Ok so here's my hilarious, yet scary story...

Saturday night, I picked up my car from the dealership after having an oil change and the CEL turned off. As I was on the freeway coming back home, a cop appeared from no where and was tailgating me with no headlights or any other lights on. I could see that the rear of his light bar was on directing cars behind him to change lanes to the right. I figured maybe he wanted to pass me, so I changed lanes to the right, moving from the number 1 lane (fast lane) to the number 2. The moment I changed lanes, he cut off the car behind me so he could stay right behind me. It was at this point that I was like WTF. No sooner did I say that, then did he turn on all his lights and the blue and reds that we all fear. I wasn't speeding or making any fast lane changes. I was cruising at 70mph, with the flow of traffic.

I exited the freeway and pulled over as soon as I could. The cop runs up to my car.
"Who's car is this?" the officer asks.
"My car, Sir," I answer. He nods, totally not believing me.
"Where did you get on the freeway."
"Beach Blvd." I tell him. He doesn't believe me. I’m freaking out; waiting for him to pull me from the car. He was extremely pissed.
"No, you got on at Magnolia!"
"No Sir, I got on at Beach Blvd. I can verify that. I just picked up my car from Beach Mazda in Huntington Beach on Beach Blvd."
"Oh, then I must have the wrong driver," he retorts. "I'm looking for a high powered, silver exotic car that got on the freeway at Magnolia and flew right past me."
"Well Officer, I'm sorry but that wasn't me." The whole time I'm thinking what car is he talking about. I didn't see any exotic cars on the freeway. I’m still freaking out.
"Let me see your license."
"Yes Sir, of course." So I reached in my wallet and grabbed my license. He looks at it only briefly and tosses it back to me.
"Drive safely," he said as he walked back to his cruiser.

So finally, my father, who had been following me home from the dealership, calls me. "He thought you were the Ferrari didn't he?" I was like "Huh?' Come to find out, some punk in a silver Ferrari Modena got on the freeway at Magnolia and drove down the shoulder of the freeway at 100+ mph. Being in the fast lane, I never saw him.

The cop thought I was the Ferrari......not a bad car to be mistaken for....

Interesting story... the officer was confused because you must have debadged your car right? ;)

No debage....He must have been totally blind to not have seen the HUGE Mazda RX-8 badges on the back of my car...

I'm not really sure how can people mistaken this car for any other. When I stop at gas stations to fill up, swarms of people come up to see the car and ask me either: 1) Cost $70'000.00 or 2) Is a Dodge Viper . I'm starting to wonder if Mazda even put enough badges on this car! lol

Does this say more about Mazda or the officer?

Stopped at the post office, an old guy passes the front of my car and says to his teenage son "That must be the new Toyota Supra, see the 'T' on the front?"......

As I get out I say, "No, it's a Mazda, see thats an 'M'"

"No," he says "it's a 'T', and it's the new Celica Supra" in a loud voice.....

Whatever, he must have been older than he looked.......
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doc

interesting story! I would assume you were on the 405? definately more chp there during the holiday time!

its just amazing how many people look at the car and assume its something else. I have been asked its the Audi TT or similar car..

Originally posted by Doctorr
Stopped at the post office, an old guy passes the front of my car and says to his teenage son "That must be the new Toyota Supra, see the 'T' on the front?"......

As I get out I say, "No, it's a Mazda, see thats an 'M'"

"No," he says "it's a 'T', and it's the new Celica Supra" in a loud voice.....

Whatever, he must have been older than he looked.......
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doc

The old man yelled back at you?! :confused: It's funny how people think they know more than the person driving in the freakin car :p

I work off beach blvd
cops around here will pull you over for anything

Originally posted by stangmatt66
No debage....He must have been totally blind to not have seen the HUGE Mazda RX-8 badges on the back of my car...

He should have been driving with his headlights on so he could read the badging on the car. I guess since he was trying to be sneaky he couldn't read any of that behind the glare of your tail lights.

Originally posted by Doctorr
Stopped at the post office, an old guy passes the front of my car and says to his teenage son "That must be the new Toyota Supra, see the 'T' on the front?"......

As I get out I say, "No, it's a Mazda, see thats an 'M'"

"No," he says "it's a 'T', and it's the new Celica Supra" in a loud voice.....

Whatever, he must have been older than he looked.......
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doc

That's funny as hell

Originally posted by stangmatt66
Ok so here's my hilarious, yet scary story...

