VC27151(a) + VC22350 - modified exhaust & unsafe speed, any advice?

[Gunnarrrrr]

Typical sunny day in santa cruz, driving down the widest, straightest, most well maintained 4 lane street in the whole county, light traffic, and I get pulled over after passing someone by a motorcycle cop. He cited me for going 45 in a 35, as well as a tint ticket. I already had one tint ticket that wasn't due yet, and had an appointment to get it removed just a few days later anyways, so wasn't a big deal. but he went back to his little bmw scooter, then looked at the back of my car for a minute, then came back with a third citation. modified exhaust. didn't ask for a db rating, didn't ask to hear it, just assumed those shiny tips weren't stock and wrote it up.

I'm about done letting these bullshit speeding tickets pile up. So you can understand where I'm coming from, this is my 4th in the last two years. first one for going 60 on HIGHWAY 17 in my s60r. during the small 50mph speed trap section of course.. then 33 in a 25, like wtf. then 81 in a 65 on highway 1, makes more sense. but now this? I don't think so.

for the exhaust, I have no plans to remove it. I do believe my setup is very quiet in comparison to what most of you guys are running, But I wouldn't be surprised if it tested around 100 decibels. Its the magnaflow 16601 system, but I am catless. I am thinking about a similar approach as described in this thread:http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...haust-Tickets?

I also tried to get the community service officer to sign off my exhaust this morning too while she was doing my tint tickets, but she was surprisingly competent in comparison to the others I've dealt with. I'll probably try again with another one.

Now the speeding ticket, I'm probably going to go with a template from ticket assassin. I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of "I was driving at an unsafely slow speed and was being tailgated and I had to speed up to pass someone and get into the right lane", as the cop did say that he "got me at 45 while I was passing someone", and there were quite a few cars behind me and in front of me. I would be doing a TBD, and the bail was originally about $800, but dropped down to 600 after I showed the tint correction.

If anyone has any experience fighting either of these two citations, please give me some advice. Should I do the TBD or contest in person and hold onto my money? any ideas on how I should pitch my case? thanks

[Raacerx]

My primary word of advice... V1.

As someone who lived in Santa Cruz for almost 10 years and commuted over the hill for many of them, the V1 was out and out the best investment I ever made. I got 3 tickets in 9 months, got the V1, never got a ticket afterwords. And that was with an S4 too.

[Copen-cisco]

Is Santa Cruz cops notorious for being after modded cars?

[Gunnarrrrr]

Is Santa Cruz cops notorious for being after modded cars?

there are few to none driving around here. 9.9/10 cars on the road here are Subaru outbacks, 90's 4runners, and priuses. I'd imagine cops get pretty excited when they see me driving around

[killerkali]

Well for the speeding I doubt there is much you can or should do besides paying it off and traffic school, or go the ticket assa$$in route which may work. For the tint and exhaust I have dealt with all too familiar situations here in Norcal. Twice ive gotten the modified exhaust citation , both times I went into central Sacramento as the police there care less about modifications. I explained how i received the ticket with NO db reading and I felt my car is not excessive in noise, they came out and had me start the car. Signed it off right there and laughed about the citing officer who wrote me originally LOL...... So best bet with the fix it tickets is find a friendly cop or go to a county you know they are cool in, I doubt it but you may even get the tint signed off if you are lucky or know someone . Good luck