It wouldn’t be Ocean City without the tickets or shenanigans.
That being said, some people have a really rough go of things from the get-go, either due to their own actions or the actions of others.
It was Thursday morning in Ocean City and the unofficial H2Oi ‘show’ was just getting started. The influx of modified cars followed by an increased law enforcement presence was pretty easy to spot. At this point of the week, a handful of cars had already been impounded and dozens of tickets and countless warnings had been cited.
For Ryan and his Mustang, Thursday was not off to a good start. Now before I get into the details, I just want to be clear that I am not endorsing illegal modifications or shenanigans. Do I need to say it louder for the people in the back, or those who will skim the story just to rage in the comment section? This is just me trying to document what happens at this event, warts and all.
Ryan and his bagged Mustang had just arrived in town and it didn’t take long for him to draw some unwanted attention from two troopers on his first cruise down the strip.
He received a few tickets on the spot including one for an expired license (it had just lapsed), one for an unsafe vehicle due the Mustang’s front camber, and one for his license plate being covered.
This wouldn’t be the last time that he would be pulled over that day. In fact, it was only just the start. Ryan ended up being pulled over four times over the course of three hours and was separately ticketed each of those times.
I was sitting down for some of what I was told was some of the best eats that Ocean City had to offer – a large seafood platter at Belly Busters (legendary crab cakes included) – when I spotted Ryan being pulled over (again) just across the strip.
He pulled into the Tap House parking lot with a few police cars behind him. All I could do was watch while chowing down the remaining bites.
I hastily paid the bill and jogged across the street to see what all the fuss was about, just as the cops were leaving.
As it turns out, Ryan’s luck had just run out and he was set to be impounded. However, because he pulled onto private property the officers could not have him towed.
If the police caught him driving down the road again, they would seize the vehicle and that would be that. Ryan’s hotel was just four blocks down the street which left him with an interesting decision to make: break the law, drive there and hope not to be caught, or hire a flatbed to transport him the four blocks to his hotel. I think you can guess what happened next…
After flagging down a few other Ocean City guests, Ryan laid out a plan for each car to take a lane behind him in order to box him in, so that anyone behind the row of cars wouldn’t have a clear view for those four blocks back to his hotel.
With the order of cars set and who would be in each lane, it was time to give it a go. While I would have snatched the opportunity to shoot rollers of this procession, I ended up driving a rental Dodge Caravan so my good friend, Sam, could video the show for his after-movie.
As we came closer to Ryan’s hotel, we spotted a few police cars on the other side of the strip heading in the opposite direction, and watched our speedometer creep a little faster in order to make haste.
We followed Ryan into his hotel parking lot as the others honked as they blasted down the strip. He had made it.
It was just the beginning of the week for him and he was already sitting close to $500 in tickets alone, along with a guaranteed impound if he was caught driving on the strip again.
I asked him if he regretted it and if he’ll back next year and his response was the same as many others who had been on the wrong side of Johnny Law: “It’s 100 percent worth it… H ell yeah, I’ll be back next year.”
That’s the beauty of Ocean City, regardless of the ticketing and police presence, the ruckus will continue. In this case, it was only Thursday…
Keiron Berndt
Instagram: keiron_berndt
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
I can' even concieve of this mindset lol. If i got $500 in tickets in one day, the increase in my insurance would price me out of car ownership for years, that'd probably cost me my good job and then my place. An impound on top of it would ruin me on the spot! These guys are nuts
The cynic in me also wonders how much the town benefits from a presumably large surge in ticket revenue. They outwardly must hate all these cars if they're going out of their way like this, but at the same time if I knew that every year a bunch of hipsters with tons of cash would be coming down, already knowing we'd ticket them to hell and back, I'd look forward to it. Thanks for the new pavement on 45th, hashtag!
Does the price of the insurance rises because of tickets in America? how does that work? Just curious, I'm not american and I have no clue about how your insurances works.
Over the years, I've bought two cars where the owner could afford the car but could no longer afford the insurance because of their driving record and ticket history. We're talking massive insurance costs from pretty terrible driving records though.
I can't speak for everywhere but in Ontario (Canada) insurance companies look at any sort of driving event (accident, ticket etc) to determine your risk factor and thus rate.
Location also increases your rate and distance you drive to work.
Really a light breeze can raise your rates it seems.
