We used to do this thing where you dropped two wheels onto the shoulder (gravel or dirt) locked up the E brake and cranked it hard to the left, then nailed it and released the brake. We called it "Bootlegging it" and with a little practice the car would come right around and head right back in the opposite direction. So a buddy had one on his tail (well not exactly on his tail but after him). He went around a corner in the road and decided to bootleg it. Some how he ended up in a deep ditch. The police officer flew by and my friend had to hoof it to the pay phone to call for a lift. LOL Next day it took us a couple of hours and a case of beer to get him out of the ditch.
Back around 1980, the Rockland PD bought some new Dodge Diplomats. It didn't take long for the local hotrodders to find out that they were six cylinder cars.
Back when I first started (early 70s) driving our town bought 4 new appearance look a like Dodge squad cars, two were small block cars and two were big block cars. Unless you saw the tail pipes, you never knew which car would be present. The small block cars you had a chance of getting away from, the big block cars, not so much. The newest batch of squad cars & trucks are Dodge, all Hemi equipped. I've heard if they can see your plates, they take a picture, they know who you are in a couple of blocks. Pretty tough to outrun that.
Back in the day, Been There, Done That ! I drove like an Ass starting 1964, from 16-20 years old, finally caught, spent a night in a holding cell, went before a Judge in AM. Long story, the Man cut me a deal, kept me out of jail time and I quit street racing until many years later on occasion with friends for bragging rights on who's whatever was quicker, guess I never totally matured. In the stories I read, it's true you can't out run a radio, but if you got out of their sight quickly, you had a pretty good chance, Been There, Did That !
A different type story popped in this AM, have posted other stories on street racing, police chase, etc. have too many. I've always been an adrenaline Junkie, starting early, bicycles, cars, cycles, raced open wheel, in the 80's took up snowmobiling for a hobby and always bought the fastest one available, rode them for 30+ years or so, did slow down with age, had a epiphany at 50, rode normal from then on. I used to buy a new one every year or two, had a group of friends and we Rode hard and fast, what fun it was. One day we were riding in UP Michigan, their trails were hit and miss, so we decided to ride Hwy 2 down to Watersmeet from Wakefield about 40 miles, road ice /snow covered so off we go, picture this, 4 sleds running down highway 2 at 60 mph, passing cars as/if needed, this trail was good/smooth, LOL, getting close to our destination, a Sherrif coming at us flips the lights on and it's on, I knew a large tavern was close, we haul ass, park in lot, scattered, probably 50/60 sleds there, pulling off our gear as we run in door, sure the sirens could be heard in the bar, we all set down, different men called us to their table/group, beers put in front of us, so we are all split up, Sheriff comes in hot, screams which assholes just came running in here, Point them out ! Nobody said anything, bartenders said they did not notice anything, He and another Sheriff went to various tables asking trying intimidate guys, they gave up and left but sat in parking lot for a while. After they left myself and Buddies bought a round for the house and Thanked everyone. Snowmobiler's were/are a good group of people, always help each other on trail if there's a problem and lucky for us that day even when you're a Dumb Ass.
The Jalopy Journal
