The Police..
Turbo Mini Forums

Howdy.

I've always been one of the people who sticks up for the police on forums and what-not, saying that they're only doing their job. Up Until now that is.



So, driving home from work in my mini, I notice there's a load of police dotted around. One sitting on a fence, two sitting on motorbikes. I trundle past, not speeding as it's probably busy, we're all going almost walking speed trough the town center.

100 meters down the road, I see more police. As I get nearer, they signal to me that I should pull into this little layby they've coned off.

I pull up, say hello to the police woman that directs me where to stop. As soon as I come to a halt, an older policeman comes over, and asks me to rev the car. I do so. He says 'that's not right'. I agree - My turbo oil seals have gone, so quite a bit of blue smoke pours out of the exhaust on idle, and at low revs.

They ask me to step out of the car. The older policeman looks around the rest of my car, while I stand and chat to the policewoman. Then the fun starts.

The older policeman says that he's going to give me a 'repair or scrap' form, as the car is totally unroadworthy due to nothing but the smoke. I explain about the turbo, and how it's nothing to do with the engine. He claims that its putting bad fumes into the atmosphere and can not be driven on the road. OK.

He then says disbelievingly 'so, you reckon you've got a turbo in here do you? Could you pop the bonnet for me?'

Yep, sure, I say, and remove the bonnet.

He then starts looking at the front of the engine, looking confused. Before he has the chance to make a fool of him self, I say 'This is where the seals have gone in the turbo', and point to the turbo.

'Oh'.

It's the whole engine from a metro turbo, I say.

'Oh right. I bet your insurance company don't know about it, do they?' he says.

Of course they do, I've declared all the mods. The interior is stripped out, the pistons aren't standard, everything is declared, I explain.

He still didnt believe me, and after about 5 minutes of trying to get me to admit to not being insured properly, he proceeds to radio in for HIC's phone number after asking who I am insured with, and calls HIC right in front of me. Of course they explain how it IS properly insured.

After this, he's continues trying to tell me that he's going to get my car off the road as it's SO poluting, and he radios in for an exhaust emmissions test. They tell him how the car is perfectly legal, and not doing any damage.

He then tries to tell me 'it's down to one's desgression, and you're lucky, but I think it's just about legal'. He obviously didnt realize how loud is radio was. :/



Then, he claims that my number plates are illegal, as the car is a 1971, and the cut-off for black plates is 1968.

I argue my case, claiming that 'I was sure that it was 1973, otherwise I would have changed the plates when I MOTed the car?'

I never like to say I KNOW someone is wrong, especially when its a policeman.

He still sticks to his 1968 story, and decides to radio in to double check. Of course, I'm correct.



Then, they give me a producer. This is madness, as they've already confirmed that:

A) I own the car (by radioing in to see if its stolen, right at the beginning)
B) I am insured (by phoning my insurance company!!)
C) The car is taxed - It's a tax-exempt car, and the tax disc is in plain view in the windscreen.

All the way through, the older policeman was making me feel like a criminal. He never once thought that I was telling the truth, and never once made me feel comfortable. I am a nervous person at the best of times, and when surrounded by 3 policeman, I dont get any less shy!



*sigh*

Edited by AlexB on 9th Aug, 2006.

I had a run in from the 50 the other day in my type R on the M5.
He pulled me to give me a leaflet on tailgating, although he said I hadn't been. He even even complimented me on my safe driving!!
Leaflet taken, and back on my way, he pulled me again 5 mins later!

He pulled me because his driver noticed my Plate reads CHOPS, so they pulled me on the M5 again!, no speeding, nothing!

As soon as he had checked the car and me and had a chuckle at my name, he let me go, but I must say, I didn't enjoy being sat on the hard shoulder! He promised not to pull me again!

Some police are sound, some are, well, not as sound! It sounds like you found one of the arse's!

Chin up!

Hannibal: There are two ways we can do this: the easy way and the hard way. In a few minutes my friends and I are going to come down on you like your worst nightmare. You're gonna wish the Earth had opened up and swallowed you whole.
bad guy: What's the easy way?
Hannibal: That WAS the easy way.

BAC. copper that is not alexb

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

Alex i so feel what you are saying,

i have been pulled up 3 times in two weeks & now have to produce my documents & fit arches to my car as 'granted' my tyres stick out a little bit

but i dont see the point of handing out producers when they have confirmed as you say:
A) I own the car (by radioing in to see if its stolen, right at the beginning)
B) I am insured (by phoning my insurance company!!)
C) The car is taxed & is in plain view in the windscreen.

the officer that pulled me even tryed to say that i needed a rear seat to pass the MOT? huh OK!

i was of the same view as yourself but i feel recently the police are being 'shalL we say' for the sake of me not swearing! unfair!!!

SKYLINES ARE LIKE CLITS, EVERY FLANGE SEEMS TO HAVE ONE: see this sticker on my silvia

the Search-section on this forum is blummin superb & simple to use, unlike some other forums, without the search-section & the help of this bunch of chaps on here i'll never be able to !!!Start the day with a 998cc turbo!!! :) i'm getting closer though!

