An Encounter - why not?
 

I was going into town at 8:00 Saturday night to check on my business. Turned off the main drag into an empty light-industrial area. It is a long block posted at 30mph and I was doing 65 by the end of it. Full stop at the sign and turn right at the T-junction; nobody anywhere. The PSA nanny is off on my 987S Boxster and the tires squeal loudly but it doesn't slide an inch. I coast to the next corner and come to a full stop. No traffic and I note the law-abiding, 69-year-old manner of getting to the next corner and full stop. (After 50 years of watching my subconscious work and trying to heed it's warnings, it's hard to believe I can still miss such an obvious message.)

This is why I come this way. I'm on a uphill and will be turning right onto a three lanes one-way thoroughfare. The only way to get this damn car to slide is to do something radical - like launching at 5000 RPM and pulling a hard right while going up a hill. The hill helps get the back end up enough that it'll slide. This is where I practice my launch and recovery technique. Ideally it will slide but I'll get it back in the lane without any shilly-shallying. I nail it at 5000 rpm; a personal best.

Then come the red and blue flashing lights. Seems he's been following me since I turned off the main drag. He says "Why are you driving like a teenager?" I'm playing guilty, contrite, embarrassed, but I think "Cause I've got the car for it, duh." He lectures me and tells me what penalties he could give me, including reckless endangerment. I think "Nobody there to endanger" but say nothing.

And then he gives me a warning, but no ticket!

My question is "Why not?"

Keep trying.

Should have invited him to the Policeman's Ball........

Some gray hair and being polite has gotten me out of a number of possible infractions.

Why? Pure luck. I'm reminded of the scene in 'Pulp Fiction' where the guy unloads his gun at close range and doesn't hit Samuel L Jackson or John Travolta.

Rather than spending a lot of time trying to figure out the parameters of pure luck, I'd suggest thinking real hard about how you can avoid a similar situation in the future. And if you don't know what I mean - TONE IT DOWN. Your high school antics have many serious outcomes that could tragically harm some innocent bystander.

If you need to prove your driver prowess, take it to the track.

+1 Well said.

+2.... Auto Crossing is the best way to test your limits like that. Not the street.

join your local PCA and do a DE event or AX

Also. Turn off PSM.

+1 ;)

we should be grateful, that it does NOT behave like a short wheel base 911 :D

A couple of years ago I was driving from Tucson to Las Vegas in my 2012 Audi Q5. There is a couple hundred mile stretch between Wickenburg and Kingman which is almost completely straight and flat, but has a 65mph speed limit.

At one point, a Dodge Charger goes blasting past me, and I decide that I'll go ahead and follow behind him. In my brain I was thinking I could argue I was going "the flow of traffic" if I got pulled over.

The driver of the Dodge understands what I'm doing, and for the next 50 miles, we trade off being the "lead car" doing over 90mph in a 65.

At one point we crest a small hill and boom, highway patrol. He gets behind me with lights on, and the Dodge also pulls over even though he easily could have "escaped". The patrolman could have only pulled one of us over and would have lost sight of the other.

At this point I remember that speeding greater than 25 over is considered criminal speeding. The patrolman would have been well within his rights to arrest me, impound my vehicle, etc.

He comes to my car first and asks for my license etc. The encounter is very brief and I could tell the patrolman was pissed.

He then goes to the Dodge and spends a long time talking to the driver. After he is done with the Dodge, he comes back to my car and says "Yeah, that other guy is active duty Marines and I'm ex-Marines. I let him off with a warning. It wouldn't be fair to ticket you and not him, so I'm going to give you a warning as well. Be careful". Patrolman drives away and that's it.

Moral of the story: It's dumb stupid luck whether you get ticketed or not.

Being a ex-Marine has gotten me out of more tickets than any other stategy. I need to carry my I.D. card with me at all times.

"It's dumb stupid luck whether you get ticketed or not"

So true. So very very true.

BTW, I've not been ticketed in 10+ years despite my antics. I'm way overdue.

He said he was in an industrial area that was empty and at 8 pm on a Saturday night.

I'm all for driving safety but if there is a 100% chance of not harming anybody else - I'm all for having fun at my own risk.

I'm usually very polite and respectful....
Many years ago I was out on a Sunday morning in my 84 Alfa Spider. It was off season in our small tourist town and I was out looking at a couple of vacation homes I'd seen for sale in the newspaper.
I am well familiar with the area but looking for a particular side street as the highway speed limit changed from 55 to 45 and I get pulled over by a young local city police officer. There is no chance for small talk as I get "liscense and registration please" and off he goes. He comes back with a citation (doesn't hand it to me right away) and starts to lecture me about slowing down.

