How many Tickets did you have?

[RaF944]

I just got a ticket for racing....I almost got arrested and almost got my car impounded.....Instead the officer just gave me a ticket for driving on the wrong side of the road...... I was on a 2 way street......Good thing the officer was a nice guy...$80 ticket...3 points on my licence

how many tickets did you get...and what were they for?

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85.5 Porsche 944

[Rollins]

I have never got any, and I do drive fast and race a lot. The cops never messed with me in the porsche. Got pulled over once for a minor thing that was not my fault.

[Kobe-944]

I haven't gotten any tickets yet, only been driving a year, and I do drive fast. What were you racing Raf?

[Allldi]

I've had 8 tickets. One for 43 in a 30, two for 55 in a 40, one for 50 in a 30, one for 63 in a 45, two others on an interstate (I can't remember how fast I was going), and one for squealing my tires. All of my tickets have been argued down to non-points, non-moving violations by my lawyer. By the way, I consider myself a very safe and above average driver. I restrict my speeding to interstates and other "open roads". In fact, I usually drive under the speed limit in subdivisions and I only push test my vehicle's limits when I'm sure I'm the only one that could get hurt if something were to happen.

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Ryan
1991 944S2 coupe

[Sam-Turbo S+NOS]

As some of you may well know, me and my buddies go racing alot. We take an hour or so and meet some people in a boom town to race. Usually the cops fire up their siren and we all speed away. They dont really want a high speed race. The worst time was when we raced in the city and some of us went to jail. Lukly itr was my turn to race and my friend had a large (im talkin "large) jump on the cops. Only ticke ive had was for the car being too loud.

[lambic2000]

8 tickets and your a safe driver? I used to be a police officer and so I was the one giving out the tickets. In my opinion, speeding lowers the reputation of both the vehicle and the driver. I have seen too many speeding related deaths to know that an extra few minutes saved is nothing compared to a long dirt nap.

[Allldi]

In my opinion, the number of tickets one has been given is not necessarily directly correlated with how dangerous a driver one is. It is also my opinion that dangerous driving, but not necessarily speeding, lowers a driver's reputation. However, I agree that a few minutes saved is nothing compared to a long dirt nap.

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Ryan
1991 944S2 coupe

[Rollins]

I'd say the ones who don't get caught are the better drivers

[roy944s]

I agree with lambic2000 on this issue.We should all stay calm on the road and keep the racing spirit to the race track. Road race does not prove any driving skill but risk your life and other users on the road. Porshce owners should know better than that..That's how we show we respect the name" porsche"--because get pull over with a porsche is not really something you can be proud of...

[CJFusco]

Zero tickets OFFICIALLY... I was pulled over numerous times in various vehicles, but only once in the Porsche. He clocked me at 70 in a 40, and that was after I saw him and slowed down. My father is a cop, so he made a few phone calls and I got off with only a $40 court fee. Aparrently, the ticket WOULD have been over $300. I got lucky, and I've been much more careful since.

[RaF944]

kobe..i was racing a newer 300ZX non turbo.....he got me by about a half a car...I accelerated way faster than him and had most of the race won but he got me on hte top end.

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85.5 Porsche 944

[stray15]

Racing on a public road? That is so honda civicish....

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Porsche, Through and through
Tim
'83 944

[1.2gees]

How many tickets do I have? I'd post, but Pelican has a limit to how long one of these posts can be...

I'll tell you this though, I had two cases of reckless driving, pending (court date hadn't come yet), when my license was revoked for several things. First of being the issuance of my second reckless driving ticket, within 6 months of last license suspension... If I got out of the second one (just got an unsafe movement instead of the reckless, but that's an if, then I would've gotten it taken away for accumulations of points.

lambic2000 :

If you were a police officer, you should know that tickets are only given to those who are caught, doing something that was easy for you to catch them for. The act that the 'guilty' driver did was probably illegal if he got a ticket, that does NOT mean it was unsafe. Racing in most forms on public roads are NOT safe, that I agree with you. Doing a doughunt at an icecream parking lot, very late in the morning is NOT unsafe, it's just not. Neither is doing 6 over the limit, but we both know it's illegal. A person having so many tickets ONLY shows how many times there happened to be a police officer at the scene. Tickets are issued so the government can make more money, penalizing somebody for committing a crime isn't the best way to do things, discouridging, educating is! You don't hear a kindergarden teacher say 'don't kill anybody, cause you'll likely get life in jail for that, and that'd suck', you hear them say 'be peacefull', or 'it's not right to hurt others', or 'don't do anything to somebody, if you wouldn't like the same thing done to you'... There IS a reason for that!
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

[diverdan]

Ahmet:
I agree that "doughnut" was not a question of safety. However, what is the point of brutalizing machinery and destroying tires? The resultant noise and smoke, not to mention possible flying debris could be considered lack of consideration for others. Perhaps we igloo dwellers are fortunate to have slow speed skid pads available half the year to hone our "sideways driving skills" without raising the ire of neighbors or gendarmes.
Perhaps the "more mature" crowd is just a bunch of old fogies, but we are all labeled P car drivers. Doing doughnuts in the parking lot is just plain bad for our reputations.
Dan

[Z-man]

I am part of the Toyota MR2 board, and this topic has come up several times. My opinion: KEEP RACING OFF THE STREETS. I cannot stress that enough. There are many, many venues where racing can be done both safely and legally: autocross, track, drag strip are the main places.

