"Underground Street Racing" article on Jalopnik

[zeitgeist57]

https://jalopnik.com/how-la-s-underground-street-racing-scene-and-the-fast-a-1825723732

 

I'm reminded of how old I am, as this article was a nice memory of my 20s during the early part of this board as well. I didn't street race like many OG's on CR, but when you encapsulate a sub-culture over a 20+ year period into a well-written article, it's interesting to see how far we've come and how fun it was back in the day. I hope the younger guys I see at CC&C are having as much fun with car culture as many of us did when we were in our teens/20s/30s...

 

While it's sad to see some of the "sideshow" activity in other major cities, stunting has been around forever...I would say the car culture is still doing well but the focus away from racing to individuality and style is becoming the norm...especially when SUV's can break 13second 1/4mi times these days. Again, it's interesting to see the evolution.

 

Cool read.

[excell]

Ah, how fondly I remember nights on Charter and otherwise. We did have a blast.

[RS69]

Yep, I agree.

[Otis Nice]

The Walrus. That is all.

[10phone2]

fun times for sure.

[Mallard]

Ah, how fondly I remember nights on Charter and otherwise. We did have a blast.

Charter, Hooters, frozen custard cruises, Kroger...

 

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[Orion]

Mr. Forky

The Stoned Goat

The Wingless Wonder

"2 Weeks"

 

 

The list is long.

[gillbot]

ones running real NOS.

I’m out.........

[coltboostin]

Its Cali focused, but its spot on really. A few excerpts...

 

 

(Back int he day) You could find a street racing location almost five nights out of the week. If you went out at around nine or 10 at night, chances were good that you’d find something.

If you knew where to look.

 

 

 

“No, that’s long gone,” he said without hesitation. “In 1993, you could get a ticket for street racing and it’d be $300 or $400 and a few points. But the fines started getting into the thousands and the police started impounding cars and sometimes keeping them, charging people with misdemeanors.

 

 

Its funny that its seems so crazy now that we used to be out multiple times a week in the Summer. But, that was the reality. There are a lot of reasons why I think that "scene" is dying. A large part is the easy accessibility of street racing footage from YouTube Channels like TRC, and 1320. Back in the day, there was basically none of this.

If you wanted to feel the adrenaline of racing, or being at the races, you HAD to be there. Now, you can just click a button and watch racing until you pass out. At this point, I dont think its a bad thing, just interesting to watch the evolution.

[Cordell]

 

If you wanted to feel the adrenaline of racing, or being at the races, you HAD to be there. Now, you can just click a button and watch racing until you pass out. At this point, I dont think its a bad thing, just interesting to watch the evolution.

 

I don't agree with this, I'm still having adrenaline withdraw. No amount of videos (and I watch plenty) can make up for being there. It's pretty hard to go street racing without people who are out looking for it. Besides I currently feel like there are a few guys with really fast cars, and a lot of kids with nearly stock stuff, doesn't make for fun racing anyway.

[Geeto67]

Its Cali focused, but its spot on really. A few excerpts...

 

 

(Back int he day) You could find a street racing location almost five nights out of the week. If you went out at around nine or 10 at night, chances were good that you’d find something.

If you knew where to look.

 

 

 

“No, that’s long gone,” he said without hesitation. “In 1993, you could get a ticket for street racing and it’d be $300 or $400 and a few points. But the fines started getting into the thousands and the police started impounding cars and sometimes keeping them, charging people with misdemeanors.

 

 

Its funny that its seems so crazy now that we used to be out multiple times a week in the Summer. But, that was the reality. There are a lot of reasons why I think that "scene" is dying. A large part is the easy accessibility of street racing footage from YouTube Channels like TRC, and 1320. Back in the day, there was basically none of this.

If you wanted to feel the adrenaline of racing, or being at the races, you HAD to be there. Now, you can just click a button and watch racing until you pass out. At this point, I dont think its a bad thing, just interesting to watch the evolution.

 

I have to agree to a point, but I really feel like the law enforcement aspect of it killed it more. In Queens, Francis Lewis Blvd was the place to go for cruising and setting up street races, and my friends and I would be up there every single night. The real heavys would go shut down a road somewhere else late or run up to the industrial parks in Hunts point, but for most of us it was stop light to stop light up Franny lou. The cops would be there, and they would write us equipment tickets, and occasionally shake us down for stolen parts with roadblocks, but the racing itself didn't get much attention, even after some high profile accidents (including a neighborhood resident dumping oil in the street to stop a street race and killing someone). Every one of us that used to hang out up there had a running from the cops story, because they just weren't trying hard.

