday evening, just got paid, I grabbed a beer at the local liquor store and cracked it open for the drive home. I had just got off the freeway when I see a cop coming up fast behind me, some ways back. I wasn't speeding, but I had the open beer bottle in between my legs, and I didn't want a ticket for an open container. So I flipped a couple of quick turns and into a neighborhood, rolled down my window and threw the beer out and kept going, down a few blocks I run into a damn cul-de-sac (no exit). I had to turn around and head back out the same way I came in. Damn! Sure enough, the cop sees me and flashes his lights and pulls me over. And he's not being friendly about it, at all. He doesn't get out of his car, instead he puts the spot light on my car and through the PA he tells me to take the keys out of the ignition and drop them on the ground. Holy crap! I'm thinking this is gonna be bad. I do that and then he tells me over the PA to put both my hands out the window and keep them there where he can see them, so I do as he says. Then he gets out with his gun drawn and pointed at me and walks slowly up to the car amd tells me to open the door using the outside handle and get out keeping my hands raised. Again, holy crap! I do as he says. Then he tells me to face the car and put my hands on the roof, which I do, and then he comes up behind me, with his gun still drawn, and when he gets behind me he kicks my feet and tells me to spread 'em, then he puts the gun away and takes each arm behind me and cuffs them. Just like you see on the cop shows on TV. While all this is going on a couple more cop cars pull up. Crap, all this for simply turning into a neighborhood??? What's going on? He just tells me to shut up. Then the cops start going through my car, top to bottom, even opened the trunk and searched it. I'm thinking they're looking for drugs or something. Some neighbors come over and tell them how I was driving through the neighborhood. They had me turn and face the street, and another cop car pulls up and shines the spot-light in my face, I can't see anything but blinding light, and they sit there for a few minutes, then he drives away. At the end of it they took the cuffs off, told me there was just a bank robbery that had taken place just before all of this, and I was the suspect. The car that just left had eye witnesses inside who confirmed that I was NOT the guy. Whew! He chewed me out for driving like that through the neighborhood, and he could smell the beer so he chewed me out for that; but then they let me go, no ticket, nothing. Wow! I slowly cruised home a couple of miles away and it took awhile for the adrenalin to work it's way out of my blood. And that's the story of how I almost got away from the cops that time, but for a cul-de-sac I would've been long gone, almost got arrested for bank robbery, almost got busted for open container, but in the end nothing but a huge rush.
Had a buddy with an OT 68 mustang GT factory with a 390. During the gas crisis we had a lot of fun with that car as we could blow the engine up and pick up another 390 for 50 dollars. Went thru 3 in one summer, finally found a 428 police interceptor wreck. Spent a lot of dollars, rebuilt it to cobra jet specs, hot cam etc. We were sitting in a donut shop in the next town and got to talking to a town cop, told him we could take his police car. He offered to run us at a quiet industrial road on the edge of town. As we hit 4th gear we heard a bang ad he blew the engine in the police car. We avoided going thru the next town for the next couple of years, till he sold the mustang. The only time I ran from the cops actually involved running. Another buddy lived 1/2 block down from the police station which at the time was an old two story house. He had a pool in his yard, we often went for a late night dip after the bars closed. One night after a few too many he decided it would be funny to throw an m80 firecracker on the roof of the police. It rolled down into the gutter and downspout. We took off and jumped into the pool, the cops came running out of the station trying to figure what was going on. Since the cops were used to seeing us in the pool they did not bother us, but actually asked if we saw anyone!
Does running on foot count? During our street racing exploits we'd set up a Wednesday night club hangout at a place called JoBee's on Fort St in Riverview. It attracted all kinds of car folk, and before "cruise nights" became a fashion. After closing we had "Dollar Days" up the road racing from a light on Fort St. We'd pick a winner and bet a buck. Didn't take long before we wore out our welcome from one intersection to another. There was a Farmer Jack grocery store at King n Fort. Parking where passing traffic didn't get a look see. Fort is a divided hiway, the racers were headed north, we parked on the south side. After about a 1/2 dozen races we see a cop car. There were trees and shrubs in the center island, and like little kids, 4 grown men are hiding in the bushes as the cop goes by looking for us. He takes off to see where we went and we hoofed it fast to the Farmer Jack parking lot on the south side. The workers were on strike that weekend so we grabbed picket signs and waved em at folks driving by, including the cop who was looking for us. We laughed so hard it hurt and still talk about that night. Another one, Plymouth Rd, notorious racing spot. We were out there doing it, as usual, and that night the local channel 4 news crew came out doing a racing expose' series. All of a sudden spot lights and blue lights appear so my wife and I slowly walk away, again through some smaller trees and bushes. Damn news guy got us on camera for her blonde hair and my black Tshirt that had a bold white "Inkster Tire" logo on the back. Still we avoided surrender of our ID and car and just calmly drove away. The following Mon morning I called the late Gene Buckles and told him the TV advertising was free. "That was YOU? I thought that was cool as shit!" Clean getaways are few and far between but those 2 were the most fun.
