Originally Posted by illogical

It's called "probable cause". It is perfectly legal and constitutional to conduct a search based on probable cause. It's the same as if a cop sees what appears to be part of a crack pipe poking out from under your car seat and searches the car.


That's a good point. Unfortunately, enough of those deaths and crimes come back to street racing to cause law enforcement to crack down on anything and everything related to street racing, including modifying a car, legally or not. I'm not saying it's right, in fact, I think it's wrong and that the time could be better spent.

There are those who modify their car (illegally sometimes) and do nothing but race on the streets. But there are those of us who modify our cars to do better in things like autocross, rallycross, track days, etc. Law enforcement has a single track mind, if a car is modified, it was modified for street racing.

Any outward sign of possible illegal modification is more than enough reason for a search of the engine bay. Yes, the engine bay, nothing else. They can't search your glove box if you have an i-Club sticker.

Originally Posted by earlyapex

Is that a TR/WRX/STi? So many different things going on there I can't even tell which side is up.

Originally Posted by illogical

Debadging, while not illegal alone, does present an officer with probable cause to search your car for illegal modifications under the hood. Other examples of probable cause...

- Stickers (yes, an i-Club sticker counts)
- Window tint (even if it's stock)
- Hood scoop (even if it's stock)
- Non-stock wheels
- Wing (STi wing, not so much a WRX wing)
- Lowered stance and other visible suspension modifications (got pink or blue?)
- Extra gauges
- Carbon fiber

All of these came from my uncle who is a Union City PD officer