Imagine you’re an honest tuner shop owner who just put away a car after testing it in your parking lot, and suddenly swarmed by police armed with assault rifles insisting that they just heard machine gun fire coming from your shop. That’s exactly what happened to Enrique Mendoza.
Mendoza had just been testing this modified Acura Integra in his parking lot—not on the street since such a burnout would be illegal. This Integra is equipped with an anti-lag system. This is a way for cars to keep the turbo spooled while the engine is off the throttle, eliminating the turbo lag that often exists when getting back on the power. It works by dumping fuel into the cylinders and igniting it while the exhaust valves are open, causing the boom to spin the turbo rather than power the car. This is also pretty loud, especially on cars with open exhausts.
Two police officers near Mendoza’s shop heard this noise and mistook it for machine gun fire, which was then swarmed by cops demanding to know where the gun was. Mendoza appeared extremely calm while officers armed with actual machine guns surrounded and searched the area around his shop, even when they found a BB gun.
Naturally, Mendoza was confused by the accusations. When he denied there being any gunfire one officer allegedly called him a “fucking liar.” But eventually, he figured out what had happened, and explained that the sound had come from his car. “Show me,” the police said, not believing him for a second (I know what that’s like). Mendoza calmly got into the Integra, started it up, and gave the police a few seconds of anti-lag pops and bangs. When he emerged from the garage, the police shook his hand and the misunderstanding was immediately cleared up. They even appreciated him doing his testing in his private parking lot rather than a public road.
Mendoza seems to have taken this all in stride, despite the initial attitude by police which could be argued to be excessively cranky. We’ve reached out to Mendoza to learn more about this encounter, as well as his Integra GSR “AK-47 Edition.”