Tom Fenton says: I have it all, make me an offer

Most policemen I have ever had dealings with, have been very polite, courteous, fair, and have at all times explained what they are doing etc.

All apart from Traffic Policemen. These are in my experience patronising little-hitler ARSEHOLES. I am sorry if that upsets anyone out there, but that is my opinion and experience.

I have been pulled up quite a few times now, mainly when I have been driving rally cars or my track car on the road. Obviously when driving a vehicle of this nature you are always careful to (a) not drive it like a dick and (b) ensure it is fully legal, tax, MOT, tyres, insurance.
In most cases it has given me great pleasure to waste as much of their time as possible whilst they fanny about radioing this that and the other, only to find out the car is fully legal, I have trade policy insurance and the owners permission if it is not my own vehicle, etc etc.
Generally they pull you over for so-called "random checks" but it seems somewhat coincidental that it is the young guy in the rally car that gets a tug and not the pissed up fat geezer in a Merc, or an old Granny who can't see past the end of the bonnet.

The only thing I will add, is that a tax-exempt vehicle does not have to pass an emissions test as such. However, it DOES have to pass a "visual smoke check". I'd suspect that in actual fact your car would fail this when next MOT'd, so it is something you are going to have to deal with sooner or later.

I agree tom.... traffic are BACs - not met one nice guy!


I was informed ones that, and I quote "wheel spinning wrecks lives".... now I thought it wrecked tyres but I was correct

Alex

AlexF

i got arrested and banged up for hrs after being told i had stolen my MR2, after taking a load of attitude of the coopers for what seemed like ages i ended up getting sarcatic so there was me was me singing were all going on a summer holiday while being taken to the police station and while i was there the copper smiled while he said "what are you 5 foot 6, my reply was i would rather be 5 foot six than a lanky ginger twat

all the above would have been avoided if he had just let me go into the house and grab my docs but he had to much attitude for that, my opinions of the police went though the floor for a while after that

I like the fact traffic police are hard hitting,

It really boils my blood when I see blatanly illegal cars and when i hear of drivers with no liecence insureance etc.

I would be so annoyed if these people were treated softly softly.

Admittitantly politeness shouldnt be an issue..

I never get hassle driving the mini, but every other car i would get grief for no reason, just for being young. most of the time i drive like a granny anyway.

most police men/women love to see minis

Previous Engine: 1040cc Morespeed engine, 1275 turbo head T2 Turbo Mirage Manifolds Megajolt
Previous engine: STD metro turbo, megajolt
Drives: 399bananahp (flywheel) Honda Civic Vtec b18c4 T28 Turbo 1968 Mini

Megajolt maps to download: http://www.jamesfawcett.co.uk/cms/index.ph...&gid=3&Itemid=3

psml yeh police are all evil

producer would be given regardless of ownership, regardless of you saying ure insured, and regardless of mot.

reasons:-

need to ensure you have full uk dl,
need to ensure that you have not got insurance policy then sent off duff cheque (happens all time...police national computer will show u insured for months until the firm update police who inturn update the computers....it takes ages) granted you say he has rang in front of you (wierd that one like)
if your car looks "ropey" ie odd panels, un painted, bits clagged on hear and there, holes drilled everywhere, then they need to ensure that the mot station where u got the car done is not taking back handers and letting shit heaps on the road for a quick buck (mind am not saying ure car is a shit heap Alex coz it 8nt bud)
there is an offence of an engine producing large amounts of smoke.
it contravenes emissions regs, and is a danger to other motorists if they are following behind and visibility is obscured by smoke. he could have condemned the car at the roadside seized it from you.... and if pedantic had it crushed (YES THIS CAN BE DONE !!!) and slapped you with the disposal costs. along with a trip to court

i agree that tact and communication are the key to a successfull police officer, however there are "Jobsworths" in every job / career. take the good with the bad

what really boils my piss is when folk have one bad experience with the law, and instantly forget about all the hard working officers who risk life daily for an ungrateful general public who take every opertunity to shaft a cop (they do up north), most cops are mostly nice folk ! they generalise "all cops are wankers" dispite the fact that the police may have come through for them countless times before !

its a bit of a shame to be fair.
problem you had was cops are put under presure by VOSA who run theses "sensus" stations at the roadside. but agree if the incident took place as you say, he was being a tosspot !

and he is wrong cut off for black plates is 1973, i had a 1969 with black plates, a 72, and wrongly an early 73. my problem is iam a cheeky £*cker and would have given him alot of shit making him justify his every action, but then again my car probably would be crushed by now lmao :):):):):) questions like "are you authorised under section 68 of the road traffic act to examine my vehicle?" really puts them on the back foot !

Edited by Richie on 9th Aug, 2006.