Saturday night, I picked up my car from the dealership after having an oil change and the CEL turned off. As I was on the freeway coming back home, a cop appeared from no where and was tailgating me with no headlights or any other lights on. Sounds like the cop was very good, but this is still an unsafe act on his part.
I wasn't speeding or making any fast lane changes. I was cruising at 70mph, with the flow of traffic. Well, actually you were speeding -- there are no 70mph zones in that part of OC. But it doesn't sound like you were driving unsafely.

As far as the rest of the story, it's great! Just a case of mistaken identity that gave you a mild heart-attack! A real compliment to the guys who designed the body style of the RX-8.

Oh, yes -- don't be too hard on the cop everyone -- I'm sure he was looking at the whole car and at traffic, not at badges! At least I HOPE so.

Originally posted by Doctorr
Stopped at the post office, an old guy passes the front of my car and says to his teenage son "That must be the new Toyota Supra, see the 'T' on the front?"......

As I get out I say, "No, it's a Mazda, see thats an 'M'"

"No," he says "it's a 'T', and it's the new Celica Supra" in a loud voice.....

Whatever, he must have been older than he looked.......
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doc
Old people...sheesh. Where's a Soylent Green machine when you need one?

Originally posted by S3/P3/E2
Old people...sheesh. Where's a Soylent Green machine when you need one? Hey! I resemble that remark.:D

My wife says the same thing about me. Guess I'm next in line at the machine. "Now Serving - 02...03...04"

Only people that ask me about my 8 are the creepy gas attendants.:( CJ

Mazda's RX-8 rear light s= round.

Ferrari rear lights = round.

Car passing cop at 100mph on hard shoulder(only getting a breif look) = vauge.

siver spors car with round tail lights = silver sports car with round tail lights.

I'm sure given a good look at both no one would mistake the rx for a 360.

nice, I'm in Beach and Magnolia all the time, I used to live in Fountain Valley. I got my RX-8 at Beach Mazda too! Cool story. Here is one for you guys - I raced a Lamborghini Murceilago a couple years back with my 2001 Celica GT, to say the least I got SPANKED and flames shot out of his exhaust and that thing roars like no other. Not to mention he sped by a cop going toward him and I and we both slowed down.

Originally posted by Kaliken
I would assume you were on the 405?

On the 22 (Garden Grove) actually, but close enough... ;)

Hey, what's with ur sig about Tustin Mazda. You've prob put this in another thread but what's your gripe?

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
Hey, what's with ur sig about Tustin Mazda. You've prob put this in another thread but what's your gripe?

Read here to begin with.

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16490

I won't even begin to tell you how useless their sales and finance staff are...Okay, maybe I will...After 3 months of ownership, I barely just got financed because of the incompetence of their finance manager Tim. He made the deal without securing financing, ran my credit through no less than 6 different lending institutions (I have the rejection letters to back this up), never called me to notify me of anything or bother to return my phone calls to him, I had to sign papers with him twice because of his mistakes and never once did I receive an "I'm sorry" or a free tank of gas or car wash as consolation. He blew up in the dealership showroom, in front of customers and my family, over my deal, screaming at his assistant, Kristi (the only helpful person working there), that he didn't give a f*ck (his words, not mine) about my deal and 'what did he look like, the guy with all the f*cking answers.' He repeatedly told me how much money I have cost him over this deal and acted like I should care...I went directly to the general manager and then to the NEW general manager, after the old one was mysteriously replaced, and got nowhere with either...All in all, it was a VERY bad buying experience...I have purchased or been in the office during the purchase of a lot of cars, and I have to say that this was the WORST deal I have ever gone through...

And trust me, this is the abbreviated version of the story...

and this is why my sig says, "DON'T SHOP TUSTIN MAZDA!"

yikes.. bad experience.. I was almost going to buy from them but Browning had a car closest to my specs. yikes.. Well at least you got the 8 and thanks for the heads up!

Originally posted by stangmatt66
On the 22 (Garden Grove) actually, but close enough... ;)

I should have known! I am in cypress., and I still haven't seen many of us on the freeways!

all i have done is test drove the car but boy did i get some looks, i think people were thinking what the hell is a kid that young doing driving that expensive of a car. i kinda liked the looks the women gave me :)

Saturday night ... [the cop] was tailgating me with no headlights or any other lights on.

I love it. Every so often, I'll see a cop parked around here with his lights off, trying to catch speeders or drunk drivers. The catch is that he's parked in the center turn lane, not off on the shoulder. Talk about dangerous.