I'd like to know too. Maybe we can get an article on traffic enforcement around the world? #tickethunters
In the USA, I believe the only reason your insurance increases after a ticket, is if the ticket has "points". There is no direct link between tickets and insurance in the USA, when the insurance company does their semi-annual, or annual driving record checks, the points will show up. Other than that, your insurance won't increase just because of a repair order, or a ticket that doesn't have points
Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!
In the century the automobile has been with us, nearly every car manufacturer has gone out of business, with only the absolute strongest still remaining.
In that same time, how many insurance companies do you think have gone out of business?
They freshly paved the entire strip this past year, no doubt money came from tickets. #longlivethestrip
And you know this how?
This is funny as hell.
Should try to build a car to see who can get the most tickets the fastest.
He who gets the vision...
This was a fun article!
I think we need one occasionally to balance out the "car culture in Japan is perfect" stories.
Love the gameplan to box in the Mustang for the short trip back to the hotel...that's something friends are for! But i laughed again when I (think) the supporting cars were just as modified!
His front camber is ridiculus !!! why do people do those things ?
Otherwize the reste of the car is nice IMO
Is it really? Yeah, it is pretty aggressive, but we've all seen worse... also, if it's bagged, couldn't he just pump it up a bit?
Not a fan of this stance scene tbh - to me these are "all show no go" cars. Just ship them to Ocean City, park, take some photos for the insta crowd, and avoid tickets for driving something undrivable...
Why do people do most questionable things?
Mainly because human beings have a design flaw that makes us so desperate for the approval of the group, we'll do just about anything to fit in.
I think I'd rather just stay out of ocean City and use that ticket money for more car parts, but then again im not an attention craving millennial so.....
Man, i cannot even image what it's like to have such a "terrific" day. $500 in tickets? .....
I would've given him a ticket for wearing that douchebag flatbill.
Well at least he didn't flip it like the white one. H20I forever send it!!!
Could this be considered harassment? Like this is excessive...
Ugh, and it had to be a face-lift S197 GT.
If I were a cop I'd tell him all tickets would be rescinded if he went back to a proper roadcar suspension. ; )
This isn't even shenanigans. An expired license that had 'just lapsed'? That's just being lazy and irresponsible.
I do appreciate your journalistic look into this event, but you, as a journalist, cannot be offended when your audience points out the obvious. Whatever you are doing, you are reminding us that within our scene, there are some people who just don't give a crap about others.
Yeah that bit raised my eyebrows too. I'm not normally one to judge someone for expired tags, because I never know what kinda struggles theyre going through, it might be the only way they can get to work and not starve.
This guy is obviously not starving. Just go down to the DMV or renew online! All you gotta do, "bruh". Did you WANT that ticket?
In any other situation, in real life, if you encountered another driver with an expired license (or, in Canada, expired insurance) and had an incident, you would go ballistic. If they drove a new BMW, a rusty ass ol' Stanza, or a very 'nice' modded Mustang.
If your car isn't legal because of modifications, that's maybe one thing, as laws regarding that can be kind of draconian depending on where you live. But if you as a person cannot drive legally, you take transit.
If there is no transit available to you, and you are starving, maybe that's okay, yeah. That does speak more to an issue with societal infrastructure than anything
Now I'm all fired up from this! Damn!
Just a little question: why would anyone drive a car with an expired license into a town which is crowded with cops that are on the lookout for giving tickets? Isn't this just... hmmm, ... dumb?
Drive whatever you want, as long as it is for you and others at least as safe as the original car/truck/...
Do with your car whatever you want, that is my opinion. But when the cops don't like your car, try to avoid them.
This is the second or third article about getting tickets in Ocean City. What is the point? I mean really, why do have more than one "article" about this? I mean, I remember when I was 15, and getting a ticket was all the friends wanted to talk about.....
The town has made it obvious it doesn't want the shenanigans associated with a large car meet. So move on. By keep going, and creating a situation you are only hurting the hobby/lifestyle.
Or even better - instead of complaining and making stories about how oppressed the people going there, against the town's wishes, and giving the police lots of revenue....how about talking to the city council and police and working things out? Worked for years with a show/cruise some associates and I were involved with.
Sorry, but story after story about this is juvenile. Either fix the situation, or move on.
While I did have a good laugh at the driver and car, I agree with you, giving them exposure like this only makes them heroes in their heads.
I didn't realize this was a series of stories about ticketing. In that case, wow. #moreNaveedarticlesplease
I always find it fitting when a car is as moronic as the owner. All is right in the cosmos.
