It's just like everything else in the US... Slowly inching closer and closer to "Guilty until proven innocent" and "We need to take away your personal freemdoms to keep everyone safe"

If you street race, and someone gets killed, you should be tried for murder, period. If you drive drunk, or while eating, or putting on makeup, or anything else that endagers others, you should at the very least get a wreckless driving ticket.

What I DONT agree with is giving cops absolute police state power. Thats wrong, period. I have a tuned 1996 Escort, its turbocharged, intercooled, and hase tasteful body mods... no 4 foot wing or anything like the sort, and I had a cop follow me all through town once. He refused to pass me, till I finally pulled into a gas station and stopped right in teh middle of the parking lot. He stopped behind me and waited for me to move, and once he realized I wsnt going to move, he pulled up along side me. I smiled and waived, and he gave me a look and sped off. Now, mind you, my Audi is WAY faster, but I dont get hassled in it, because its a silver sedan. That, ladies and gentlemen is profiling, at the very least, if not police harassmeny,and ILLIGAL.

Cops and the justice system are generally worthless when it comes to upholding anything worthwhile. Thats because a murder trial or whatnot costs them money. Its much much more lucrative to pull a drunk over for a DUI 10-15 even 20 times than it is to pull his liscense the first time and loose all the monetary benefits that come with all those traffic stops, court dates, and insurance fees. If it wasn't all about making money, dont you think that attempting suicide would be legal? Well, its not, and its because they loose the tax revinue of a good, productive citizen. However, if a crackhoe tried to blow her brains out, no one would probably care, because she is a leech to society.

Society disgusts me. Its not fair, it never has been, and it never will be. If any one of you think that there is any hope for our system, you need to have a hardlook at reality.

 

Feel free to move and complain to someone else!

I've seen elderly drivers followed and pulled over very often around here. And as far as car profiling goes, there is NOTHING ILLEGAL about it. It is often hard to tell the difference between a well tuned car and a riced car, and no one here will argue that ricers are 90% jackasses and deserve to be pulled over. What was the point of your 'tuned' escort, anyway? Did you club race? Maybe do some track days? Or did you just 'hook it up' so all of your friends could hang around and say how cool it was? Seriously though, if you want to complain about American society in general, move. Canada and Mexico are close.

+1 headshock. I'm in the same boat as you. Having an almost perfect driving record is teh shiznitz. Word

 

I to have a perfect record. I autocrossed the escort, and am using the knowledge I learned building it to work on the Audi. It was small minded people like you who laugh when I tell them I built an escort that motevated me to do it. At least it wasnt another freaking Honda. I took a car that made 88 hop at the crank, and could barely get out of its own way, and built it up to 175 hp AT THE WHEELS, with over 200 LB-Ft. I stripped it down to 2100 lbs, and put 200 treadwear tires on it, with 350 lb springs. I turned my own bushings out of delrin plastic, made my own tubular header, because I dont have the luxury of buying one, like you 1.8 guys, because "its jsut an escort" and no one makes one. . So I taught myself to TIG weld and made my own. Bolted a GT28R ball bearing turbo, 38mm tial external wastegate, and added methanol injection I also made my own 3" madrel bent exhaust, and X braced the Strut towers into the shell, so it was stiff enough that 2 pumps of the jack right behind the front wheelwould pick the whol side of the car up. Frankly, I wish you lived closer, I'd love to run into you on an auto cross course and compare raw times, it would eat your 1.8Tup....

Now, you can call me a ricer all you want, but I NEVER raced anyone on the street(and trust me, I had plenty of offers from ricers), and the only time I exceeded the speed limit by more then 5-10 mph was out on country back roads... I have a favorite curvy one no one ever goes out on.

oh, one more thing, I would lvoe to move. You pay for the plane ticket to the UK or Germany, and Im there.

 

Hey, I'm all for modding a car for real racing, and it sounds like you did a hell of a job on it. Custom fab stuff is awesome and there's not many real modded escorts out there. But, you really don't have anything to complain about when you talk about the cop. He followed you, but didn't pull you over, search you, write you bogus tickets or anything. All he did was follow. Hell, I've been followed before because I was out at 230am. No big deal, it happens to everyone.

Oh, and as far as auto-x goes, its not really that surprising that a built car running in SM would be able to take a stock car running in GS.

Sorry about the ricer bit, but you gotta admit when someone talks about a 'modded escort' with a body kit, your first thoughts are to a busted *** escort with a cone filter, multi-colored wires and a body kit riveted on the stock bumpers and never painted.

 

I was just about to say what cyber just said... Cops should follow people in cars that look like they're modded. I wouldn't see it as harassment... it doesn't bother me to be followed by a cop if I know I've done nothing wrong. He's doing his job. He could just as well be following any of the 10 other modded cars I've seen throughout the day... half of which were doing something obnoxious and/or dangerous.

And yes, people have been wrongly charged before... I'm well aware of this. But honestly, though I've only been driving for 6-7 years... I've had a lot of cars that are high profile when a young male is behind the wheel... and I've never had any trouble. I was pulled over a few times... but I've only had a couple of tickets in my life -- of which I deserved. I mean you go on about how it's 'profiling' and all that... but we're in a statistics run world... and this is one realm where the statistics likely speak volumes about those who have modded cars. Yup, there are exceptions to the rule... maybe (it sounds like) you are one. But honestly, if you don't do anything illegal, you won't get a ticket.

 

It is one hell of a car (for what it is), thanks! I still feel that following a particular car through town and back is harassment, and always will feel that way. That would be like police following you on foot as you walked through a store because you had baggy pants and a hoodyon and they profiled you as the type to steal from the store. Im sure none of you owuld find that acceptable though. I'm against government intervention, and more for people using their own heads, and taking/facing responsibility when they do something dumb.

on a side note, I may be trading the escort for a 1987 Porsche 924S... now that is gonna be a kick *** track car!

 

I may have to come and beat you up and steal your Porsche...

Have any pics of the escort? I love a built track ready car (SCCA Club Racing kicks ***!)

 

+1 Though I have raced from a red light a few times (on an empty road, and not swerving through traffic or anything), street racing around other cars is completely reckless. This legislation is too harsh though, especially since cops have too much power and could blow everything out of proportion if they wanted to.

btw, I thought it was pretty funny the the two cars being crushed were a honda and an acura...pretty stereotypical