Corvette Owner Manages to Escape the Cops Two Out of Three Times
Corvette Owner Manages to Escape the Cops Two Out of Three Times
From street racing to the Bullrun, ‘Superspeeders’ Rob Ferretti has a history of mixing police with Corvettes.
There are plenty of things you can do in your Corvette. You can take it out to a track day. You can do some time on the quarter-mile. You could even go on a weekend road trip to a fabulous hot spot.
What you shouldn’t do in your Corvette, though, is attempt to outrun the cops. Yet, this is something ‘Superspeeders’ Rob Ferretti has done at least three times. Ferretti sat down with VINwiki to tell those stories.
“When we used to street race back when I was younger, it was on the Garden State Parkway,” Ferretti says, “right by the border of New York and New Jersey. It actually sounds perfect, right? It’s right as you cross in the border… a little vestigial arm of the highway that doesn’t really serve a purpose for either state to patrol… It was a popular street racing spot.”
Ferretti says the starting line on that arm was next to where the police turned off in their patrols of the area, while the finish line was nearly a quarter-mile away under a sign informing drivers the New York State Thruway was a mile away. The spot was quiet enough for tons of street action, but one night, Ferretti was set to race against someone in his C5 Corvette when the police made a rare appearance.
“The next thing you know, I see a car coming in the opposite direction, [and] I’m like, ‘This could be a cop.’ Then he turns into the ‘No U-Turn,’ which is right next to me. You see the stripe, the state police stripe, on the side of the car, you’re like, ‘Oop! That’s not good.’”
ALSO SEE: 2019 Corvette ZR1 Night Drive Cinematic
Out of the “mass of cars” lined up for the officer to bust, Ferretti’s C5 captures their eye. With a clear road ahead, Ferretti punches it with the trooper close behind. His goal was to put enough distance between him and the state police to have more deniability once the latter loses sight of the prey.
After a close call with a driver in the left lane, Ferretti and his C5 landed at a friend’s house, where he traded for his friend’s Lexus to complete the escape.
The second time Ferretti successfully evaded the police was when his friend Amil had obtained a 997-era Porsche 911 GT3. Living in the same building was a mutual friend of theirs named Danny, one of the few Ferretti would ever let drive his Corvette. Thus, Danny drove the ‘Vette, while Ferretti drove the GT3, which was when the police showed up.
“There’s this bus stop underneath an overpass there,” said Ferretti. “I start to get on the throttle, but I see a cop coming off behind us… Danny doesn’t see him, and he’s in my ‘Vette, which was supercharged and loud at the time.”
Danny floors it in Ferretti’s C5, which immediately gets the cop’s attention. Ferretti decides to let Danny deal with the police while he gets away, only for Danny to think Ferretti is trying to race him. The C5’s engine gives up the ghost, going up in smoke while Ferretti pulls away to land behind a Home Depot. Moments later, the smokey ‘Vette arrives to the shock of Ferretti, with no police in sight.
“Then, there’s times when you think you should run, but you shouldn’t,” said Ferretti. “One of those times was when we were on the Bullrun. [The] same Danny, but he was in his Corvette at the time. He bought a Mallett C6 supercharged Corvette, which was quite fast.”
ALSO SEE: Corvette Grand Sport Review: The Sweet Spot
While racing from Lake Havasu, Arizona to San Diego at speeds of nearly 200 mph, the duo pass by two police officers, finally caught by the second officer. Ferretti thought he could talk his way out of whatever trouble he and Danny were about to experience (especially after brake-checking said officer in his Ford GT, which forced him into the median).
“I think what saved us here, that we only got away with a ticket, was that we were gonna be on the same road for a while, and the other cop that we passed was so far back that [they] may have been [in] different jurisdictions,” said Ferretti. “That guy didn’t come to go deal with us.”
Instead of being hauled off to jail, the duo escaped without having to rely on anyone to bail them out from “a one-way trip to jail.” And while the experience may have been “fun” for Ferretti, we don’t recommend trying to do any of this in your Corvette.
