What have you got away with ?

[Captainawesome]

Got pulled over very early one morning. Looked in my mirror and it was suddenly full of police car. I checked the speedo and saw 109....maybe he just wants to get past I thought and moved over....nope.

Had an interesting discussion about speeding and watched a recording of mr policeman doing 118mph and me disappearing into the distance in front of him.

Then had a discussion about the effect a good song can have on your driving.

Despite me being on camera doing somewhere north of 130 I received a speed awareness course and a compliment for my lane discipline.

Took me ten minutes to move off as I couldn't quite believe what had happened.

This was however at 6am on a deserted motorway.

Some coppers are gooood.

[Quhet]

Only been stopped once, was doing 38 in a 30 & got let off. Living life on the edge!

[BrewsterBear]

I was driving westbound on the M180 with the girlfriend in the Cayenne Turbo en route to Meadowhall for some Saturday shopping. When you join the M18 south from the M180 it is a two-lane motorway for a good 15 miles. I was stuck behind a bellend doing 68mph in the overtaking lane for the whole stretch. He refused to pull over despite there being plenty of opportunity. The temptation to overtake on the left was almost unbearable, but I didn't.

As the A1M joins the M18 it becomes the third lane on the left. Only at this point does Mr I-Won't-be-Pushed decide he can move over so I prod the throttle and, given the twin-turbocharged 450bhp lump plus my frustration, I was doing a three figure speed very quickly. Once past I back off to 90mph and pull into lane 1. At this point I see a grey 5 Series estate racing up the middle lane. As it draws level it slows and matches my speed. I look over and see two coppers sat in it. bks.

I'm duly pulled over on the hard shoulder and invited to take a seat in the unmarked car. The driver was a shouty, angry, ginger fella who claimed to have clocked me at 110mph. His accomplice took my licence and ran my details while the ginger copper explained to me with venom how the M18 wasn't my private runway and how they're trained to do those kinds of speeds and I'm not, etc. I nodded sagely and explained how it was a moment's lapse of forethought due to the earlier frustration of a lane-hogging tt.

Once the quiet copper had established that the car was fully legal and that I had a clean licence they let me off with a stern bking. I can only imagine they had joined from the A1 and didn't actually have any footage of me until I'd slowed down to my normal cruising speed. Either way, I thanked my lucky stars that day.

[Big Rod]

doogz said:

Big Rod said:

Quite a few but the first one that sprung to mind was one Sunday night driving down the M5 a little after 11pm with the cruise set to something like 98 in my old Frontera.

I spotted some lights approaching from behind me as I approached a tanker so I indicated, changed lanes and pulled back into L1 after I'd passed it. The car I saw coming was sat in my blindspot. Figured it was the rozzers and I was already nicked so just left the CC set and waited for the blue lights.

Nope, they sat there for a minute or so then the nose raised and they shot off.

BS.

No way a Frontera could do 98.

It was a 3.2 V6. I had a fair bit more out of it than that at times too.

[boz1]

Big Rod said:

It was a 3.2 V6. I had a fair bit more out of it than that at times too.

Parkers specs do confirm what you say. Given combined cycle is quoted at 21 mpg, I can only assume that the fuel consumption at those sort of speeds was measured in gpm!

[Piers_K]

Late 90's and I was contracted, along with a friend, to do some work in a police station. We left early one day and after a while noticed someone in another hot hatch following. We upped the speed, so did he, to the point of being flat out in a Mk2 8v golf GTI several times down a section of dual carriageway until he pulled off...
The next day we arrive at the police station early and park in a fairly empty car park. Finish work, get back to the car and parked next to my car was the car from yesterday.
I imagine the little chuckle he had on pulling up was similar to the chuckle as I drove away.
Nothing was ever said...



