First world (classic car) problems

[60six]

Cruising along the M2 in my poverty spec e30 316 carb auto, I was approaching a slip road, when at exactly the same time as I wound open my sunroof - (Second-hand winder handle finally working), a Police car filtered in behind me.

They immediately switched on their sirens and lights and for a little while I assumed they would accelerate past me, until I slowly realised they wanted ME to pull over.

Pulled over onto the hard shoulder - I'm completely confused as to why I am being stopped. The officer got out of their Skoda and approached me - I wound down the window.

"That was a little bit rude sir. What was that in aid of?"

I just looked at him - I was completely speechless. "I didn't even know you were behind me until the lights went"

"Sir - You gesticulated very rudely - I have no idea why but let me tell you that it isn't that wise to be rude to a traffic officer and...." I immediately interrupted - "I opened my sunroof - It's not electric - there is this big handle in the roof and I genuinely didn-'

The office cracked open a huge smile after realising his error - Can't quite remember what he said as it was very surreal - He jumped back into his car, obviously amused at his mistake - I carried on.

Did he also think I was bashing one out when I wound down the window!?

[g40jon]

Brilliant! Back when I owned my suprcharged polo g40, I got pulled for apparently tailgating a marked police car. It was a slow as you like 1.3 derv astra bobby car, everytime we approached a hill, his speed would drop off to well below the speed limit. Mr popo got out and it would seem just wanted to have a look around the car! To my suprise who knew it was a rare production model and so on. He was pretty sound to be fair.

Had another local plod pull me in my e36 325 maybe 500 yards from home. I was on my way home from 2 hours of badminton and an hour of 5 a side footy. Opened the window, Plod asked for I.d. which I explained I didn't have, due to no pockets, Plod then looked rather bemused to see me looking bright red, in t-shirt and shorts (it was mid winter). He asked why the exhaust was so loud, I replied I had no idea and he was welcome to inspect it (to which he declined!). It was all genuine bmw, just that most of the baffles had gone what with being 25 years old, but boy did it make the 6 pot sing! Loved that car!

Most of the police I have dealt with have been pretty good eggs to be fair!

[60six]

I also got stopped by the Police for drinking a can of 'Kestrel SUPER STRENGTH' lager whilst driving through London in early 2002.

They had never seen a can of RELENTLESS before .... If you remember the Kestrel cans (One hit to oblivion as a 15yo) then you will see the similarity!

[keithyboy]

A very long time ago I got stopped in a Capri by a policeman who just wanted to talk about Capris. My experience with traffic officers has been almost entirely positive with the exception of a complete tit many years ago who pulled me for not indicating when I turned right in a right turn only lane and ranted at me for 10 minutes before giving me a 7-day wonder and telling me he'd be keeping an eye on me and my driving in future.

[fordperv]

I have had the police stop me just to look at my Capri and talk about happier times,the funniest I ever had was in my 3 door sierra I had an officer who was in front stop with his blue lights on, get out and tell me my car looked aggressive in his rear view mirror so could I drop back a bit, I wasnt tailgating and there was a good space between us, i think he had been at the funny fags

[austinpowers]

I had a police officer pull up next to me at a set of lights, and told me to put my seatbelt on. Only thing was that I was driving my 1955 Austin A30 so there wasn't any.

[comfortablynumb]

A friend of mine was pulled up in his 1983 Porsche import from the Upper Heyford American air base, and the police gave his Girlfriend a hard time for a couple of minutes until he leaned over and said 'Shouldn't you be talking to me?' pointing at the steering wheel in the LHD car !

[richr]

I think most Traffic Police are ok.

Its standard plod that think they know about traffic regs are the problem.

As they say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing

[pistonpopper]

In my 'boy racer' years I was constantly being pulled over by this same policeman, every night I went out he would find me, pull me over, and we'd have a chat, usually about my driving style. He was quite a decent fella, and the worst I ever got was a 7 day wonder from him, which was good, because quite frankly he could've got me points on several occasions. Anyway fast forward about 15 years of not getting pulled at all, and I'm out really late at night, the road is very quiet and I'm practising my driving style in my new (to me) XR4i, round the roundabout twice (sideways) then blast off along a straight peice of road, through a twisty bit, another roundabout,so on and so forth, then I noticed that someone was following me. I think to myself, see ya! And more abuse of power and my tyres! Then on come the lights, oh curse word! I pull over, and jump out. Out gets this same policeman, older, greyer, fatter. His first worlds to me were, I knew it was you, I recognised your driving style I just had to pull you over to make sure! lol. We had a long chat for about an hour in which he told me he was coming up for retirement in about six months. He then gave me the same advice as he used to give me in my boy racer years, try and take it easy. I never saw him again, he was a good bloke, I wish that there were more policeman like him.

[MonzaPhil]

I was pulled over in my parents driveway while driving someone else's Lotus a few years ago. My folks were slightly bemused as to why I'd brought the local law enforcement home with me.

They didn't like my acceleration rate (or the noise) (leaving work) but I always stick to the speed limit when white estate cars with stuff on the roof are behind me. By the time he'd considered blue lights etc I'd got to where I was going. ...

My folks only live a road away from my work...

[MkX]

I was pulled in on a speed check by a couple of policemen, I think my speed was about 38mph in a 30 zone. I was driving down a long steep hill on a road which was only really a wide lane, few houses, no schools, etc. but one where you'd let your speed creep up without noticing.  They started giving my Stag a good going over, decided that 2 of the tyres were on the limit & were just about to write me up for this & the speeding when a couple of kids in a GTi screamed past doing motorway speed, the one PC winked at me & said "I think it's your lucky day sir!" before they jumped into the police car & sped off in pursuit.