Back in high school when I was 16 and I had to borrow Mom's 55 Olds super88 because my shubox wasn't quite finished. My buddy, Jim had a 56 Pontiac with a 316, 4 barrel, dual exhaust and every few days we'd race on the deserted streets adjacent to the ball fields. He'd always beat me by about a fender. This night I decided to do something that might give me a edge on Jim's Poncho. Jim was all power-braked up but I left the Olds in neutral. A split second befor he dropped his hand I dropped that slant-pan hydro into low gear. We came off the line together but my Olds jumped ahead by a door and I held him off 'till the lights came on behind us. I pulled over [not about trying to run in my Mom's 4 door] and the fuzz pulled up and hollered at me to stay put because he had my license number....I stayed as he went after Jim and his Pontiac and about 5 minutes later here comes Jim with the MAN behind and we all had a nice talk. We got speed-contest tickets for $105. In 1965 that was a ton of money to high school kids but I had a little .75 cent an hour job and Jim had no job. When I showed up for court my fine was reduced to $35 but Jim was a no show. Reason he didn't show was because Jim was in jail. It seems Jim was desperate for cash to pay his fine so he started breaking into local repair shops and body shops, taking anything of value and selling it locally. So I paid my fine [Dad wouldn't let me use the Olds again so I bought my own Olds...a 56 convertible] and Jim spent a year in the Oregon state penitentiary.
One more from me. A neighboring town had a cop we all knew, his name was Al. Al used to park his car in the middle of main street and basically sleep while on duty. (I think he may have drank a little to). Late one Sat night when everyone had left main street Al was sleeping in his car and a couple of us slipped up to his car and let the air out of his tires. We then went racing thru main with a couple of our cars with our pipes roaring and our horns honking. Al lit them up gunned his engine and went no where. We left town feeling good, but a few weeks later he cornered us and gave us a warning. When I look back maybe it wasn't such a good idea?
Well, I pulled out of San Pedro late one night The moon and the stars were shining bright I was drivin' up Grapevine Hill... Aw, you wouldn't believe it
Here's the rule we used as kids, get 3 turns ahead, pull in a driveway, turn off the lights, lay down and don't bump the horn by accident.
Well, I didn't really out run the cops. Living at the same place as I was with the Road Runner, and working at the same gas station, but at that time I had a 69 Charger. I bought it cheap because the guy blew up the 383. I installed a hot little 340 with an auto trans that I had laying around. The only exhaust I had that fit the motor didn't really fit in the car, so I sort of hacked up the headers to fit in the car, then added a pair of glass packs to the header flanges. Yep, it was a bit loud. At the time, I kind of thought that loud sounded pretty good, so I did a lot of driving through town with the trans in low gear. I didn't exactly baby it either. One day, leaving work I may or may not have been running it a bit hard. To get to my place, you went east from the gas station, and where the street turned to the right and went down a hill for a block to a traffic light. I made a left turn, rather then follow the street to the right, then made a 2nd left turn after the next block, then about a 1/2 block farther, my house was across the street. I parked the car and was walking across the street when this cop car came screaming around the corners, lights flashing, siren blaring, and almost ran me over. That cop was mad. He slammed on the brakes and demanded to know if that Charger parked on the street was mine. "Yes it is." me. "Start it for me." the cop demanded. "Why?" me. "I know it was you!" the cop stated. "What do you mean?" I really didn't have any idea what was going on. "If you wouldn't have turned left those two times, I would have had your butt." the cop stated. "What did I do officer? What would you have had me doing? I live right here." me point at my house. "Start the damn car!" the cop demanded. "I don't believe I really have to, I just got home from work, that truck there is mine as well, and my wife's car is over there, do I need to start all of them or is it just the Charger you don't like? Do you always hassle the citizens for no apparent reason?" me. Him, a bit more calmed down now, "You are correct, you don't have to start the damn car, and there is nothing I can do, but you need to understand, I heard that loud car coming from way up the street, by the sounds, you were well over the speed limit, and had you