The day has finally come…almost five years of waiting will have paid off. As you read this, I’ll be making a trip to get some paperwork sorted and, if I have my way, the first registration sticker for the Imperial since 2014. That’s a big leap for me. The car is still being sorted, but I’m to the point where I need to get miles on the Mopar if I’m going to meet my goal for the race I’ve agreed to be at in October. There are things that still need to be fixed: my turn signals disappeared within the last few days, I’m not 100% sure I have brake light function, and there is still the issue of the fully uncorked, wake-the-dead exhaust note to contend with. I don’t give enough of a shit to be bothered with the uncorked exhaust, especially when there’s a plethora of old ragged-out Chevrolets and Dodge trucks running around with the Carolina Squat stance in full form and two megaphones tack-welded onto straight pipes. But driving around on no insurance or registration? I can talk my way out of a noise violation ticket if it truly came to that. But not having the right paperwork will sink your day faster than the flashing lights could have. There’s no chatting your way out of that mess.
That’s not to say that I haven’t done sketchy stuff. Driving a loud car on the street is one of my lesser offenses. I’ve done worse, and I’ve done some exceptionally sketchy stuff that still warrants the “How am I alive?” thought process. I spent years learning how to drive on public roads with no license, no permit, and most of the time with no co-driver. I’ve driven a bare frame with a five-gallon bucket for a seat around before. I’ve driven a theft-recovered minivan with no paperwork, save the police report that was given back with the van’s return, on city streets in Tacoma before. A loud car? I’ll take my chances, thank you. I’ll get to the mufflers as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’ll find one of those “Loud Pipes Save Lives” stickers for the back glass.
What about you, readers? How far on the wrong side of legal have you trespassed?
Funny. I was just thinking about that story posted here the other day about the guy with the Chevy truck with NASCAR exhaust. I though, what an idiot. Go ahead, drive them with open tubes. See how fast residents pack city hall meetings to get them to clamp down on any exhaust modifications. Running with no mufflers is Just. Plain. Stupid.
As for not knowing which of your lights are or aren’t functioning, all you have to do is either park the car in front of the garage door at dawn or dusk, and turn them on. You’ll see if they’re working or not. Forwards or backwards, it works. It’s how I keep my daily drivers up to snuff.
For me, how far I’ve gone past the law is basically to run slicks on the street once a year to get my Dad’s hemi 4-speed GTX inspected.
I did some not so legal things when I was young, repeat, when I was young. After moving out on my own, Didn’t have money for car insurance. Did this for a year, a very nerve wracking year! Drove my Cuda to the muffler shop with open headers, that was fun! Also drove my Duster for a few months after the muffler got ripped off from a raised manhole cover.
A no license no insurance driver caused me to wreck my 1 year old Ranger. Broke my arm which caused me to miss 2 months of work, almost lose my house and had to file bankruptcy. Still had to make payments on the totalled Ranger. I had to sue my insurance company to get to cover my “uninsured motorist” coverage. So F anybody driving around with no license or insurance.
Speaking of project cars, what ever happend to Buford T Justice?!? my first car was a 90 capiche and i fell in love with Buford.
Brian Lohnes sold it. He has been very busy living his dream the last few years.
Took my car off the trailer and raced a guy in a old country road for $
drove the old mans late model dirt car to a car show at dairy queen in town. got a lot of looks the worst when trying to maneuver through the crowd into a parking spot with 10inch wide hoosiers and a spool and worst a transmission not designed to have any stress on it in first gear.
I’ll admit to getting a project car with lapsed registration on a very little bit of public road after it had started up and ran for the first time in a long time, and dealing with the appropriate paperwork later, but not more than a quick spin around the block to be sure the car is in working order.
My biggest adventure in undocumented car usage was managing to keep a car in college for an entire year without any rightful parking space, and only getting ticketed for this once.
Can we have the back story, i understand these guys weren’t breaking the law, the car show or meet is such a big thing in alise springs that the town and the cops let it happen. Brilliant.
As many of you of I have sins of youth in my past, since having to scrap to get by many a year as an adult (sorta), all my paperwork and cars have been legal for years. Having anything newish in California modified just doesn’t work for me, I enjoy thumbing my nose at PC/Snowflakes with my technically legal 1964 MGB (12 to 1 comp. .600″ lift roller SBC, 112 octane and additives in 91 octane, smells wonderful), 4-speed, almost restomod (nothing MG under body). Long live Built not Bought! (Yes i’ve had a couple of accidents involving people with no license, no insurance, no cares (no english), always cost me out of pocket, which sucked large)
Hey, did you guys know he has an MGB with a sbc in it? Shocking.
When I was young, dumb and full of cum, I drove a Mitsubishi Cordia hit hard in the rear end and with no rego or insurance 125 + klms to a prospective client on a busy Saturday afternoon (work in the wrecking trade ) who could not make it to pick it up, how I didn’t get picked up is beyond me as was as noisy as hell and on major roads and highway’s and me with a crazy hairdo to match, looked like a peasants circus was rolling into town and that’s just one of the many stupid things I did when I was younger