______________________________________________________
TRADER HALL OF FAME
BENROSS...MINIMARK..WOLFIE (comic genius).....CARL....MARTPAUL.......AXEL
______________________________________________________
TRADERS OF SHAME
1 user....pm me 4 details

LEGENDS
MikeRace, Mini13

Had a lot of run ins with the police in my mates r5 turbo. we were pulled once and got asked is this your car etc etc. He had all the documents in the car because he had just produced them. The policeman then got arsey when he got them out saying he was a cocky fucker, and then gave him another producer! And i got a bollockin off a police officer because my car had broke down on the motorway. He was on his high horse telling me it was too dangerous to leave a car on the hard shoulder! Because i really wanted to break down!!!

Personally - I'd be writing a letter to the cheif constable and have a complaint about this - I'm assuming you have the 'state sherriffs' number on one of your forms?

One of my cousins was a traffic cop - and the stories he's got about what they used to do for 'fun' whilst on duty are unbelievable... Really boiled my piss when he was revealling this stuff...

I got pulled over in mine as the policemen reckoned i was "using excesive cornering speed, even though i wasnt going over the speed limit", i said minis usually look like they go fast around corners because there small and mines rather low so can understand how it "looks" to be cornering fast even thought it isnt.

He looked around the car and said "this is a nice colour isnt it? Is it standard?" and i said "oh yeah its tahiti blue, quite rare on non coopers because its a limited edition tahiti model", he then replied to say "ive never seen a mini in this colour, it must have been re sprayed and needs to be noted on your insurance" i insited that it wasnt but he rang up my insurance company to find it wasnt noted as a mod or change of colour (even though it was standard paint), i heard him as on the radio "whats the coluor of this car supposed to be" which the women on the other end replied to metallic blue...

So then he started on about how he has owned 3 minis and not seen them in this colour, and the only "metallic blue" mini they made was the recent blue injection coopers!!! I said they where tahiti blue too, he said they werent they where a different blue... wtf. THEN he said that if you have a mod on the car and your cover doenst note it as a mod the car needs to be towed!! At this time i was proper worried and anxious, as well as pissed off with this copper, he radio'd for a tow truck to come, 15 mins later and it did and the policeman started talking to the driver of this truck saying "he thinks thats a standard colour and that its not been repainted, its not down as a mod so i need you to move it" he was laughing in my face grinning, trying to makie me look like an idiot!

So, then the trick driver says... "errm, excuse me mate (to me) is this a limited edition tahiti? As i have a blue MPI cooper?". You should have seen the look on the policemans face, priceless! I was so relieved but being schooled the copper wasnt happy, he walked up to me and says im sure theres something not right about this and im not happy about it, he then proceeded to breathalize me and give me a producer, then he followed me 17 miles to my driveway and turned around!!! WTF!

Think in that case the guy was just a pr*ck

Rich

Another great story....

How petty is that - I mean - HOW PETTY. PCAC if you ask me.

To be quite honest if I was faced with some dumb arse copper trying to tow my car away I would wait till his back was turned, jump in it and fuck off as quickly as possible and to hell with the consequences. They could do what they liked prosecuting me but my car would be locked away in the garage. There is no way in this earth I would allow any of my cars to be towed away and crushed, especially for something as stupid as a "non standard colour", they would have to kill me first. What a fucking idiot.

1293 Turbo mini

I got pulle don one of those roadside check thingay aswell, chap asks is it a 998, i answer definately not , open the bonet and end up spending the next 10 mins as a small crowd of police gather round the engien bay blethering about the conversion. lol goes both wasy i guess. but iv been on the wrong end of an arsy traffic officer on many an occation. even for jsut sitting in a carpark.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

ha, ive been tempted to reverse over one or 2 coppers, but in most cases, even though technically i wasnt breaking the law, or i knew it couldnt be proven, i was still acting like a nob.

ive been in front of a cop at traffic lights in urmston, and in my rearveiw mirror watched him take a swig of fosters, so theyre not all angels.

my mate carries a dictaphone with him now, as hes sick of the agro.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

61 Austin Seven; building a 1275 'over the clutch' turbo, R5 T2'd, custom intercooled, megajolt electrified, canyon carver

www.motorlust.com - The Online Magazine for Car Guys Like Us

Alex: It must have been a bit nice as well, correcting that old policeman. I'd love that :)

sounds like the only way to deal with these idiots is to make formal complaints, thatll make them think twice (hopefully)..

That sounds pretty harsh mate. The only thing i will say is, he didn't know that you've spent a lot of time and money on that car. All he saw was a smokey old 2 colour mini with buckets in it.

His attitude stinks, but i'm sure yours would too if you dealts with chavs in novas all day.

On a totally unrelated note, would you like my spare turbo? i can get it to you sunday if you want it. Might be a plan if you are using the car every day.

Koodurnt agree mor coz most ov dem trafik koppurz r arsis! if u r yung n av a slite lee moddee fried mini ven it seemz 2 b dur katty lizt ov an eventfool arf our ov totally arstup coppa! unless u dwive lyke a kompleet ars bein poolt wil subbsyde wiv ayj! eyve bin poolt 2 menny tymes 2 menshun n 90% av bin bi kompleet arsis ;( wevva aw knott i woz totallee leegall but az u gett ova aw look ova 28-30 it shood subsyde

Ifit aint naild down me taykinit! aka PikeyTony