I politely interrupt and ask "Are you giving me a ticket?" He replies "Yes" and I say "Then I have no desire to listen to your lecture". He hads me the ticket and goes back to his car.

In our town, tourists are allowed lots of leeway. I understand it competely but still don't get why locals are not handles with the same rules. We have Thunder Beach, where motorcycles can drive around all week with straight pipes blaring. We have spring break with sex, drugs and hippity hop..nuff said about that.

Its only been 20+ years...guess I'm still pissed.

Where exactly do I find the sex and drugs? I'm asking for a friend.

100% chance? It's a public road and at any time anyone could pop out of no where. Yes, the odds are very low....but not 100% safe.

This crap is for the track.

better not have sex anymore either ;)

True Story
 

A few years ago a friend of mine, who was a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, was driving us to a pre-season baseball game. He was extremely excited to get to the game and to gather some autographs from some of the players. He was so talkative about the players and stats that he didn’t realize how fast he was driving. As we passed by a Motorcycle Cop (that was going 70), I asked my friend, “Didn’t you see that Cop?” He said, “What Cop?” (Fast forward to the getting pulled-over part) My friend hands the Cop his driver’s license and military ID card. The Cop asks, “Captain? … Captain of what?” My friend replies, “Air Force”. The Cop stood there silent for about 15 seconds and then says, “Marines are the best huh?” My friend with a puzzled look on his face says, “Excuse me?” (This is where I punched my friend in the arm) The Cop repeats, “Marines are the best huh?” My friend says, “Oh yes sir!” The Cop continues with, “Then the Navy huh?” My friend replies, “Yes sir!” Cop then says, “Then the Coast Guard” My friend replies, “Yes Sir!” Cop (starting to get a smile on his face), “Then the Army huh” My friend says, “Yes sir!” Then the Cop says, “The Air Force is on the bottom of the list huh?” My friend replies, “Oh yes sir, I couldn’t agree more!” The Cop let my friend go without a warning.

Sex would involve 2 consenting adults, whereas running someone over - I'm guessing one wouldn't be consenting!

Anywhere on our beach during spring break. Really.

As those who have received citations for having done so can attest, driving faster than the speed limit is not without risk. However it does not naturally follow that driving faster than the speed limit necessarily implies driving dangerously. There are actually times when driving the speed limit is risky---as in freezing rain, for example. The speed limit is just a number, chosen by some sort of “official” procedure, an assessment by somebody (or some group of somebodies) at some level in the state or local government. Despite being so chosen and designated as the limit beyond which driving is considered dangerous, in the final analysis it really is just an opinion, a one-size-fits-all determination, albeit an official one that carries legal consequences.

People who exceed that limit can do so in at least a couple of ways. Some do so in a way that qualifies, in the mind of any rational human being, as being truly arrogant and reckless. These people are, for whatever reason, intentionally courting disaster and deserve whatever bad thing(s) that occur to them (and, unfortunately, sometimes to others as well) as a result. Others, however, do so in a carefully controlled manner that makes bad outcomes (other than potentially being ticketed) exceedingly unlikely. It’s probably pretty obvious by now that I go this route on occasion, when conditions are right. When folks like me and, I’d bet, most others on this Forum who elect on occasion to drive this way, it necessarily must be done in a manner that carefully and rigorously and constantly considers and anticipates the important concept of “what if”.

What if something or somebody runs out from behind that parked car? [Actually, just an example…if there are parked cars in the area I’m pretty much always driving close to the speed limit.] What if that car approaching my road from a side road decides not to stop at that stop sign? What if the driver of that car ahead coming in my direction decides, with no turn signal, to suddenly make a left turn across my path? My point is that in such circumstances you have to assume, in Murphy’s Law fashion , that if something bad can happen, it may well in fact come to pass---and you’d better be ready for it. Complicating matters, other people on the road assume that others around them are all driving the speed limit (or close to it). They, as a result, may well do things that they otherwise would not if they knew the speeder was driving as fast as he was. The speeder absolutely cannot count on the fact that other drivers should be able to figure this out if they were simply paying attention---the burden is entirely on him, and it’s something such a driver must always, without fail, be mindful of.

As a result, people who exceed this opinion that has been somewhat randomly designated “the speed limit” must do so taking all this into account. You have to assume others on the road are inattentive, distracted and, quite possibly just bad drivers. You have to anticipate any reasonably possible contingency AND, equally importantly, must leave yourself time or space (or both) for you and your vehicle to be able to avert a problem if and when it occurs. It requires the utmost in concentration, foresight and reflexes---it's a fair amount of work, maintaining that degree of focus. Maybe more importantly, it requires you know your own limitations and not exceed them. There is a LOT at stake, and if there’s a problem, there’s going to be an almost irrebuttable presumption that you, the speeder, were at fault, regardless of what anyone else did.