My Dad has often encountered difficulties with his Lotus VI at MOT because many of the standard MOT criteria can't be met & many MOT examiners don't understand what applies & what doesn't. Following a 10 year restoration, he took the car for its first MOT in 1987, he had to argue the toss with the MOT examiner on umpteen items, no seat belts, etc. It came to the windscreen wash / wipe. There's a very crude wipe but no washer jets. The MOT examiner was insisting "If it's got a windscreen it's got to have functional wipers & it's got to have a functional screenwash!" My Dad produced a spanner, undid 4 bolts & pulled the screen loose, "Look, no windscreen so it doesn't need washers!" The examiner replied, "That's fair enough, I'll just write out your certificate."

[carledo]

Back in the early seventies, when I had my first car (a '56 ZA Magnette) I used to hoon it around everywhere, but I also had a sort of sixth sense which stopped me from doing stupid stuff in the presence of plod.
There was at the time, a local police sergeant, very young for his rank and rather short. His life's ambition was to catch me (or so it seemed)and he would stop me, sometimes up to 5 times a week, give me a lecture and the inevitable producer and bu***r off. But he could never seem to catch me being naughty!
As a result of all these producers, which I would take in once a week in batches, I became quite chummy with the desk sergeants at the local nick and one day, one of them asked why I didn't complain about it. I didn't think it would do any good, or even make things worse and I said so, but he eventually persuaded me (I don't think my nemesis was very popular in the nick either)
To my immense surprise, a couple of weeks later I got a letter of apology from some upper echelon MET guy and I NEVER saw Sergeant "Stubby" again!

But I can honestly that this guy was an exception and most traffic cops are polite and sensible at worst and total petrolheads at best and I have been stopped a couple of times, just because the cops were interested in my car!

Steve

[VIP]

Aug 20, 2016 21:52:28 GMT austinpowers said:

I had a police officer pull up next to me at a set of lights, and told me to put my seatbelt on. Only thing was that I was driving my 1955 Austin A30 so there wasn't any.

I had red harnesses in one of my old slammed Yugos, an unmarked car pulled alongside, beeped at me, then tugged on his seatbelt to tell me to put my belt on. I shrugged and pointed to my harnesses, only to realise I had a red t-shirt on and he probably couldn't see them.

He then dropped in behind me and put his blue lights on, so I pulled over and began removing the shoulder straps, and I noticed his face of realisation in the rear view mirror. Anyway, I got out - as did he - and said "You probably couldn't see the harness straps because of my t-shirt", to which he agreed, and then followed up with "Who puts harnesses in a Yugo?!" before walking back to his car, grinning.

[VIP]

Aug 20, 2016 8:55:26 GMT keithyboy said:

A very long time ago I got stopped in a Capri by a policeman who just wanted to talk about Capris. My experience with traffic officers has been almost entirely positive with the exception of a complete tit many years ago who pulled me for not indicating when I turned right in a right turn only lane and ranted at me for 10 minutes before giving me a 7-day wonder and telling me he'd be keeping an eye on me and my driving in future.

As an aside, if you're changing direction - going from one road to another for example - you're still required to indicate, regardless of whether the road layout means your only path is that direction.

[jamesd1972]

No reversing lights is a bit of a PITA, people just can't read what you are doing without them it seems.
Yes I'm driving along a town center road, I paused next to a parking space indicator on and stopped but without a light to tell you its all a bit too much to work out. (maybe that's why I went to so much effort fitting them to my old mini clubman estate back in the day...)

The other thing people just don't get is how relatively physical an old car can be to drive with no PAS etc. In the series 3 pulling in stopping and re-starting is all a bit of an effort so you tend to default to 4x4 mode but with a cheery smile for the person you don't give way too !

[comfortablynumb]

I have to agree with the 'most are OK' mentality. My eldest lad managed to bury his Range Rover classic in the front of a tractor in a country lane recently, wrote off the RR and removed the front axle from the tractor, not to mention covering the road to about a foot deep in carrot slurry, and the two who arrived to help sort things out were brilliant. No charges, all put down to road conditions, and much more concerned that everyone was OK. He's not a speed merchant, and it frightened the C**p out of him and the girlfriend, but they went a long way towards calming things down

[mikeymk]

I've finally stopped leaving my lights on, since fitting a new Pioneer head unit which has a chime to remind me to take it's face off.

I've only been driving this model for thirteen years and had at least 30 flat batteries.

[Ryannn]

Everytime I drive into the rollers at my MOT... and get stuck! #firstworldproblems

[carledo]

Aug 22, 2016 20:57:52 GMT Ryannn said:

Everytime I drive into the rollers at my MOT... and get stuck! #firstworldproblems

I maintain  a TVR 350i wedge for a customer, this car has such an enormous front overhang and such a deep spoiler that it will not even go on the MOT ramp without first removing the spoiler (I've done it so many times now that I have engineered my own quick release system) even then the radiator carrier clears the floor by about 2mm with the front wheels in the rollers, you have to drop the car into the rollers VERY slowly and carefully or the give in the tyres when it hits bottom will have the rad graunching on the ground! I love, hate and fear this car in equal measures, I love the sound it makes and the fact that you can light it up by flooring it at 40mph in 3rd gear, I hate its dull heavy wooden steering, the fact that nothing electrical works for more than 10 seconds at a time and EVERYTHING rattles. And I fear the awful inefficient soggy brakes which have defeated all efforts to improve them. Even the owner admits that the day he stops being scared of it will be the day he sells it!

Steve

[stewartwarner]

As an aside, if you're changing direction - going from one road to another for example - you're still required to indicate, regardless of whether the road layout means your only path is that direction.

I do not believe there is any legal requirement to indicate, I stand to be corrected, or there would be no BMW's on the road.