What kind of douchebag tries to look cool shooting a twin lens two-and-a-quarter?
Yeah, but now I kind of wanna see his photos
True. Like to see if his output met his pretensions.
This is silly. Driving a stanced car to the most ticketed show, but too lazy to renew your licence? You know they’re going to ask when they pull you over for whatever reason, even if you’re not breaking any other laws. Once they see your licence is expired they’ll find lots of reasons for tickets.
Almost as if he let it expire just to be the cool guy with the most tickets in a day.
Agreed.
It's not quite as stupid as forgetting you've got your carry gun with you when you walk into the airport, but it's dumb to create an avoidable problem.
those cops need to chill
If you are gonna do the stance thing then have some pride and taste. All these hackjobs look the same, over fenders , big stupid wing, oversized wheels with ridiculous camber. Less is MORE.
It's not really warts and all coverage if there's no "and all".
Driving an illegal, modified car at a location where cops are known to be hard on modified cars, and getting ticketed, is really not that surprising. Or article worthy.
I'm looking forward to the segments where someone got told to be quiet for yelling in a library, or to put their phone away while trying to make a call in a plane that's about to take off.
I'm sure there's plenty of cars that went there, got pulled over, and didn't get $500 worth of tickets, and has a fun time. Because they took the time and effort to make sure their cars were legit. To me that's a much cooler insight than some dude with more money than sense.
Kinda juvenile story as someone said... . Over-cambered like that certainly is unsafe although not at 35mph cruising speed; not my cup of tea and I don't like it but to each his own. License? everybody mentioned it already. Lowered plate... couldn't he make an aluminum riser bracket just for this trip? I would be proud to beat the system with ingenuity like Smokey Yunick did in the 60's by researching before the trip and laughing in the face of Johny law when I can outsmart him, not to be the dumbest guy at the event shot down 4 times in a row.
It's easy to feel bad for mustang owner until you notice "send nudes" sticker on side mirror. DB wants negative attention
I've got to admit - I too am tired of hearing about tickets at the not H20i show. A bunch of people did stupid things at a non-sanctioned car show, and it gets multiple stories on Speedhunters. It's time to shitcan this discussion and focus on some other things, like IAMSH articles and other more interesting things.
If you drive a stupid car, stupidly, and get tickets - whatever your problem. For years I've driven heavily modified cars on the street and to many car shows and I've never had these kinds of problems...
So, neither the vehicle or driver meet the standard requirements for legal road use in OC? So, shouldn't be surprised when stopped and ticketed by the first traffic officer that other TOs do the same.
Personally, I'd have left the vehicle in its garage until I was able to drive it legally and it was legal too, happy that I'd saved myself $500 for more tats. Just saying...
Take this with a grain of salt because to each their own, but i applaud these officers at least for the camber safety ticket. Had a local put his BRZ into a truck on the highway, causing a rollover, due to stressing the OEM components endlessly, and one day... SNAP. Extreme camber is not cool, it doesn't look good (i've done automotive art and design since i could hold a pen, aside from photography and design, but what do i know). 0/1,000,000 does a massive cambered deep dish wheel EVER look decent with a cars natural body lines and geometry. Before you start crying, yes, i do GeT iT MaN. Its a trend and isn't one that is supposed to fit in. I absolutely love cars with a moderate track camber set up and even a bit more within reason (yes including bagged cars), but as far as it seems on this forum, i should have a barbed wire baseball bat stuck half-way up my arse in the name of "style, uniqueness and rebellion", serving no real purpose other than to look stupid, and putting myself and others at risk. This Mustang is just as much of a mistake as the officers thought. Appears to be a gaudy half thought out stance attempt with a giant wing, and i'm scared if that's the case. Oh well right! Either way don't expect cops to buzz off when you're rolling around in a literal death trap. Hopefully he learns. Im no boot licker but ill be damned the day my kids are killed by some stanced turd deathtrap after a car show...
Lucky that collapsed 5.0 was #builttopark or he'd be in for $2k by Saturday
A question - do we have an actual number on how much static front camber that you can have on a car and still be legal?
Screw cops! They suck so bad! Now I understand they are needed, but still they are highly pesky for modified car owners like us. It drives me nuts! Cant they just understand what big wang gang and camber is and ACCEPT IT?! I mean it is THE THING! ACCEPT IT, LIKE IT OR NOT!!!!!!