Couple questions for those who got exhaust tickets and/or speeding recently in Santa Clara county:

1) When you found a police officer to sign you off for the violation and after you put your exhaust back to stock, does the officer make a thorough inspection on your car for other mods?
Exhaust is the easy part, but it would be a hassle for me to put my stock airbox back on and make my engine bay look stock...

2) How much would the violation be if you didnt didnt want to correct it?
I have no idea how much the exhaust part of my ticket is since the fine came together with my speeding ticket for a whopping $322...

3) If you send out your payment/ bail amount in a form of a check if you win or get a reduced fine, how do they fine you? I dont want to feel as though the $322 bail money I am going to have to send is automatically lost or held until the case gets resolved.

On with the story:

I didnt mean to make this a long story but I will try to cut it short...

I was cruising with fellow i-club member Stg2lgcy00 (Jeff) and we were both in our swapped turbo GC's on a Wednesday night coming back from the Duke of Edinburgh in June when I got a double citation ticket for speeding and modified exhaust. Cop was cruising near Montague exit on 880 when both of us spotted him up ahead from far aways. We were going relatively faster than traffic, but since it was 2 am there was hardly any traffic. I dont remember going past 100 mph at anytime of our drive back from Cupertino since we had to do some freeway changes right before me getting pulled over. The deal-breaker came (oops) was when both of us hit the brakes at the same time down to 60-65 mph. Cop stopped me since I was going 65, and Jeff was doing about 60.

The thing that bugs me the most is that I never drove past the cop going more than 65 mph in my 95 Impreza L Sedan (wingless but not sleeper anymore due to loud exhaust). The cop approached me like he was angry since "he was tired of all the kids crashing their fast cars and him having to clean up their mess). Also the cop didnt tell me what speed I was actually going - he simply stated - I'm going to put you down for 90 since I think you were racing with another car (my friend)! I kept my mouth shut about the my freeway driving and the fact that I knew the other driver since I didnt want to say anything that would incriminate myself or get my friend pulled over. I felt no choice but to act like I had no idea why I was getting stopped and simply play dumb. In hindsight, maybe I should have apologized for making him pull me over and just be honest about how I knew the other driver and we were just cruising, not racing, but at the time all I could think about was how cars get impounded for street racing and how I could easily talk my way into something much worse: state ref.

Yes, it was stupid to be driving my car on a public road since my car is just a tad illegal I did have my loud bpm twister straight pipe 3" turboback installed at the time and a custom short ram intake. So after a few minutes of intimidation by the officer I got out with a double citation speeding ticket for 90 mph and a ticket for modified exhaust that is correctable (VC 27151A).

I am thankful he didnt write me up for anything worse, but I just got the total for the vehicle infarctions - $322! If it was a much cheaper ticket I wouldnt bother to fight it because of the hassle to go back to stock is quite a hassle. My driving record has never been perfect anyways so one additional point wouldnt kill my insurance rates (insurance for my subie is currently less than $40 a month with a point on my record that is more than 3 yrs old so it will be erased with my next premium renewal in 08')

 

Also, I will be doing a trial by written declaration and use ticket assassin unless I find a better alternative to fight it within a month.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that my exhaust ticket was checked as "correctable" and I will be running stock cat-back or something quiet to get it written off.

 

Unfortunately for the officer, if he simply filled in a speed because he thought you were racing, he made a boo-boo. The speed area is not for what he figured you were going "because you were racing", it is either determined by radar, pacing, or observation.

As far as the modified exhaust portion, most officers simply check that you've fixed the problem specified, they don't care about anything else.

What you need to consider is what might happen if you try to fight the speeding portion. Is it worth your time and effort? Sure, he didn't see you going that fast, and his entering of the speed would constitute perjury, but do you really want to fight it? Written declaration might be a good start, but be prepared to request a retrial.

 

you were speeding, you got a ticket. thats that. oh you could always go to court and offer the judge some starbucks

 

hehe starbucks
good luck with the tickets

 

soemthing doesnt sound right, I got a speeding ticket in santa clara (20 over the limit) and the fine was only $206

This was in January

 

damn jon, that sucks! first/last time I had a fix-it ticket was for front plate. I walked into the police department and handed the ticket to the cop. He asked "Is your car out side?", I said yes, "Is the plate back on?", I said yes again. He signed the ticket and I left.

 

freakin Jon!

 

yeah pretty much the same for me, went to sunnyvale PD

I parked it right in front so they could see. I still had to wait for their lazy asses to finish up eating lunch to come out and sign it

 

I got a ticket from CHP for modified exhaust and airbox and had to go to the state ref. I threw on a stock airbox leant to me by awesome friends but did not need to put my stock exhaust back on because the violation for the exhaust was for noise so I just put in one of those reducer inserts and passed with flying colors.

I'm really surprised that it sounds easier to deal with the state ref than dealing with SJPD!

Oh yeah, I still had to pay the fines even after I was signed off by the state ref because in El Dorado county where I got the ticket they are considered "uncorrectable violations." Those banchees get you comin and goin.

 

I <3 Sjpd

 

how much was the fine?

 

Lets see...I think around $500 for everything. He wrote me up for modified intake, modified exhaust and one other mod I can't think of right now. He also wrote me up for an unsafe lane change (which was his obviously lame exuse for pulling me over) and said I was lucky I wasn't getting evading an officer (I took the next exit after he saw me because, ironically, it was MY EXIT but according to him I was trying to run).

 

wow.. yah ive been dicked around by law enforcement several times "threatening" to write me a worse ticket, and , that is just asinine

 

I got a 440 dollar ticket for doing 5 over in a construction zone. Talk about pissed. The best part was that you had to make the check payable to the county judge. Suspicious?