Have you received a complaint about your Lemons car? (Page 3 of 3)

I rent a townhome in complex with an HOA, and keep my race car in the garage. I do all my work there too (including completely dismantling a parts car). Lots of opportunity to get hassled, so I make sure I'm on good terms with all my neighbors. If any of them need help with their car or anything else, I'm always happy to oblige. Seems to work well, as everyone enjoys seeing the car and never gives me any grief at all.

Irvine PD on the other hand, can eat a bowl of dicks. A few months ago I took The Homer to Cars and Coffee. It's not registered or insured (although it's still under non-op status with the DMV, so at least they have record of it) so I towed it there. I parked my truck and trailer in the back lot and then had to drive on the street for literally 200 feet to enter the main "show" lot. No problems there, but on the way out, I had to drive that same 200 feet back to where my truck was parked. There's always an Irvine PD officer on a bike parked at the exist to keep people from doing burnouts or acting like idiots. I actually appreciate that. So I figured I'd have no problem driving back to my truck as long as the cop saw I wasn't driving away down the road. I figured wrong. As I was literally 3 feet from the ramps of my trailer, he pulls me over (well, technically I was already stopped).

He was your stereotypical power tripping cop who grilled me for about 15 minutes. He asked why the car wasn't registered and insured, and I responded that it's an off highway race car. "Oh, this is a race car?" Granted, it doesn't look like your typical race car, but wouldn't the lack of interior or lights, added roll cage, racing seat, harnesses, and numbers on the side give you a clue? "So what would you do if someone ran into the car?" I dunno, bash out the dent with a hammer and hit it with another coat of house paint? "What were you thinking" about driving the car on "his street?" I was "thinking" you'd have some basic discretion and not be a douchebag when you saw I was clearly driving right to my friggin' trailer.

I apologized profusely (I literally said that, and he sarcastically responded "Well, if you're apologizing profusely, I guess you really mean it") and begged forgiveness while promising not to do it again. All the while, a crowd had gathered and was watching the whole thing. I was simultaneously annoyed and amused by the whole thing, so I kinda turned it into a spectacle. He finally let me go. Thankfully, a good friend of mine was there and snapped this photo. After the officer was clearly done harassing me, my friend walked over to me and the car, and the officer said to him in an aggressive tone, "Sir, please step back!" I responded that I thought we were done, and that the guy who walked over was my friend who was with me, so he could do what he pleases.

If you can't tell, this left a bad taste in my mouth. I had been told that Irvine cops like to harass people because they have nothing better to do, and this confirmed it.

We're extremely lucky for several reasons. Even though I live more or less downtown in Spartanburg, we have a decently large (1.5 Acres or so) fenced lot, and we're  the only non-rental house near-by so no one ever really complains. That being said, the sheer number of cars on my property is kind of insane at times. There are a couple of small houses on the property we rent, so there are the tenants cars, which is normally 5-8 cars. Then my 13 cars, including the Planet Express and two parts cars. When the race team is here there's 4 or 5 more cars. Plus four trailers. So, in this relatively small "compound" we end up with around 25 cars. I think 28 is the record.

Almost no one ever gives us a hard time about the Planet Express. One recent incident was kind of funny... My mom was in the front yard with one of our dogs, and a  student at the near-by college walked by. She looked at our race car and goes "Hey lady, is that a Taxi or something?" My mom replied "No, it's my son's race car. It's supposed to be a spaceship from some cartoon, I'm not really sure." The student immediately goes "Oh my God! IT'S THE PLANET EXPRESS!"

That was a good feeling.

But if you go down there, you better just beware of a man named Leroy Brown. Hmmm, epic theme for Continental/Eldorado racers...

Thanks. I was trying to work that line in the post somewhere.

Don't know either... As politically moderate me said to my vocal-Libertarian father... "I don't understand why you pay out of pocket to comply with one more level of government than I do!" He had a hard time coming up with a retort...