Here are some benefits for racing at a racetrack/drag strip/autox lot:
1. All the cars are going the same direction (most of the time)
2. There's an ambulance / emergency vehicle within 1/2 a mile at all times.
3. People are aware and watching what is going on.
4. Most important: everybody knows that there's a race going on.
5. It's cheaper in the long run (autox is about $20-30, track days vary from $100-300; while speeding tickets/court fees/lawyer fees/higher insurance rates can add up pretty quickly)

Compared to street racing, there is a big difference: most people don't expect to be caught in the middle of a race, and because of this, their reactions are unpredictable.
Alldi said: "...I only push test my vehicle's limits when I'm sure I'm the only one that could get hurt if something were to happen..." I am sorry, but how can you guarantee such a thing on public roads? It's impossible.

The government is not just trying to make $$ by issuing tickets. And sometimes negative reinforcement is the only choice, Ahmet. My wife's a middle school teacher, just ask her!
It does work: fear of being Bubba's next girlfriend in cell block 10 is incentive enough for me to keep out of trouble!

The police risk their lives for us. Sometimes we think they are the enemy, but they serve us. Yeah, it stinks that our speed limits are set lower than we'd like, (and yes, sometimes I do drive over the limit), but that's no excuse to drive excessively fast, which usually happens when street racing occurs.

There are risks at the racetrack, but there are far greater risks on the public roads.

If I've offended you, or got you pissed off, then let's make a deal: Street racing pisses me off and it kills innocent people. So stop racing on the street, and I'll stop getting in your face about the dangers of it.

Gets off his soapbox,
-Zoltan.

[redNeckarsulm2]

you guys are crazy to race on the street, and wouldn't it be nice if we all had family lawyers.....?

Give Ahmet a break on the doughnuts, you did them too, when you were in high school, I bet.

The best way to stop street racing is to provide a place to race in the area. There are lots of articles nowadays about community dragstrips sponsored by the local law enforcement (where you can even race the police cruisers). What a GOOD idea. Have you noticed how after an autocross, there is less of an urge to drive agressively on the street? It really establishes a mindset that differentiates between "event" and "street" conditions...
What every town needs is a community-sponsored Solo 1 type event every month or 6 weeks or so, for the teens/etc. That would cut down on unsafe behavior on public roads...

Now about those elderly in those huge cars..... (can't focus as far as the hood ornament...)......

....and those yup-Moms and Dads on the phone in the SUV or turbo-diesel Mercedes wagons....

...or POOR driver testing/training, that lets people who can't merge onto the interstate or know the proper way to use a merge lane (and I'd say about 35% of ALL drivers can't do it safely - stopping at the top of an on ramp and waiting for a big gap, even!)....

I don't know what to do about those.
Of course, since the latter aren't "children", nobody want s to inconvenience those good citizens...

Wait, I got on a tangent there, sorry.
Don't race on the street.
If you run into MY Porsche, there's gonna be an ass-whooping!

[redNeckarsulm2]

And ticketing IS about revenue-collection. WAKE-UP ALREADY.
A visual PRESENCE is a deterrent.
How often is it a speed trap that results in the ticket?
Hell, they just went to disguising the police officers a city-repairmen in trucks to catch speeders here? Is this to STOP speeding? Of course not. It is simply to CATCH speeders, see the difference?

Remember when the marked car sat in the median on the interstate with its parking lights on?

Remember when Policemen walked around in civic areas?

Why don't you see that now?
It's hard to catch a criminal when they aren't breaking the law, that's why.

Fact is, people tow the line when law enforcement is present. That's why they hide. Can't give you a ticket if you aren't breaking the law, now, can they?

[redNeckarsulm2]

But, I definitely AGREE with you on the proper place for racing activity. How many "good-drivers" do you see showing the lack of skill (like myself) at the autocross?

And the street is not a controlled environment...bad news......

[hoff944]

I've gotten two tickets and both of the have been exsponged off of my record by attending traffic safety school.
I've heard that the reason police give out tickets for doughnuts in a parking lot is that if something breaks or if they hit something, people can commit insurrance fraud or something like that. There is really no sense in doing doughnuts. I've never understood it. The traffic laws are there for a reason.

[NickB 951]

I have had 3 points on my (UK) licence for doing 95 in a 70 zone at around 2am.
I love going fast - but street RACING strikes me as not being less than sensible.

As has been said before, YOU may know what you're about to do, but the other people on or by the road can't be relied on to react as you'd expect or hope.

If you're in a 30 zone then there are people there who will drive expecting people not to be doing more than this speed and therefore won't see you coming.

The upshot of this kind of behaviour is that the police WILL come down harder and use more traps etc.

As for revenue generation:
Over here in the UK we have to deal with permanent speed enforcement cameras known as GATSO. They were brought in to enforce speed limits at "accident blackspots" and to act as a visible deterent.
So you can now find them on straight sections of motorways and dual-carriageways, and also hidden behind trees and road signs.
It's good to know that our welfare is being looked after. . . .

We now also have to deal with SPECS - two digital, IR, ISDN connected cameras set a few miles apart to record your average speed, cross reference your licence plate and issue you a ticket in about 3 seconds without you even knowing you've been caught.

There are so many cameras springing up that I'm going to have to start considering track days.

I have now invested in a GPS-linked device that tells me when I am approaching a fixed camera - many don't use radar or laser any more.
I could get a radar detector too I suppose, but the inside of the car will start to feel like a Tandy store !

Keep enjoying the cars



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NickB
'89 951