Much more recently...
Its late at night, I'd been going a little faster than the law allows and had caught up with an MPV who was also making good progress considering. We're on a nice bit of B road and another car appears in the rear view and sits on my bumper for a while then pulls back. The overtaking spots are short but they are there, but as I'm not in any rush I don't bother. The guy behind seems to want to though, because at every one he closes up, but when I don't go he drops back. I did wonder if it was OB, but as it wasn't a marked I car put it down to a sales rep wanting to get home...
Another car pulls out I front of the three of us and half a mile later we reach a pair of mini roundabouts. First car goes right at the first, car in front goes straight on, me and the chap behind go left.. Cool....
You go 90 off the roundabout, another 90 left, almost 180 back round to the right and then another 90 left before joining a NSL dual carriageway. It's a short but nice little bit of road and if you know it, there's a lovely flowing line..
Come on then mate, let's see what you've got...
Not a lot it turns out, by the time he gets on the dual carriageway I'm well down the road doing 110 and still going..
I timed looking in the rear view perfectly.. That split second when the blue lights behind his grill weren't lit,that split second that's long enough for the brain to register I've left him well behind, but not long enough for the wry smile to.. Oh fk... There's blue flashing lights behind his grill..
Tap the brakes a few times to let him know I've seen and indicator on.. Pull over where its safe.

Him: Is this your car sir..
Can I have your name, I'll just run some checks..
Would you mind breathing in to this for me please..
Right, everything seems to be in order... So what's the hurry?

Me: Honestly? There is no hurry, that's just a nice bit of road and I was having some fun.

Him: And earlier?

Me: Errrrr (said with a smile)

Him: Keep the speed down in future, have a nice evening...

[datum77]

Coming back up the M1 from a big rally up north back in the early seventies. Van and trailer with GP4 escort on the trailer. (Can't remember the rally, but it would have been either one of the internationals, or one of the Castrol/Autosport rounds). Just as we past Scratchwood services the engine on the van drops a valve. We ain't going nowhere further with this van. Two of us in the van, Tim Brise and I. Tim owned a van hire business based in Dartford. We unload the escort off the trailer and drive it the whole of the way THROUGH London, (no M25 yet), with Tim treating the journey as a rally stage of a tarmac rally. By the time the pairs of walking policeman hear and then see us - we're gone!!!
We arrive back at base in Dartford, collect another van, and drive back to rescue our van and trailer. We are now a van, a rope, and a van towing an empty trailer. All highly illegal. It is now about 3.00am in the morning. We manage the whole journey until we are half a mile from base, just off the A2.
I saw the police car first in my mirror. 'What's all this then', I think the officer said. Predictably. After a little chat and pointing out the distance we had travelled, (perhaps it was Scotland?), and pointing out that we only had a very short distance to go, he let us carry on. No repercussions, no nuffink. But I had the ride of my life in that escort..........
Another story involving that escort.
We went to Chobham near Camberley where there is a circuit just off the M3 that the MOD owns and is used by them for testing military vehicles but is rented out to motor manufacturers for testing. (Wheeler Dealers sometimes using it).
Tim was testing the escort with a new suspension set-up, I think. Over the middle of the whole circuit is a tarmac section called 'snake pass'. Tim's driving, and I am in the passenger seat, laughing my head off, 'cos that was the way I reacted to this thrill. We flew round this course at rally speeds and the end of it came out onto the main perimeter circuit, Tim completely sideways onto the circuit - right in front of a small, but very quick tank. We flew round the rest of the circuit and stopped to discuss the set-up. A very irate gentleman in complete army uniform came up and gave Tim the bking of his life. In truth it could have been very nasty if we had come out onto the circuit a second later. He was supposed to have stopped at the main drag, where there was a sign to say 'give way', and let the tank pass - not Tim, oh no!.
We didn't get banned from going there again, but the episode did brighten our day.

[Chiddo]

Police were doing a crackdown of drivers using their phones, I was in a built up neighbourhood stuck in traffic, I was on my phone, which I didn't thought was serious because i was in stationary traffic. Anyway, two police officers on bikes were across the road, they radioed the police van parked on the sideroad to say I was on the phone.

They put on their lights I pulled over. They asked if I was on the phone, I straight away admitted I was and I was given 3 points but this absoloute **** c*** of an officer. I pleaded and pleaded that the points would affect my job but he wasn't having any of it.

