Loud sidepipes really do set off car alarms!!!

750hp · #1 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 02:50 AM

I had a funny experience today. My insurance company offered a sizeable discount if I had a passive ignition immobiliser fitted to my car. I booked the car in to one of our better "Competition Stereo" installers to do the job.

When I drove the Cobra into their installation bay, every single car parked within the premises first let out a quick chirp (as the motion sensing car alarms always do), and then all hell broke loose. There must have been 10 car alarms going off, with the shop staff scrambling around pressing remote controls left, right and centre!!!!

Life is good!

stush · #2 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 03:40 AM

If you really want to create havoc, drive through a parking garage. I did this by accident when I first got my car. Will never do it again.

Stu

rdorman · #3 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 04:13 AM

Hell I do it on purpose. I get the biggest kick out of setting off the alarms. Can just cruise on by and off they go! Like a rolling thunder storm.

There is a local technical college that is just full of cars with home installed alarms that talk, flash, chirp and beep. I drive that lot on purpose and leave the area looking and sounding like and arcade gone crazy

So many ways to enjoy a Cobra!

Rick

Wayne Maybury · #4 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 05:02 AM

It seems like most of the car alarms I set off with the Cobra exhaust, only do their thing for 5 seconds or so, then they shut off. Last week I set one off that went through the full cycle of a multitude of different sounds. The car was parked a hundred feet before a red light so my wife and I sat there at the light listening to this stupid thing making all kinds of sounds. The light finally turned green, we were off but that alarm was still going. Hope he had a good battery.

Wayne

Rich · #5 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 05:27 AM

As soon as I hear that warning chirp, I must make the alarm go off.

Rich

Roscoe · #6 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 06:42 AM

I just can't help myself sometimes. It's so much fun...especially Porsches!!

Roscoe

Rich · #7 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 07:33 AM

Hey, Hey, Hey! Porsche drivers are people too...at least the ones who drive older 911's.

Rich

Alex Donghi · #8 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 07:45 AM

Works specially well in parking decks

CSX 4039 · #9 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 08:11 AM

I did it in the doctor's parking area of a large echo-y nursing home complex at 2 a.m. after visiting a sick patient. Next day, the nursing home administrator called to tell me it woke up 30-40 residents, who all complained about it, asked for Ambien, and went back to sleep. He asked me to not drive the car their again after 9 p.m.!

Hal Copple · #10 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 09:46 AM

My SPF's really really loud exhaust gets me in constant trouble with the Head Nurse of the Nursery up in Charlotte. But at home, if i have to leave in the middle of the night, i push it out of the garage, and let it roll down the driveway, and jump in the cockpit as it rolls out into the street and down the hill and then fire it up. I even rolled it over my foot several nights ago!!

But i aggravate that Head Nurse every chance i get. If you go thru an airport parking garage, you can about increase the national terror level one level just by yourself, with all the racket you cause in there.

Jamo · #11 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 10:14 AM

I visited a friend of mine who is the service manager at the local BMW dealer. They always have the cars locked and armed on the lot. When I was leaving, I went up and down three rows of Bimmers and made sure ALL of their alarms worked.

Excaliber · #12 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 10:17 AM

When my boy comes out for the summer he loves to go "alarm hunting" with me. If we only make one chirp, it's "no score", ha ha.

Parking garages are worth less, alarms there are like sitting ducks.

Ernie

hodgey · #13 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 06:44 PM

I usually just scream at the top of my lungs as I casually coast by, with no motor running, and the ignition key in the off position. That usually sets off alarms real, real, good.

Randy Rosenberg · #14 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 07:20 PM

A couple of years ago, I took my wife up to Sonoma for the weekend. I signed up for the Advanced Driving Course from Jim Russell Racing at Sear's Point, while my wife was to spend a relaxing day at the Sonoma Mission Inn Spa, pampering herself with a message.

We drove up on Friday, and as we pulled into the Valet parking of the resort, the rumble of the twin pipes interrupted a wedding that was being held on the manicured lawns. Ok, I can deal with this. But, I'm not gonna let a valet park my SPF - nope, not gonna do it. So the valet shows me to the underground parking lot, and specifically leads me to a space by the front, next to a wall, so I only have to deal with one car on the side.

The next morning at 7AM, I head out to my SPF, with my gear in tow, to fire her to head to Sear's Point. The Inn is silent. There's a light overcast that enhances the quietness, and there's no breeze at all. I can almost hear the flip flop of my tennis shoes echo against the resort buildings.

I enter the dark garage and find my Cobra. The lights are on motion detectors, so start to turn on. I get seated, strap myself in, and turn on the ignition. I look around to see if anyone else in the garage. No one is in sight, but I do see a whole slew of Porsches, Beemers, Mercedes, and a couple of Rolls's, caddy's, and your father's buick.

I hit the starter switch, and my 460 roars to life. It coughs and sputters. And then, every single car alarm in the whole damn garage start going off. Knowing that my 460 needs to warm up a bit before it can even idle, I just sit there patiently keeping the throttle at 2000RPM, and listening the symphony of 2 dozen car alarms trying to complete with stereo sounds of my thunderous sidepipes.

A few moments later, I popped her into first, and took off to Sear's Point with a big smile on my face.

Later that day, I caught up with my wife. She admitted that she has a good chuckle that morning, 'cause she knew exactly what happened - she heard it all from our room.

Funny stuff...eh?
Randy R...

Spoony · #15 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 07:28 PM

My SPF will be here tomorrow or Thursday I got the Ford Racing 460/535hp motor. Anybody ever hear this combo, how does it sound?

FIA Mike · #16 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 07:35 PM

I must say it is great fun setting off car alarms. My favorites are the "rice grinders" with the garbage can exhaust pipe. Too funny watching those guys scramble to reset their alarms.
Oh bad me. Bad bad me.

FIA Mike

ERA 626 · #17 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 09:36 PM

Randy,
That is SSSOOOOOOOOOOOOO Funny LOL

A Snake · #18 (**permalink**) 06-17-2003, 09:55 PM

I wasn't as lucky with the annonimity part of setting off alarms.

A warm sunny day with no breeze, just before school ended for the summer, I dropped by the highschool to give my boy a ride home.

Very quiet in the parking lot as I rolled in and the engine was just idling. I pulled up and stopped, turned the engine off and waited for my boy. A few minutes later, he came out, got in the car and belted up. I then fired the engine and bipped the throttle a couple of times to clear it out before I drove away.

Second bip did it. Must have been 15 car alarms going off all at the same time! My boy and I and all of the other students waiting for parents, got a real kick out of it.

Next day, the school principal called. You can guess the rest. No more throttle bipping please!

My boy was in seventh heaven at school next day with all of the attention he got from the other kids.

Too bad the principal had no sense of humor.......

Al