followed the street, I was waiting for you at the stop light, I would have had your butt. When you drive a loud car, you shouldn't be speeding and raising hell. The next time I will get you, and I will be watching." "Are you finished officer? First of all, I'm offended that you chose to hassle me because you couldn't catch someone with loud exhaust to give them a loud exhaust fix it ticket. Even if my car has loud exhaust, you have no proof the vehicle you was after was even that car, or if I was driving it, you can't even prove this car was actually being driven at the time. I just got home from work and was walking across the street, you nearly ran me over in pursuit of a vehicle with loud exhaust! Second, if you were sitting at the traffic light at the bottom of the hill waiting, you have no idea how fast that vehicle with the loud exhaust may or may not have been going. Your terms of speeding and raising Hell are just words. Thirdly, If you were waiting at the traffic light and I was going that direction, you would have caught me slowing down because I would have been expecting the light to possibly turn red and I might have had to stop. As far as you watching me, I hope your not trying to intimidator me. I have a clean driving record with no tickets or accidents. I believe our conversation is done." and I walked across the street and into the house. I have respect for the Police and the job they have to do, but when they picture themselves as judge and jury, they cross the line. At that time, I had a lot of friends in law enforcement. I had a pretty clear view of what they could and couldn't do. The next week I did sell the car. Gene
Back in the 60s about half the cars on the road were Ford Falcons. 2/3 of those were Corinthian White. So was mine...with a 302, 4 speed, 3.89 geared 9 inch, V8 Mustang front end, stiff front and rear sway bars and full size Galaxy brakes and 15 inch steelys painted to match the car. Looked stock if you weren't too close. Quick. Handled like a go cart and blended in nicely when it had to. Don't try unless you have a real shot at pulling it off. I always did.
Came out of the Sun Valley Bowling Alley around 1957 and someone had opened the cops 49 ford doors and drove into them wrapping them up against the front fenders. We the kids thought it was funny, the police not so much, they had been inside the bowling alley chekinf for kids drinking underage cause they had a pretty loose bartender.
When I was 17, I had this old beat up dodge truck. The night before it had rained and turned to ice. At the town 4 way intersection, I went to make a left hand turn, and I went sideways. Town Barney Fife chases me all the way to the high school parking lot, where he pulled me over at gunpoint. Needless to say, my father had a field day with the county attorney, and I got off with a weekend class. Found out later, all my schoolmates had been purposely sliding that corner all morning.
A distant cousin's family have been into trucking as long as I can remember. It was just natural for Jerry to follow in his Dad's footsteps, when he got 18 he started truck driving. This was before you had to have a CDL, all AL required was a normal drivers license. They had a fleet of 6 identical Peterbilts, long nose, big CAT power trucks, all painted red with gold stripes. They generally hauled lumber up to Ohio and Michigan and brought steel back south. One weekend, Jerry was supposed to meet up with another of their drivers and they were going to run up together. As usual, Jerry was running late, he called the other driver before time to leave and told him he'd meet him at certain truck stop in TN. Well, Jerry was know to have a lead foot, and this night was no different. He was making pretty good time, and didn't see the TN Trooper hid on the ramp. By the time the Trooper got on the Interstate, Jerry had a half a mile or more on him. There was a off ramp just ahead, so he killed all his lights, hit the toggle switch he had wired up to kill the brake lights, and dove off the ramp. It was wooded between the ramp and the highway and was just under a hill, so the Trooper never saw him, and went flying by. But that's not the end of the story.... The other driver was up the road about 20 miles, pulled off the ramp to the truck stop, waiting on Jerry. He was dead asleep in the bunk when the Trooper beat on his door. Remember these trucks were painted identical? HE got the ticket for speeding and outrunning the cop! He never let Jerry live that one down, even though Jerry paid it for him, he still got the points on his license. Sadly, the other driver died of cancer a few years later, and a few years after that, Jerry was in a bad truck wreck and had to quit truck driving.