Anyway, he gave the ticket and I was sat in my car, crying my eyes off like the biggest ******** baby ever! Lmao, One of the chaps on the bike said where was my ticket, gave it to him, he screwed it up and threw it back to me and said it was my lucky day! I think he knew I had learnt a lesson, which I did so I am very greatful to him indeed.

I went through a red traffic light camera back in 2012, it flashed, I recieved a notice through the post, I think it was just after the 14 day, just it ignore period, anyway I ignored it and didn't hear anything back, nor did I get any points for it. I think this was near the time where all the cameras in the west midlands were shut off, so that probably helped.

Third incident - I rented a Golf R32 from this guy who had a car rental business who turned out to be dodgy as ****. The day after picking the car up from Liecester, I was heading towards the petrol station when the car ran out of fuel on a steep hill 350yrds from the petrol station, how unlucky! Anyway I got out of the car and drived to move it, It was bloody heavy to move and being on a steep hill didn't help.

There was a Community Support Officer who came over to see what was up, I told her the car had broken down, she said she would call for help, I said there was no need but she did anyway. So anyway one of those big heafty police vans came a minute later and gave me a hand to get it off the road.

They decided to do checks on the car and myself and they said the car was not insured. I said: You what? Phoned up the guy from the car rental business, he said it was insured, gave the police officer numerous policy numbers which turned out to be fake.

Anyway one of the tyres was bold too, so I was now in a situation with no insurance, and a bold tyre, 18 and half years old, just passed, 9 points from the offences I was looking at in total, 100% ban...

I cried and cried and cried my eyes out, the officer was understanding and asked if there was a spare tyre in boot, there was but I needed that locking nut to change the tyres, turned out there wasn't one in the boot, so all three of the officers decided to search the whole car for one but I had a feeling It wasn't just that they were looking for, drugs more like it, but I'm not that type of person anyway so I had nothing to worried about..

Anyway couldn't find one, so the officer said car will have to be towed away. He gave me the car impoud form and he advised me NOT to give it to the guy, unless he sorts out my insurance, he gave a me a producer form also.

The guy from the car rental firm kept phoning me to get the form but I told him to sort it out otherwise he won't be getting the form and is car will have to stay locked in the compound.

Anyway, the fact is, he DID NOT insure me, I learnt that I needed to be insured BEFORE I got stopped by the police. There is something called a back-dated policy, this was in late 2012, or early 2013 but apparently it was near enough impossible to get a backdated policy.

Anyway I got my older brother involved, he met the other brother at the police station and told him the situation, you are not getting the car back (he needed the form to release the car) unless he get's my insurance sorted. My brother took the guy's logbook for the car and his driver ID as they came all the way down from leicester thinking they would get the car out and leave me home dry.

Anyway, somehow they managed to get certified to prove I was insured BEFORE I GOT CHECKED BY THE POLICE, I went into the police station, gave the producer and the insurance certificate, a quick glance at the documents, no checks and I was in the clear. How they managed to get that certificate to get it back dated or whether it was fake I do not know and I do not care, I was in the clear.

I paid 600 plus £200 excess to rent the R32 for the week, I asked the guy when I picked up the car, could I get it cheaper, he said no because the insurance was too high, so no alarm bells ranged into my head which fault, something is not right here so I assumed I was insured because who would rent out an expensive powerful car in particular to a kid who's only 18 and half and has only driven for a year without getting it insured?

My brother got all my monry back too.

I was extremly lucky to because the car was not insured so I could of got picked off by a patrol car on the motorway or worse situation because of my lack of experince on the road, first motorway journey, only 18 and half, high powered car the odds of crashing the car would of been pretty high but I was very confident in driving the car back and was using the fast lane appropriately and felt very confident, arrived back in Birmingham one piece.

Anway sorry for the poor grammar but I think you would agree I have been VERY lucky indeed.

Edited by Chiddo on Wednesday 26th November 13:03

Edited by Chiddo on Wednesday 26th November 13:05

[Big Rod]

boz1 said:

Big Rod said:

It was a 3.2 V6. I had a fair bit more out of it than that at times too.

