Illinois neighbor from Hell threatens loud muscle car owner, says she’ll make it a problem for him

This Illinois Muscle Car owner just dropped $40,000 on his pride and joy. No way in heck he’s going to not enjoy it.

It’s an unwritten fact in American neighborhoods that you’ll have a handful of neighbors with loud cars. Just as long as they don’t blast up and down the street or excessively idle their burbling big blocks do we tolerate their hobbies to some degree.

So, color Chevrolet Nova owner Micheal Markus surprised when one of his neighbors had the cojo*nes to confront Micheal over his newly acquired $40,000 1965 Chevrolet Nova packing a 584 cubic inch Big Block engine without an ounce of muffler packing from the exhaust manifold to the exhaust tips.

In his three-minute encounter with this….Karen, Micheal concedes to his neighbor that his car is loud but says he drives it away once he starts it up. Even when he points out that the only bothered person is her, this neighbor vaguely throws out some threats.

I’ll let you watch it for yourself below and here’s a video of the car in question.

The first minute of the “conversation”, you know this encounter isn’t going to end well because she lays all her cards out on the table.

“I’m one of your neighbors and your car is really loud, like my windows rattle, and it’s been a long time, and, like, I don’t want it to become a problem. Does it have to be that loud?”

Micheal shoots back that,

“Well, that’s how the car is, it’s a racecar. I was fixing it so it’s loud. It’s going to be like that every time I go in and out.”

When she asks if

“There’s nothing you can do? I don’t want it to be a problem, you’re not giving me anything? It’s been years, you know this is loud, my windows rattle.”

Micheal is hard on his response.

“No, it’s a racecar. Listen, I’m not going to drive the car. I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m not going to do it and then do it, I’m going to drive the car. I go to work and come back with it. I don’t leave it running for for hours. I was fixing it right now, yah, it’s daytime…I’m going to drive the car, I just bought the carI’m going to have fun with it, it’s my toy.”

Since there’s no meeting of the minds, as per usual with these sort of encounters, she drops this bombshell, the ace up her sleeve if you will.

“Well then, we’re going to have to have other means of intervention here because it’s really…noise ordinances here because it’s a residential neighborhood and you are not being very neighborly…I’m going to make it a problem.”

At this point Micheal explains that literally no one has ever complained, not even his own next-door neighbor, bless his heart.

“What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do!? Blow up the car? Just throw it away? I just paid $40,000 for the car. What do you want me to do with the car?!

Before walking away she doubles down on her threat.

“…The noise is going to be your problem!”

Here’s a photo provided by a commenter of the car in question. Just looking at it, you know this Nova is one mean mother ******.

View post on imgur.com

My .02

Neighbors complaining about loud cars is a tale as old as time. I’m sure Pharoah had Egyptians coming to him complaining about loud horses.

These kinds of arguments are rather touchy because we’re talking about a $40,000 investment in one’s happiness, not some cat getting into a backyard that can be fixed with some chickenwire or a nude neighbor that can’t afford a $5 curtain.

You can see this neighbor’s mind is racing a mile a minute, her twiddling her thumbs, upset, but keeping her kettle from boiling over.

This could’ve really devolved into a shouting match.

Micheal could’ve handled this a tad better, hitting the same points in a non-confrontational way. But, when this neighbor threatened other recourses, can I blame him for being so brash?

Unfortunately for Micheal, like most states, every street legal car in Illinois is subject to exhaust laws, generally that you can’t modify your exhaust to be louder than what stock is.

According to Illinois Car Laws,

To summarize, any exhaust systems on vehicles registered in Illinois must not produce “excessive or unusual” noise. Aftermarket exhaust systems or any exhaust modifications must not in any way amplify or increase noise normally generated by vehicle’s original equipment.

Michael states, “It’s not like I can muffle the sound?”

Uh, yes you can, they’re called….MUFFLERS!

But, what good is a big block Chevy with an ice cream paint job if you can’t blast loud pipes to hear that burbling cam?

To meet this neighbors demands requires you to silence that big, beautiful engine, not to mention thousands of dollars in exhaust work.

And to burden your fellow neighbor with an expensive repair job is, ironically, also not neighborly.

All I’m saying is Micheal could’ve been more diplomatic.

Sometimes all neighbors want is an honest effort, to meet them halfway.

Maybe Micheal could’ve agreed to keep the revs under a certain RPM within earshot or keep his speeds below 5 MPH while he’s in the neighborhood.

Or, at least consider more conservative mufflers. I know Magnaflow exhausts are a lot quieter.

After watching this video, I’m on the fence. I’d like to side with Micheal but he definitely could’ve handled this situation better.

Then again, it’s not like he’s doing daily burnouts.