Never made a habit of getting the cops attention, and even back in the 60's when street racing was pretty common, we usually did so at remote locations that didn't draw attention to our racing. But back in the late 60's I was just out of high school, and had bought my '40 Chev coupe from a coworker at the Cadillac dealership we worked at. My best friend's dad rolled his '59 Chrysler, and I bought it for $150 and my friend and I dropped the 413 wedge, torqueflite, and rear axle into my '40 coupe. I thought the old Chevy was pretty hot stuff, and even with the stock 413 it was pretty fast. One day my buddy and I were cruising down a main road midday, when this guy in a brand new sports car pulls up beside us and begins taunting me to race him. We did a couple of the usual rolling throttle hits, but I never hit it full throttle as we were on a 35 mph street area. Then we got stopped side by side at a red light, and my buddy tells me to open it up, and put this clown away! So the light turns yellow the other direction, and I hear the sports car revving up. I got on the brakes, and loaded the torque converter until the light went green. Both cars leaped forward, but the big 413's torque jumped me way out ahead, and I pulled away with ease! I'm pulling rpm's and shifting the torqueflite by hand by the pushbutton plate I had pedestal mounted where a manual stick would be by my right hand on the tunnel. Then suddenly coming right at us is a county sheriff's car! I jam on the brakes, and the sports car zooms past me on the right. I did a quick glance to see the cop do a U turn, and I did a hard right down a side street!! I made numerous turns and after maybe 6-7 blocks of turning, I spotted a house with a driveway that went back behind the house. I swung into it, and drove to the back, and shut it off. We sat there for 20 minutes wondering if the cop had gone after the sports car, called for a backup, or was maybe looking for my car? After the 20 minutes of hiding, we backed out of the driveway and snuck through the back streets until we'd gotten miles away, and finally felt safe to hit the main road and head home. Never saw a cop car, and never knew if we were even chased, or searched for? But we were just glad to not get caught, and figured we'd dodged a street racing ticket for sure!
440 6pack Cuda. Carbs had been kickin' my ass all weekend. Was workin' out of a single car garage at one of my soon to be rented (hopefully) income properties. I used to live in my vacants till they rented. Finally figure I got it straightened out just as my buddy pulls up. We hop in it, and I decide to test it right in front of the house. Take up to about 3 grand and sidestep the clutch. Really abused those G60 Posi Tracs. Felt so good I turned left at the corner and did it again. Same thing at the next corner. About mid-block my buddy yells, "Cool it a cop lives right there". Too late to back off so I make two more quick lefts and park in my driveway. 20 seconds later I have the neighborhood officer show up in my driveway, complete with service revolver. "Who the fuck owns this car?" I point to my buddy, "He does." He keeps looking at me, like he's not really buying it. "Seen you around, right?" "Might have. This is my house. Makin' a few repairs getting it ready for the next renters." He proceeds to read the riot act to my buddy. Nice quiet neighborhood, kids playing, yada-yada. Told my buddy if he caught him doing it again, he'd make sure he stumbled down the jail steps. Lucky the house rented quick, cause it probably pissed him off when he figured out I owned the car, since it was always around when I was, but he didn't say anything.
Only did his once in my life and still don' know what motivated me to do so, but my wife & I were coming back from Memphis on I-65 in an off topic ride, and were almost to Nashville. Traffic wasn't bad and I was doing about 85. We crested a little rise and there beyond were a bunch of police cars & officers flagging car's down. I buzzed past them and saw at least one running for his cruiser. I went about another 1/4 mile or so and there was an exit, so I got off and pulled into a SAM'S Club which was right near the exit and real crowded with cars. I drove deep into their parking lot, parked and we walked into SAM'S - luckily my wife was a member. We stayed in the store for an hour or so, ate one of their soggy pizzas and bought a carving knife during one of their demos. After we thought it was clear, we hopped into the car and drove back to Kentucky with no problem, at the speed limit ! My wife was a little pissed at me at the time, but now laugh about it. We were both about 62 at the time.
Guess I should include - ran or lost them before the "cherries" came on ! If you saw them moving after you passed that was a good or bad sign......I always pulled over if the cherries lit up and they were close behind......does that make me a non-runners ?
I only knowingly did it once. I was driving an OT truck running about 15 over and as I crested a hill there was a state boy going the other way. I saw his brake lights come on so knew his was going to make a uie and come after me, but he had a bit of a wait because of traffic. There was another hill, a curve and a cross roads in just over 1/4 mile. I got around the curve took a left and then in a block a right. Pulled into a driveway and sat a short time pulled back out and went back the way I'd come. When I got back to the first corner there he was about a 1/2 mi down but he'd taken a right where I'd gone left. His brake lights came on briefly but I guess he figured he wouldn't win that one if I went to court over it
I have a very old friend (and gentleman of poor reputation in some circles) that used to say that it is only illegal if you get caught. I think that falls under that if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it deal.
The Jalopy Journal