All that said, however, I can’t argue with those who say “Take it to the track.” Odds are great that drivers around you there will be a ton more predictable than those on the street, are almost certainly not on their cell phones or applying makeup in the rearview mirror, and probably won’t suddenly do irrational (and stupid) things.

Let's not be The Nanny for each other. WE all have a Boxster for what it can do in speed and handling. If we were all good boys all the time then a Boxster would not even exist. We could all just drive a Smart for Two. Yuck !

Speeding is something we all probably do, esp with a car that's capable of speed way past any posted limit. 10 mph over is speeding. 35 OVER is stupid. I happen to consistently drive 5 over, so I'm not perfect either. But even 10 over will keep you within the parameters of safety for that location. Someone decided that should be the speed limit. If you don't like it, then go through the process of having it changed or suffer the consequences if you get stopped. But arbitrarily ignoring laws you disapprove of will result in chaos. We have enough of that already. What happens if the guy approaching from the left doesn't like that stop sign? Traffic laws work both ways.

Drifting on public roads is also stupid. I would submit that it's even dumber than speeding so I'm not even going to dive into proving it's dumb. If this was a simple 'I was driving 35 over' thread, we could debate the luck of getting out of a ticket. But throw in 'I'm speeding AND being an asshat trying to drift', then he's nothing but a menace on the public roads.

A couple days ago I'm driving back road farmland twisties to pickup my daughter to take her to a doctor's appt.
It's basically a 45 mph speed limit except on sharper curves with no passing points because there are no clear sight straights to pass on.
Road is empty and I'm trying to make up time so I'm 60 - 65 mph where I can.
All of a sudden I look in the mirror and I see a Police SUV coming up on me fast.

Oh S... ! now I'm going to be late to the doctor's Appt.
Foot off gas, down shift out of OD and slow down with no brake lights
Officer gets right behind me and follows close for 4-5 more miles
I'm just waiting for the lights to come on any time now
They never did, he eventually turned off. Me now going the speed limit probably pissed him off because he was in a hurry and wanted to enjoy the twits.

I was driving my 2003 Jeep Liberty with a Big Daisy Spare wheel cover, NOT the Boxster
I wonder if it had been the Boxster would I have been pulled over?
I'll never know thank goodness

Problem is there are too many roads, too many ill-conceived speed limits...they’re ubiquitous. And some are absolutely ludicrous. Got stopped (first time in quite some time) this past September doing like 42 in a 25 on a road close to home that I know very well. It’s a woodsy road with gentle curves, and an occasional home here and there, mostly set well back away from the road, no parked cars, great visibility. Never once in 17 years have I seen a pedestrian. 25 MPH??? There are people that can run that fast. It becomes simply impossible for me to take the whole speed limit thing seriously when you see how out of touch with reality they so often have become. All credibility is lost. [Got a warning BTW---guy noticed the next day was my birthday and let it slide :] And I doubt one person could successfully campaign to change even one, especially since they’re such wonderful generators of revenue for the local and state governments---sacred cows, golden geese, whatever…

And the guy coming from the left, ignoring the stop sign? That’s exactly the type of contingency I referred to, and is one of a multitude the driver has to factor into the equation when driving, regardless of your speed. If you’re driving fast, you just have to do a better job of it. You must assume he’s not a fan of stop signs. How well you know the roads you’re on is a huge factor as well. If you don’t know the road, you don’t know where those intersections are, so you don’t push it. “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” is not the prime directive here---slowing down is an option I exercise all the time. Heck, acceleration and deceleration are part of the fun.

Bottom line, despite my fervor in arguing this, it’s really kind of an occasional thing for me, and only when circumstances are favorable. No “chaos” so far. And drifting? Never been a fan, except occasionally in an empty, snow covered parking lot. :D

Exaggeration is not exactly lying, it is a way to help make your point, to help convince.
So Husker writes of being 100% safe, which nothing ever is, even if there were no cars in sight, no cars parked on the street, no residences nearby. What I did was seen by zerobody (except the gent in the black and white). Husker also characterized my two feet of back end slide as "drifting".
The exaggerations by the policeman are a clue to his motive for not giving me any ticket. When he listed the offences he could have charged me with (usually a negotiating tactic to get you to accept a lesser charge without making a fuss) he mentioned "reckless endangerment," which it clearly wasn't since there was no one to endanger. And he mentioned "driving like a teenager" twice. But I wasn't careening about the streets; I came to a full stops at the line three times, looked carefully then pulled my off-the-line stunt turns. He saw that as clearly as my offences.
I think (and it is only speculation about what went on in somebody else's head) that he considered it "responsible hot-rodding" and liked that an old guy could have fun with his hot car and still be safe.