This is funny in that I started the car right after lunch today without ample warning to the wife-god who was on the opposite side of the garage wall in the kitchen!

I went in the house and fortunately she had a smile and made it known that exhaust was the top of my "to purchase" list!






My neighbors are all cool since they all either have cars or I've done brake jobs/repairs on their daily drivers.

I am fortunate enough to have one neighbor with a loud VW conversion trike on one side of me, and a the other shoots guns and rifles all the time so they have no room to talk.

I did put 3 1/2 inch pipes and bullet mufflers on my car to quite it down so it doesn't make as much noise however.

I had my 493 on a test stand in front of my garage and a few of my hillbilly neighbors came over with a six pack to listen to the open headers and the smell of racing fuel The ones with the barking dogs that bark EVERYDAY can listen to me a few times a month when I "rotate my tires" out in front of the house
Gus

I dont have open headers as I have always run the 63 with the exh on it but it is kinda loud with 3" pipes and Ultra-Flow mufflers. Neighbors are cool but the couple next door had a baby last year so when I come home on wekend nites after cruising somtimes at 11 to 12 oclock I shut it off as soon as I roll in the driveway. Then I open the garage door and fire it up and pull right in and shut it off. Just trying have respect for thier baby but I have not had any problems. Ron

My wife and I married in 93 and just purchased a house in a neighborhood full of 1/2 acre lots and a large town home community behind us. I had just built a full roller 378 and drove it everywhere with full 3" exhaust. Once or twice I fired it with open headers but could not stand the noise myself. My 100X30ft driveway was my launchpad.

I was once accused of driving down the road at 10P every night. Not true I was usually in bed by then or close. One Friday I was off from work and was doing hole shots in the driveway, 100ft long drive. Did not know the police had been called. I had water down in one lane to heat and dry in the other. Things were going good. I got a bottle ready and turned the NOS on. About the time I finished the burnout and had staged in the dry lane. Lil sherrif was parked in the road in front of my driveway. I decided to let go of the T-brake anyway. Their eyes became very big. But, they simply drove on knowing I was not going to listen to any BS.

Some new neighbors moved in. I was doing holeshots again. My freind who was helping me tune the car on the brake noticed the new kid next door jumping on his trampolin trying to get a peak over the fence.

We have sense moved to a 13 acre lot with a lot of driveway. Problem is it is still gravel. So I pull the truck and trailer out of the garage and do 80 ft launches through the garage.

Leon

Like others here i dont run my car late at night or early in the mornings .Most of my neighbors are cool as i have loaned them tools ,answered car questions ,etc .Only trouble is the guy right next door who has called the law on me twice since he has lived there.The Police told me that first off they had to hear it personally before they could do anything ,and that they would not do a thing unless i was deleberatly trying to be a pain making noise.I explaned to the cops about having to load it / move it from time to time ,and they told me infront of my neighbor to go right ahead .My neighbor hasnt called the cops on me since that 3 way conversation ,lol ...

For years I did repairs, welding, fixed flats, loaned tools,etc., for the neighbors.

Hell, I even held the annual block party; my prep time and a lot of it at my expense. I actually enjoyed doing all these things and felt good about what I was doing.

I only ran the car when I had to, followed the by-laws. I actually started the car, minimal warm up and coasted out of the neighborhood. On the way home I often coasted into the neighborhood as quiet as possible.

It only took one person to threaten me, insult me, and call the by-law enforcement. He was 89 years old, red in the face, screaming at me. He also tried to turn the neighbours on me. I lost all happiness in what I was doing.

I won the by-law, and most neighbors said they believe that anyone should be able to do what they want on their property within reason; but I should not be taking advantage of them.

The block party no longer happens, I don't fix their cars or help with home repairs, and no longer have that tool they want to borrow.

I still help 3 sets of retirees in there late 80's-early '90's. Small home repairs, take them to doctors, cancer treatments etc.

Sold the truck, the motorhome, car hauler, FED, project car, and my test mule.

Down to one ride. When it comes back to life, no one is going to stop me from driving it whenever I want, day or night.

Humm ..... Define neighbor....

I have no problems... I live on 8 acres and the closest
neighbor is 300 yards away... I was teaching Doug,
my driver how the car worked and launched in my driveway...
we did maybe 25 burn outs and no body said a word
but it was LOUD doing 6000-8000 rpm burn outs

My neighbour didn't know i had a Drag car until i fired it up .

The family across the street thought I had an excavator working in the back yard, when they heard the rumble for the first time.

