Last Saturday I wanted to go out to dinner, but the wife wanted a nice, 'quiet' evening at home. Who was I to protest? But we still needed to take care of dinner..... and I really wanted to drive the Stradale. So off I went for some take out! And of course I hit my favorite twisty bits!

On the way back I took this great section that has a sharp left, followed by a downhill, sweeping, high speed right that heads up hill into another right-left. It's only about 2 miles, but in Phoenix you gotta take what you can!

As I hit the left, the road is dead empty, so I figured I would give it some welly! I am gathering speed Stradale fast (with the windows down and digging the F1 music), and as I get ready to nail the apex of the downhill section, my Valentine tells me that I am about to spend some time in traffic school! On the carbon ceramics I stomp, and cruise past my maybe 'new friend'. Let me tell you that it's very hard to be inconspicuous in the CS, as it is very loud. But as I head up the hill, I don't see any lights, and for a fleeting moment I thought about stomping on it to make a quick getaway. But I didn't feel like being on an episode of cops, and remember this thing is almost F1 loud. So I continued at a reasonable pace.

What seemed like hours later, I see some red and blues behind me, so I pull over and prepare for my tongue lashing. When he approached the car, he asked me if I knew why he pulled me over. I stated that he was probably bored and wanted some company and talk about cars, and I flashed a toothy grin. Stone faced, he took my license and headed back to his car. I figured that this was going to be ugly, as I wasn't exactly crawling when the V1 went off.

Here he comes, but I don't see a ream of paperwork. He hands me my license and starts talking about the 'line' I had through the corner, and then he wanted to know if this was the 'racing version' without the radio. We probably talked cars, Ferrari's, braking zones and apexes for the next 10 minutes, before he let me know the speed he got me at. He then told me to watch for animals and have nice night. My pounding heart retreated from my throat, and I head for home.

This wasn't a kill, but it sure felt like a win! Oh, btw, the rest of the 'quiet evening at home' went well too! Good Saturday night!

 

LMAO! That's a frickin' great story Dino, thanks for sharing.

What was the speed??

 

Get a go pro video camera, I swear your videos would go viral on youtube!

 

Thanks. It turned out well. As for the speed, since this is a public forum lets just say that that it could have been very ugly....... he calls for back up, tow truck and hand cuffs! Yikes!

Maybe he liked the car or my attitude, or he just didn't feel like filling out LOTS of paper work. He made my day!

I just bought one of those and I am trying to figure it out. I have a track day this Sunday, and I will get to try it out.

I don't know if the videos would do as well as telling the story itself. These things happen so spontaneously that I would have to be wired like Jim Carey in that movie (whose name escapes me).

 

Nice story, what kind of exhaust are you running?

 

sweet!

why is your MINI only 185hp?

 

I have a system from Harmony. It goes from the headers...... back. It came on the car when I got it. The stock system came with the car as well. My guys dialed the ECU in for the exhaust, as well as the intake. We are at ~460hp now.

I thought it would be too loud, but I am definitely enjoying it.... as well as the extra power.


That is what we could get out of the MINI.

 

I've never heard of Harmory, but those look like test pipes. I dont see a muffler or any cats? Must sound crazy loud. I put a Capristio Stage 3 on mine and its not really loud, more of a certain melody from the exhaust.

 

I put down 240whp on my '06 R53. Big valve head, long tube header, pulley, JCW airbox, JCW GP TMIC, cam and bigger injectors. There was a day where it was impossible to break 200whp but that ended about 2005/06 or so. I've seen others break 260whp on the stock M45 blower. That's about the functional limit (need to go rotrex to get beyond).

 

The first gens used to come with up to 220bhp from the stock 1.6 supercharger in europe....GP version it was called...the newer 1.6 turbos are a bit harder to tune, they're stuck at 208 in top stock form but still a whole lotta fun

 

Yep. I was about 60-70hp up on a GP

 

Sweet, I don't doubt given how awesome they could be from the factory. How was the tq steer at that power? Did you have the lsd?

 

Yep, the factory option. I also ran wider rubber so that helped. The power was very linear and peaked up high (208ft/lb at peak around 6k). Torque steer was never really a problem but whenever I'd let someone drive, I'd always say "don't get on the throttle without both hands on the wheel". Had a friend with a 500whp Subaru STI drive it and he came away amazed at how hard it pulled and how linear the powerband was.

But, enough about MINI's! This thread is about a 'near miss'

 

........ and now back to our story!

I had never heard of Harmony either. There are some cats down there. Pre cats are gone. The headers are a very cool looking 'spaghetti' tangle. There are 2 small mufflers in the mix. As for sound..... mama mia!! F1 stuff!

I was at the track last week and my buddies said when I was running the people were going to the fence and out came the video cameras!

The Capristo 3 makes some great music!

 

It's always nice to hear about Law Enforcement officers that "get it", ones that can use a little common sense and factor actual reality into their decision making and ticket writing process. Obviously you were on a road with little or no traffic, probably not harming anyone and he was smart enough to see that you were in complete control of your vehicle. He could have had the "I'm gonna teach this rich *****" attitude and thrown the book at you, written you several tickets and had your vehicle towed and/or impounded. You should have offered him a ride or or offered to let him take a spin in it on his day off, at that point he would have felt so in debted to you that you probably could have held sactioned races on that stretch of road whenever he was patroling it LOL. Glad to hear your story had a happy ending. Unfortunately I have similar stories but the majority of them resulted in tickets and fines being issued.

 

Great story nonetheless, it's awesome when cops act like human beings rather than soulless, mobile badges!

 

I think 'attitude' had allot to do with the end result. When he approached the car, he first asked if i knew why he stopped me. I cracked a smile and joked about him being bored and wanting to talk cars.

 

Glad to hear it was a happy ending.

 

The 'Happy ending' occurred when I got home!