Parkers specs do confirm what you say. Given combined cycle is quoted at 21 mpg, I can only assume that the fuel consumption at those sort of speeds was measured in gpm!

Fuel economy wasn't its strong point no, but it sipped the stuff in comparison to the 3.5 Pajero I have now.

[kenno78]

It's 1996. I was 17 and had my full license a week. Dad and I were heading down to London from the midlands and he let me drive. It's around 11pm and the M1's virtually empty.

Sitting in the left lane doing about 80, I don't see any cars for ages and eventually get passed by Rover 827. A few miles pass, Dad's asleep, I decide that it'd be alright to go a bit quicker.

Junction 2 of the M1 we peel off and I've caught the 827. Blue lights flash from the rear and I instantly feel sick. He pulls me over and Dad wakes up thinking we've reached the destination.

The officer walks up to me and says "We've been averaging over 100 since we passed you. Care to explain how you've managed to catch us up?". I'm basically sh*tting myself and Dad pipes up that he asked me to get a move on and that it was quiet. I get the biggest bking from the officer who pauses to ask me how long I've had my license. "A week" I reply. "Well if you want to hang onto it, never do that again" was his final comment as he walked off.

[Carlique]

Two occasions. First one, I was only 17 and had only recently got my license. It had been snowing for a few days so me and a pal of mine decided to go to the local (shut down/derelict) cinema as the carpark there was huge, empty and completely covered in snow. Obviously we had lots of fun doing handbrake and J turns etc until a police van had seen us from the opposite Asda carpark and decided to come and get us. Only for it to get stuck in the snow. Me and my friend drove straight out of another exit laughing and waving whilst going past.

A second time I was on the M1 late night, cruising at a steady 90mph until a Zafira comes right up on my arse, I speed up, he does too, so I creep up a little bit more, at which point I'm doing 105mph, then all of a sudden the blue lights come on. My heart absolutely sinks and I move over a lane, preparing to pull into the hard shoulder. The copper just pulls up along side me, gives me the death stare and then speeds off! Needless to say I drove the rest of my journey at 55mph with a twitching bumhole.

[LordHaveMurci]

kenno78 said:

"Well if you want to hang onto it, never do that again" was his final comment as he walked off.

And you never have...!

[Bluehawk]

In my first year of riding on a full bike license, Pulled up to a set of traffic lights at a zebra crossing on my SV650s, Saturday afternoon, huge que of traffic going the other way, but my side of the road was completely clear up to the next set of lights... My mate behind on a 125cc.

Lights went green, sure enough, full throttle start, on the back wheel through 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear... not sure exactly what speed i hit... But i hadn't seen the panda car sat in the que going the other way, sure enough blue lights came on, the police car did a U-turn in the road, chased me up to the next set of lights, where i was patiently waiting knowing full well when i turned off the junction i was gonna get pulled over... Sure enough made the right turn onto the road I LIVE ON, about 100yds up the road he pulled me over.

gave me a good talking to, reminded me how much it would impact me because of my age, the consequences it would have, all whilst i remained very apologetic and admitting there was no excuse for what must of been almost 100mph down a 30mph road.

he went off to his car to get some paperwork, i was almost certain i was about to lose my license, but he walked back over to me and my bike...

Will never forget this, his exact words "Take your license, go home, and for fk sake, don't let me catch you doing that again"


Needless to say i now stick to 30mph limits

EDIT: Funniest part was when he asked for my address, and i cheekily replied, about 300yds up there!

[sjabrown]

A few years ago took the rally car out on a snowy night along some local single track roads. Gravel tyres, fresh snow = fun. I passed a forestry parking area and twigged that there was a car parked there. A bit unusual at that time of night but thought nothing more of it. I stopped a few miles further down the road for a pee and saw blue lights in the distance. The sodding rally car wouldn't restart so I was stuck waiting for a tow from a friend. I didn't connect the parked car and the blue lights until it came into view. But rather amusingly as it started to slow I heard the ABS twanging, and twanging, and twanging as the police slid past amusingly slowly into a ditch.
My response to their bking and quesitoning what I was doing was "driving in a car with correct tyres for the conditions". Wrong thing to say. Another bking then I let on that it won't start and I'm waiting for a tow. Suggested they might also want a pull out of the ditch. They calmed down somewhat with that!

