[flying bullitts]

I know some of you might think after reading this that I'm out of my mind allowing a 17 year old to drive my Bullitt, but my son is fairly level headed, mature for his age and has earned my trust over the years.
One afternoon last summer I tossed the keys to the Bullitt to my boy so he could see his girlfriend who lives in the country about 15 miles from our town. Lets face it, he's a 17 year old living a dream. It was well after midnight before he got home that night and I was waiting up at the door to hear his excuse. It was a whopper.
After leaving the girlfriend's house he hit the main road leading to Smiths Falls. It starts off as a long straight stretch of road before it gets into some curves. Looking in his rearview mirror he noticed a set of headlights in the distance. In just a few moments those same lights were right on his bumper. As my son was only traveling at 100km/h...that's 60 mph to you folks in the US...he stepped it up a little to shake loose the tail. The same headlights were still glued to the rearend of the Bullitt with no intention of backing off. My son started to get a little paranoid at this point. Was this someone who was out for some "fast and furious" action or someone with some other dark reason? Panic took over and my son put the hammer down on the Bullitt.
With speeds exceeding 150km/h or 90mph on the curving roads, as he related to me, his only aim was to get into town where it was populated. Once in town he reasoned if they hadn't backed off by then he could head to the local police station, or stop the car and if the odds were in his favour drop the gloves if need be.
Just at the town limits that menacing car behind my son transformed itself into an OPP crusier....that's Ontario Provincial Police. With the red lightbar flashing at my son , he quickly pulled over. I can chuckle now at how my son must have felt a that moment. Here he was just over 17 year old, running from the law in a fast ride. A fast ride that he thought he might never get a chance to drive again in his natural life.
The officer who was an old veteran listened to my son's explanation as to why he was traveling 80km/h over the speed limit. That's a $ 300.00 fine and several point off your driver license in Ontario. For reason unknown he let my son off with a warning and spent the next 15 minutes talking about the Bullitt. He had heard about them but this was the first one he had laid eyes on. He gave the Bullitt a 10 out of 10 on features and looks. He also was most impressed in how the Bullitt handled the corner in the pursuit into town.
Who knows, if my son had been driving the family Windstar he might not have gotten off so easily. Lesson learned...however not the most easiest way!

 

[BLT5103]

I had a similar experience in 1988 in my 1987 GT. I had driven to Atlanta from Kansas to visit my mother and was heading to her home in rural Roswell after visitng some high school friends that I had not seen since my last visit.

The roads to my mothers house wind and twist through the hills and are good smooth pavement. I had stopped at a T intersection at a stop sign and was waiting for a vehicle that I could not see real well that was approaching from my right. The vehicle traffic to my left and right did not have a stop sign so I waited for the car to clear the intersection. Instead of driving past me the car slowed down and stopped short of the intersection. Puzzled I waited as they had the right of way. It was late so after about 15 seconds I decided to go ahead and turn left heading south with my car now in front of the car that was now moving behind me. I drove the speed limit until this car got right on my tail dangerously close to my rear end at 45mph. I sped up a bit to put some distance between the persuer and my car, yet they stayed right on my tail within 3 feet of my bumber. I wondered if the person driving the car had ill intentions so I dropped the hammer and took off, the car behind me struggling to keep up as we wound our way through the hills towards my mothers house. We hit speeds between 70-80 mph when I made a hard left and sped up the hill to my moms house. I hopped out of the car just as the car that had followed me rolled up with a spotlight on me and the Mustang. Lo and behold it was a county mounty that slowly cruised by, turned around at the cul de sac and cruised off never stopping to confront me. At first a was afraid then mad at the tactics the officer had displayed. I guess he figured I was running dope from Kansas or back to Kansas and ran close behind to see what I would do or to run my plates.

I suppose he realized he had done wrong and would have gotten hammered in court had they stopped me and ticketed me. Scary nevertheless since I had no idea what or who was messing with me, and for no apparent reason...

 

[6treva9]

Great stories.

flying bullitt...I know how your son felt.
As a female driver, I sometimes get that same panicked feeling while driving late at night.
In some distorted way, it's the reason I drive fast cars! I want to know I have the power to get away from ill-doers...or whomever!
I would have done the same thing...run like hell, I would NOT have considered pulling over just to see!
Thank god for good endings!!!

 

[flying bullitts]

Just a post script on the Hot pursuit,
A while ago I spoke with a friend of mine who is an officer with the police force in Ottawa and told him of my son running from the law. He commented that had the officer charged him with speeding my son stood a good chance of getting the charges drop in court. He explained it as a sort of entrapment. Maybe that's why the OPP officer gave Nick a warning instead.

 

[Bull5093]

I can certainly agree with your son's actions. When I was in college, I was making a trip back to school after being home for the weekend. I had left late at night and I was still quite aways from my apartment at school. It was about 1:00am on a Sunday night. I was on Interstate 4 down here in FL. For people that know the area I was between Orlando and Daytona Beach which is pretty empty. Anyways, I notice some headlights coming up behind me. This car changes lanes and starts to pass me but then matches my speed. I say to myself OK, so I slow down a little. This person slows down and again is next to me. So I speed up a little get ahead and resume the speed I was going originally. Again this car comes up next to me and matches my speed. This time I downshift to 4th and shoot my 91 Escort GT up to about 85-90 for a little while and then resume about 75. This guy comes up and sits out to my left again. Finally, I say the H*$# with this and downshift to 3rd revved the 1.8 up and maintain 90+ until I reached Daytona. If I ended up getting stopped by the PD, the first words out of my mouth would have been "Am I glad to see you!"

You are not crazy about the letting the 17 yr old drive it. My uncle let me drive his 1988 Porshe 928 S4 when I was 17-18 and all it did was give me an appreciation for the finer things in life. :bullitt: :-B

 

[Badkharma]

You Bullitt-owner cops...are there reasons as to why police do that?? I think it is wrong, it has also happened to me. Tailgating like crazy!

 

[BULLITTBRO1]

I too have one close to that, but a budy of mine was driving> He had just gotten his first car an 86( i think) Olds Well we pull out and all of a sudden a vehicle which looked to be a SUV got right on his bumper well being the way he is he kept going faster and faster ( there was no place to pull over) on this narow country road( faily strait) well at 65mph my budy is cussing and throwing his hands out the window and waving the guy by. He never passes so keith bumps it up to about 75 ( this is in a 45) same thing gets right back on out bumber with rail road track comming up about a mile from us he figures he will put his foot to the floor until the tracks so here we are at 86mph with this suv still on our rear. SO I told him to remember the tracks and so he puts the breaks on as we aproach the tracks about 500 feet from the tracks the speed drops to 35 as we pass the 35mph sign the blue and red flashes come out. who would have guessed it was the game warden . Tried to pull a fast one saying we were doing 90 in a 35 didnt go over with my friend to well as he explained and cussied at the officer. I dont know how we didnt get a ticket or end up in jail that night but got away with a verbial.