One of the cons of a car guy in a small country town.

49cc mopeds brrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

This is the "be a crotchety old man" thread

I live on a quiet street. We used to be able to hear the motorcycles tearing up the canyon in the Colorado Monument (aka federal land), but that stopped when either the rangers or the motorcyclists realized it was a road with no escape routes. Someone has recently been exercising what sounds like a full-on Pro Touring build up and down the local streets, making a most impressive amount of noise and leaving burnout marks. Kinda dumb, we're only a couple of miles from empty roads, why do it in a populated area where other people will get in the way? He's being consistent enough that it's only a matter of time before he gets badly busted.

If I hear a turbo spooling up, it's probably a Cummins. Or my own

I often say I live in a small, rural town sandwiched in the middle of the suburbs. A good number of houses in my neighborhood have derelict cars sitting around. My neighbor has nice GTO Judge along with a couple of other old GM A-bodies. His buddy often shows up with a late 60's Camaro with vintage 80's/90's custom paint (black with funky graphics on the side). A guy on the corner has a custom chopper (that he likes to start up at o-dark early on weekend mornings...).

Not that I can talk... my LBC's aren't the quietest cars in the world and I'm sure few people were still awake when I used to leave for work at 5am in my '95 Cummins with a 4" straight (no cat, not much of a muffler) exhaust.

Then there is the usual stuff: crotch-rockets screaming up and down I-95 which is less than a mile away... and brodozers with car-backs making me think something interesting is driving by. More H-D's rolling by than I can count.

Quiet in my 'hood for the most part. On the weekends there's a bunch of RUBs who dig out the Harleys or the metric V twin cruisers with loud exhausts (remember children: 'loud pipes save lives') but at least they are nice enough to short shift so as to keep the noise somewhat reasonable. There's a couple of jerks who drive really jacked up 4x4's with stupid loud exhaust and have a bad habit of running the 3 way stop sign half a block from my house but I hear them maybe once a month. I have probably the most unusual cars around here, I'm sure I'm known as 'That Guy'.

There are two kids with dirt bikes but I very rarely hear them, that's a shame.

I hear every ricemobile, crotch rocket, and pack of Mad Max cosplayers on unmuffled dirtbikes (they make the few local Harley riders look good) on the highway that's maybe half a mile from me.

In my neighborhood the only loud vehicles are a GSXR600 and a neighbor's AE9x Corolla with performance exhaust...and soon mine too, but I might put an insert in it to quiet it down a bit more on the street.

I get everything from unslienced bikes to diesel trucks rollin' coal, and back to striaght piped 2002 Camaros. The police station is a few blocks down and they are usually polite enough to not use a siren after they go through the traffic lights at each end of the valley im in. The one that really made me laugh was the spool of a turbo from over the hill. Ford Explorer Interceptor running lights, no siren. I was expecting a WRX.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to patgizz: You mean cool like a Duramax?

exactly. like the diesel whirring turbo noise i heard last weekend, and when i turned around there was a d-max 65 impala. if it were in a truck i'd be disappointed.

in my "hood" which is a rather not so great part of the town, my apartment is 5 feet off a one way road, and every morning i hear the 1996 corolla with a rotted flex pipe sputter by, then the drug dealers 3rd gen eclipse auto, some ass hat on a street bike with no can... and thats all before i make a coffee

I don't really have neighbors but my road is pretty busy with people heading into/out of town. Lots of American Muscle, diesel trucks and Buicks. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are like a car show with all the farmers driving their classics into town for shows.

I live out in the country, right before a curve in the state highway. Unmuffled jake brakes on semi trucks at 5 am appears to be all the rage.

Really miss the 4 months in 2008 when the highway got washed out in a flood.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

I have a buddy who's pretty much a Mustang guy. He's convinced I only like "Jap crap" because I only turn to look when I hear an interesting 4- or 6-cylinder car.

He fails to realize that I only quit looking when I hear V8s because 90% of them around here are crappy pickup trucks.

N Sperlo wrote: The police station is a few blocks down and they are usually polite enough to not use a siren after they go through the traffic lights at each end of the valley im in.

When I was in STL I lived directly off of Forest Park Parkway just east of University City. All the hospitals were at the east end of the parkway and it was the most direct route to and from the west side suburbs.

I swear to Bob that the ambulance jockeys had an unwritten rule that they would run the whole length of the parkway wide open with continuous siren and horn between midnight and 5 am, when it was perfectly safe to lie down and stargaze in the middle of any intersection along that stretch of road.

I live down the street from a community college. Lots of ricers still in community college, apparently.

Also a lot of modified Subarus.

And some guy with an electric motorcycle - I was confused by the gear whine but no other noise the first few times I heard it, but once I managed to see him I figured it out.

In reply to clutchsmoke:

I'm also in IL; there are 5 Harley's just on my street (short dead-end) and I swear all of them are left to idle for at least 10 minutes before the riders take off. My parents have ridden Harley's my whole life and, until I lived here, I liked the sound. Now I very much prefer the lawn-mowers like whine of my old XS400, if only it could drown out the other idiots.

I'm starting to feel the urge to put a broom by the door and chase the neighborhood kids off the lawn with it. Except the neighborhood kids are my own...

There's a bunch of young guys up the road a bit, mostly in their 20's. They spend all day and night going around in circles, screaming out towards the beach at full throttle, then turning back for pass after pass. If it weren't for them, it would be as quiet as a church around here....

Swank Force One wrote: Mustangs with straight pipes and sirens here 24/7.

^This. and Harleys/sportbikes hauling ass down Mission Blvd.

You folks are lucky. In my neighborhood I'm "That Guy". One Subaru in the garage about to lose its engine. Parts car in the driveway. I can't do much outside without potential complaints. One guy down the road with a STi and right beside him a guy with a Cobra replica. Other than that just appliances.

I am that guy around here too, my neighbors wait to see what will be ripping up the neighborhood when I bring something different from the shop every weekend

I used to be one of the two guys in my neighborhood. The other one moved two days ago.

I always look up when it's a bike or car I'm hearing, curiosity I guess, but they don't bother me.

I could do without the 12-time-a-day fire department calls for service though. We're not even that close to the fire station, but on a major road close to two major limited-access freeways. If it's raining during rush hour we basically get nonstop sirens from 4:00 to 7:00. (Fun fact: Central Ohioans cannot drive in rain.)

Lots of sirens all night. Occasional gun shots. Metra and L train noise. Ricer exhausts. But when I am at school, there are always italian exotics driving by, so that's good. Chicago is weird.

And I'm the shiny happy person that has an Abarth; parking spot is off the alley right behind the building, and my exhaust points right at everyone's windows. Cold starts are fun.

Around here, there are folks of farm trucks, ratty looking 4x4 and diesel and there are a lot of nice trucks too...I am the odd guy with a Buick Regal.

Fire house is 6 blocks south of me. Hospital is 1 block further. Nursing homes are 3,5, and 8 blocks north. After living here for 39 years, we don't even notice the sirens anymore.

I must admit to having been "that guy" as well. Half the time my '88 accord only had a down pipe and a glass pack. Both neons had been noticeable with stock exhaust, let alone when the second one had the fart can from the P.O. Now my current car is whisper quiet.