call me weird but i would be more worried about the bloke who just downed 10 pints and hops in his car rather than the guy who has spent a few hours cleaning/going over his car so he can take it out for a cruise
 
10 pints and driving home
 
or
 
blow off valve/ under 100mm in height, ect
 
the latter dosnt cause risk, but gets penalized 

My escort came factory with non retractable seat belts, and as such cannot be defected. I've even had comments/compliments about them from police when passing through an RBT :)
Are the laws different in NSW?

ratta tat tat
My escort came factory with non retractable seat belts, and as such cannot be defected. I've even had comments/compliments about them from police when passing through an RBT :)
Are the laws different in NSW?

Im with this comment. I thought Mk1's didn't come out with retractible seat belts? I think its more about the age of the belt and if its in good working order. If its a standard type in good working order i dont see a problem there... But not sure if its actually law here in NSW.

He then goes on to the "non standard" exhaust comment.. how would he know that? So a bit of a contradiction from the above. Also I doubt there is any escort on the road with its original exhaust. Obviously if its too loud etc fair enough but thats a different story.

I doubt the escort would be too loud. For one, it's a pinto (quiter than a xflow) and two, turbochargers quiten exhaust systems by acting like a muffler.
 
 

I try to avoid truly bad, opinionated, commercial, journalism like aca, but here I am, sucked in, with a head full of steam....
So this is my story....
17 years ago I bought a shiny RS Escort and within an hour got a speeding fine, next was my first yellow sticker, I took a picture of it and framed it in pride, as with the second, third, up to the seventh one. I still have them and it makes me cringe... My car was wrong and so was my attitude toward the police....
The RS car sat in Dad's garage for a few years while I moved on in life, my passion remained, but it was more aimed at trucks and machinery, I learned a lot about the road rules and better still mechanical sympathy.
A few years ago I picked up a low mileage Cortina, she's beautiful. I was nervous about driving a old car again and soon we came across our first officer... He just drove by and gave me a thumbs up, and so did the second one up to the seventh...
Inspired I've dug out the RS again, we're gonna be doing it right this time and I can't wait to be pulled over.....
Life lesson learned............
 
 
 
 

Suttonmotorsport
......... I wonder if the time and resources could be used to address more serious issues in the community, such as drug dealing, rape, murder, child abuse, homelessness, mental health issues and other life changing events.  Hoping off my soapbox now. 
 
Rant over..................
Cheers
Craig

Completely agree with this comment. The thing that especially annoys me in this case is that the cars were pulled over in King's Cross on a Saturday night. The police had a number of resources tied up doing this in an area which is rife with exactly what you have described in your comment.
 
 
By the way I have spoken to the owner of the Escort about it and in his case it was a complete beat up. The cop was an absolute **** especially when the cameras were rolling. The RTA guys were infact very good, engine wise there were no issues, all the polution gear is connected and it passed, it passed noise as well. It wasn't defected for the seat belts either. 
 
 
 

im not sure about cops these days but in the early ninety's they had no bloody idea, i use to do the drag scene at campbelltown nsw which everyone use to hung out across from the police station, never drag myself, i just liked hanging out and seeing cool cars,
 
one day i got defected in my A9X Torana for bold rear tyres, mind you ive just bought them brand new two days previously, took it to the place where they take the defects off, and they just laughed and said how dumb the cops are,
another time i was at the meeting place just siting there and letting people look at the A9X, had the bonnet open, and a cop came up to have a look under the bonnet and said its that a v8 or a 6, hmm if you dont know the difference between a v8 to a strait 6 then how the hell can they defect a car

This is what sh*ts me about ACA. They distort the truth to make a story more sensational, about embarassing first-world problems. Completely unworthy of air time. This might be a good story to report to media watch! 

thats bad  i thought the cops in the uk were bad 
you can lower a car as much as you want here lol
 

Theres very few police officers that actualy kno wat they are looking at wen it comes to engines yet they can still hand out defects and fines wen they r clueless as to wat they r actualy fining u for... That is wat annoys me the most...
Its always been the same though if you go to well known cruise spots/meets ur bound to get pulled over if your car looks in anyways illegal...

Wen my escort was in the road i used to get pulled over for a 'random breath test' every time i sor a police car without fail... I had nothing to worry about because it had a basic 1.6l in it... Its still annoying though... was at least twice a month