[towser44]

Not the most exciting of offences, but just the 1 'close' encounter for me.

Had been up to Scotland for a long weekend on the SV1000 with the SV650.org forum. Ride up Friday, stay near Tyndrum, big ride out on the Saturday around Glencoe, Ballachullis, Dukes Pass etc, BBQ/party Saturday night and ride home late morning Sunday.

Entered a roundabout on the outskirts of town, clocked the traffic car waiting to enter the roundabout at the prior exit and got that feeling! Anyway, exited the roundabout, the traffic car was the immediate vehicle behind me. Proceeded through town for about a mile and half, through numerous traffic lights, roundabouts desperately trying to keep the engine noise down as my baffles had fallen out of the Scorpion cans and he was still there. Came to the final set of lights before entering the road I live on, they were red, traffic car still there. Lights went green, I set off very gingerly on about a 10th throttle and he lit me up :-( I pulled over about 50 metres further on in a side road, literally half a mile from home, having ridden 1100 miles in 3 days!

Off the bike, he got out of the car and said, do you know your number plate is illegal. I thought about playing dumb, but thought better of it and acknowledged it was. Anyway, he said I could have had a fine, but as I was a very local lad and he would keep an eye out for me with the same plate in future, he gave me a producer to put the standard plate on, go the MOT centre and take the docs to the station. No mention of the exhausts, which were very loud and popped and banged lovely on the overrun, so my throttle control through town must have been good!

[sploosh]

When on Honeymoon in Australia we accidentally fed the wrong parking meter in a town called Warrnambool and got a ticket. We were not planning on staying around long so went to the town hall to pay our fine.

Standing under a picture of The Queen, the town clerk took our ticket off us, ripped it up and thanked us for visiting his town "from the Mother Land".

[R33dk]

Was just reminded by a friend today ...
Driving through Glasgow in my old winter hack ( rover 45 1.4)

Nominated driver and rushing to get home from a night out.

Cue blue lights , st.... Was easily doing 50 odd in a 30. Roads being dead at 3ish in the morn.

Pull over Get out the car and walk to the police.

"Do you know why we have pulled you over son ?"

"Was I a bit on the far side of 30 sir ?"

" erm well that .....and you have a tail light out "

Have a look back at the shed , right enough it's out, walk over to it, give it a "fonz" style thump ... It pops back on !!

"Not anymore sir"

" must be a dodgy connection, bugger off home an get that fixed"

Was happy to oblige an as expected drive very slowly home afterwards.
Mates were pissing themselves that the old "if in doubt, give it a clout" routine actually worked.

[Asterix]

When I was stationed in Germany (Osnabruck, early 90's) I had a GSXR750RR - Awesome bit of kit.

Left a rock club in the early hours of the morning and as I pulled away, popped a wheelie and proceeded through the first 4 gears - was going rather rapidly.

I'm happily sat at a set of lights further down the road and a Polizei car screams up, broadside skid to a halt, a dude jumps out and stands in front of the bike waving this little table tennis bat thing in my face. I pull over to the side and he asks me if I knew how fast I was going. Instead of saying something suitable, I said I had no idea as the speedo works off the front wheel and that was five foot in the air not doing much - bloke went nuts! I thought I was in deep poo. I showed him my MOD90 (Military ID card) and he just shouted something in German and huffed off.

Eek! Phew!

