So tonight me and a couple friends were cruising (Me in my car, and the other two in a truck), and we stop by 7-11 on Portmouth Blvd. in Chesapeake. The first thing I notice is a cop car in the parking lot. So, I get my gas and we decide to head out and go to K-Mart to check something out. Since the cop was in the parking lot, I made sure to accelerate slowly and shift early to keep my muffler as quiet as possible (Magnaflow exhaust system. Has a pretty deep sound and can be loud when I'm accelerating fast). I pull out of the parking lot and turn left to go to the stop light. My friend is behind me in his truck, and the cop just happens to decide he wants to leave now. The light turns green and I take off very slowly. Halfway through the turn I'm going 20-25 in 3rd gear and I see the blue lights flare up. He almost hits my friends truck trying to get to me.

So at this point I'm like, aww shit. First of all I think he was rude, and he kind of had an attitude with me, trying to intimidate me. Anyway, he asks for my license and registration. I give it to him, and he tell me that my muffler is... get this, "WAAAYYY too loud." First of all, my friends truck is one of the loudest vehicles I've ever heard. He has a Flowmaster exhaust system and it sounds like a mean-assed muscle car. My car muffler compared to his is like a bumble bee compared to a gnat. Somewhat. Keep in mind that he's right behind my friend's truck, but he hears MY muffler. So apparantly this cop has bionic hearing that only targets bright colored import cars. The point is not that he should've pulled my friend over. (That's the last thing I want since he's been pulled over for an improper muffler before also, even though most trucks are generally loud anyway.) The point is that there's no way my muffler was loud enough for him to hear it that much over my friend's muffler. My friend was right behind me and could barely hear it.

So anyway, he tries to intimidate me into just getting it fixed and paying the ticket off. Bullshit. I'd like to know what he was using to judge the sound of my muffler. I also don't like how he was talking to me, even though I treated him with respect and did everything he asked of, he still treated me like a scumbag. I think this cop was basically picking on me because of the looked like a stereotypical street racer. Bright colored import (red) with a young guy behind the wheel, shiny muffler, few decals on the back window. I basically have 2 months to get my stuff together to figure out how I can go about beating this case. My friends already volunteered to be witnessess. I know it may be difficult since nowadays you're guilty until proven innocent.

I'd like to know if anyone on this forum has ever beaten a case like this one before in VA. If you have, what process did you go through to prove that your muffler wasn't "improper."