No one has told me to shut it off, infact 1 day after seating the rings with a few whacks of the throttle about 5 of them showed up to see what was happening.

1 house , the neighbourhood Sheriff, doesn't "really appreciate" the noise but doesn't object either because I don't abuse them with the noise.

My noise is NO worse than the Speeding Soccermoms taking their brats to school that race up and down the road.

My old neighborhood was Greenhills Golf Club....they barred my Dart from the entire complex before I even moved in....they all know me so well here. I wasn't even allowed to pull my 40' into the gates. Im a whole sub section in their HOA rules now. After 5 years I left there......rented my house to a Mariachi music producer. Bought 5 acres about 1/2 mile away....can see it plain as day across my river.....now they can here my Dart and ZO6 doing high speed runs.....lol

Usually don't start it up to late but all the neighbor's are Amish so they couldn't call to b#*ch if they wanted to. As you can see in the pic my neighbors arn't that close.

I have great neighbors. One is 93 and says that she appreciates it when I start the race car as it gets the ticker going.

I think I'm going to have a problem with my new neighbors that moved in across the street from me. Yesterday afternoon the new neighbor came over to complain that I was making too much noise. I was using my Mikita grinder in my garage. She said she had no idea that this neighborhood would be so noisy and she said she wouldn't have bought the house if she would have known it was so noisy. I guess it didn't help that we could hear the Division 7 race from Firebird at the time. LOL

I am building a new exhaust system - so I was using the Mikita, and a Sawzall all day yesterday and today. I waited until 9 am before starting today, and never make noise past 9pm. I've been here for 18 years so far and have never had anyone complain about anything. Who knows what the reaction is going to be when I fire the thing up. I'm hoping for the best.

had one neighbor down the street drive his dragster up and down the street to get some time on the new motor, must of had a few new motor's a couple years ago, neighbor behind me has a low 9. super-pro Ford ranger, so no problem with any of mine,,I do go next door and warn the 86 year old fellow that lives there when I get ready to start mine up, don't want to startle him too bad, but he does say he likes the sound of it.

i used to live in a semi tight suburb in a 3 bedroom house by myself. i was the only resident without a dog, didn't need one as all the kids in the street would come n look at my car & talk to me & tell me who came n went & gave me the car plate #'s. i think i knew the kids better than their parents.
one sunday morning i'm loading the 'cuda on the trailer at 7am. 5600 stall converter, open headers was like the calling signal & all the kids would come n watch as i loaded up & tied the car down.
this one kid sez. "my dad thinks you're a d1ckhead!". wow really? "yeah he does, but i think you're cool". wow thats nice mate, thanks alot. "yeah, i wish you were my dad, you're way cooler than him". wow, thats nice mate, thanks alot. so whats your dad doing now? "probably mom", hmmm, conversation over, didn't need to know that.lol. funny thing was, if any neighbours car broke down, it was me they'd send their kid to to ask for help. one even jacked me up with his sister, ugggh.

Not really a race car, and I'm not in the neighborhood anymore. But here goes. Was breaking in the cam on my R/T, .509 Purple Shaft, open headers, '69 HP 440. Had it running for a good 20 minutes at variosus RPM's. After I shut it down the neighbor two doors down pulled his Nova out of the garage for some reason.
The people behind me really hated me and my neighbor, but it wasn't because of cars. It was because they hated everything. Not having my yard look like a golf course. Weeds beside my shed. The cars were one thing they never called about. The in laws a couple blocks away knew when I was out in the garage, though...

I am lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it, I keep my race cars at my race shop at work.
I run a top alcohol dragster and rebuild the engine and clutch after every run.
I used to have a bar across the street from my shop.
I have only started my car twice here in 10 years of racing it. Can't start it inside the shop, it would blow everything off the walls. It must be outside.
One time the bar across the street emptied out to hear the car run. Another time my 8 year old dog freaked out because he has never heard it run, in 8 years of hanging out in the shop.
I rebuilt the motor scores of times and never started it until we get to the track. It's alot of work to start the car and takes 3 guys to do it. I drain the fuel after each day and pull the push rods.
I have 3 motors and can change them quick if something was wrong when I got to the track, there never was anything wrong with them.

I would never do burnouts or launches on my private property unless I had acres to play with a safe runoff area in case the brakes failed.

I find it real stupid for people to do that in there driveway if you have neighbors anywhere close.

I lived in my home also for 27 years, I earned the respect from them(neighbors) by not being stupid and helping them out. I would trust them with the keys to my house and garage.