[Prancing Hippo]

About 4 years ago driving home from work in Prague. Was on a 4 lane highway, but traffic crawling along at about 5kmh - starting / stopping all the time. Blue lights making their way behind me and all traffic is slowly pulling over to make a gap for the police Skoda in the middle lane. I move over as much as I can, leaving enough room for the Skoda to get through no probs. As the Skoda comes next to me the policeman leans out of his open window (strange, I thought as it as raining heavily and had been for a few days), screaming something at me signalling for me to get out of the way. 'WTF?!?' I thought. 'You can get a truck through that gap'... He dries on... BARP!!! Sounds like the bloody Ark Royal was right behind me - scared the life out of me! Yes, you could drive a truck through the gap, but not a convoy of 8 military tank transporters charging through the city during rush out with the cities portable flood defences on the bank of them. Needless to say everyone suddenly realised they could move over quite a bit more. Moral being listen to the rozzers no mater what! Was not in trouble but could have been squashed!

[nurseholliday]

My dad and I were heading North in his 996 about 5 years ago, we were on the M6 Toll road and he opened it up into the sort of speeds that leave German execs sitting on their artificial limiters behind. We passed a Volvo on the inside lane doing maybe double its speed, and this guy didn't instantly accelerate, but then with a big differential he could have planted it and it wouldn't have been obvious. My dad noticed this Volvo but nothing twigged just yet, then we saw a Golf in the middle lane, doing maybe 100, so my dad eased off a bit so the speed differential between us would have been less severe without an empty lane between us. As we passed this Golf, I noticed it was an R32, and I don't what he'd had done but this thing squatted down and launched after us. Now my dad likes a run but he's not the racing type and even though the M6 Toll was basically empty apart from us, the Volvo, and the Golf, he eased off a bit. The Volvo was now keeping pace but was a bit behind, it takes a while to catch up at those speeds, but the Golf had a Porsche scalp in his sights and as we had decreased speed this Golf had started gaining on us, surprisingly quickly. As this Golf starts drawing nearer and still accelerating, the Volvo lights it up and pulls into the middle lane. My dad and I both look at each other - they've seen us go past at a crazy speed - this isn't going to go well. I don't know how but the Golf doesn't see the lights or he's thinking he's away and we're done, he keeps pulling, my dads fully off the accelerator and slowing down to double digits in the outside lane and the Volvo just keeps on chasing the Golf. We see them both some way down the M6 toll pulled over, my dad's straddling inside and middle lane white lines to give them room at 70mph. Lucky escape...!

When I got my supercharged MX5 I was a bit silly, I hadn't had a quick car for a while so I was driving like a nob. Coming out of N London via Walthamstow, I was being tailgated by this Jag S-Type for ages. He kept riding my bumper close enough that I couldn't see his lights but as it was 18:30 on a weekday there was traffic and nowhere for me to go. As we pulled onto the A406 roundabout, I was on the inside at the traffic lights in the lane to go East on the A406, and he was right behind me, again so close I couldn't see his lights. I thought, finally, some breathing room in front, I'll show him just how small my penis really is. As the lights turned green, I lit up the rear wheels, and wheelspan my way towards the slip road. As soon as I moved 10 metres forward, the previously unnoticed by me marked Astra waiting at the lights to my left (positioned behind me) turned on the lights and went straight after me. I saw him straight away, let off the gas, went round the corner onto the A406 slip road and pulled up on the bus stop and waited for the police car. He comes careering around the corner, obviously doesn't expect me to have stopped, and skids to a stop almost smashing into the back of my car. He then comes marching over, demands my keys, tells me to get out the car. Starts having a huge go at me about my driving, I stand there, yes sir, no sir. He demands my license, I tell him I don't have it. Instead of lying and saying it's at home etc, I tell him it's with the DVLA having points put on for my over-excitement with my new car a month previous. He presses me for info and I tell him I got tugged at 116 on the M25 at 03:30 in the morning. He then throws my keys at me, tells me we're done here as I'm losing my license anyway, and tells me to go home and think about how I'm going to get around without a car. I didn't try and explain that the officer that pulled me at 116 "let me off" with 3 points and £60 fine and let him peel off giving me the dirties. I had done something a bit silly, but I didn't feel that a bit of a wheelspin warranted such a severe and angry bking as I hadn't even approached the speed limit. Thankfully I've calmed down now so no more silly driving!