 

However there was one accident in 2001 in Oceanside, Long Island where 2 people die: http://liherald.com/stories/Two-die-in-drag-racing-tragedy-Malverne-man-charged-with-second-degree-manslaughter,18619

this wasn't a regular race at a regular spot, it was during the day, on a highly trafficked area, with to people that didn't know each other. After that, the NYPD and Nassau County stepped up their enforcement, and the charges went from illegal contest of speed to attempted negligent homicide if you got into an accident and someone didn't die. The stakes went from from $1000 in fines to real jail time and it cleared out everyone but the most hard core people. To find a race we had to drive to Suffolk county and head to the industrial parks and uninhabited beach roads. I remember in 2009 when I was freelancing and I had a ford press car GT500 in red with silver stripes (this car actually: https://jalopnik.com/5408549/2010-shelby-gt500/), and my business partner and Jalopnik road test editor Wes wanted to go street racing - we had to go from shop to shop in the middle of a Thursday night looking for anybody that wanted to run us. Eventually, we found some guy in an 04 evo who was game and we followed him and his crew to an empty industrial park, but there wasn't anything else going on there before we showed up. Deer Park Ave, Franny Lew, Hunts Point, NJ turnpike, connecting highways, etc...they were ghost towns for street action by the mid 2000's, but in the 90's you could find action there all the time.

 

I get why the newer generation doesn't want to do it, when we were wild in the streets kids there just weren't stakes - maybe you lost your license, maybe some fines, but no real harm. Now it's confiscating your cars and nickels and dimes worth of time in the pokey, plus not being able to get a job after, and it just ain't worth it. It all died out before youtube was as popular as it is now.

[Otis Nice]

I get why the newer generation doesn't want to do it, when we were wild in the streets kids there just weren't stakes - maybe you lost your license, maybe some fines, but no real harm. Now it's confiscating your cars and nickels and dimes worth of time in the pokey, plus not being able to get a job after, and it just ain't worth it. It all died out before youtube was as popular as it is now.

 

Huh....NYC must have been far different than around here back then.

[1Quik7]

Stock LX chach of the century. That is all.

[coltboostin]

I don't agree with this, I'm still having adrenaline withdraw. No amount of videos (and I watch plenty) can make up for being there. It's pretty hard to go street racing without people who are out looking for it. Besides I currently feel like there are a few guys with really fast cars, and a lot of kids with nearly stock stuff, doesn't make for fun racing anyway.

 

I agree, that's why I still Mexico a few times a year, and anything I am driving sees WOT in high gear a few times a week

 

Im saying for the average person-factor in the dumbing down of america with Facebook/Other social media. We are growing up in a time where the majority of 16 year olds "dont see the point" of a driver's license. THESE are the times we are living in!

 

Also, the "fastest wallet" aspect is a factor. Bac int eh late 90's early 2000s everyone had 12 second cars, and if you where itn eh 10s you were REALLY fast. You could have tons of races anywhere you went. Now, thanks to Money and technology, any nerd with no Drivers skill can swipe a credit card and go 8s with the AC on sipping starbucks driving with one hand. That has taken some fun out of the game as well.

[Cordell]

I agree, that's why I still Mexico a few times a year, and anything I am driving sees WOT in high gear a few times a week

 

Im saying for the average person-factor in the dumbing down of america with Facebook/Other social media. We are growing up in a time where the majority of 16 year olds "dont see the point" of a driver's license. THESE are the times we are living in!

 

Also, the "fastest wallet" aspect is a factor. Bac int eh late 90's early 2000s everyone had 12 second cars, and if you where itn eh 10s you were REALLY fast. You could have tons of races anywhere you went. Now, thanks to Money and technology, any nerd with no Drivers skill can swipe a credit card and go 8s with the AC on sipping starbucks driving with one hand. That has taken some fun out of the game as well.

 

Okay these are good points I do agree with.

[zeitgeist57]

I agree with the Fastest Wallet argument as well...not as an end-all to the argument but that’s a big effect.

[Otis Nice]

I agree, that's why I still Mexico a few times a year, and anything I am driving sees WOT in high gear a few times a week

 

Psssshh....childs play. I go WOT in my highest gear DAILY all the way up to 60! 70 if I get on the freeway!

[Red Beard]

So sad to see all these "fast" cars nowadays being driven by middle aged women who don't even think about going fast but want a sporty car to drive the kids to soccer in. Cant tell you the number of G8's, mustang GT's, Camaro's, etc that have no desire to play at all when side by side. So Moment of opportunity racing doesn't happen near as often as it use to either. I remember those nights quite well JP up in the C-Land. Meeting up in the Valley, or over off of 91/20. I too miss those random cruises to the stadium and back.

[kirks5oh]

cars have also gotten exponentially faster and more dangerous in the hands of the average joe blow. when I was in college, 1996, my h/c/I '87 fox was considered fast, and was tough to beat where I went to college. probably had 315hp and ran 13's. stock, they were an upper 14 second car, trapping 90mph. these days, mustangs trap 25-35mph faster. the chances of getting into a serious accident while racing on a public roads are much, much higher. so the penalty for street racing and the 'crackdown' is what it is.

[Geeto67]

cars have also gotten exponentially faster and more dangerous in the hands of the average joe blow. when I was in college, 1996, my h/c/I '87 fox was considered fast, and was tough to beat where I went to college. probably had 315hp and ran 13's. stock, they were an upper 14 second car, trapping 90mph. these days, mustangs trap 25-35mph faster. the chances of getting into a serious accident while racing on a public roads are much, much higher. so the penalty for street racing and the 'crackdown' is what it is.

 

yeah but for all the speed, there has been a lot of nanny stuff that has come along as well. A fox mustang is an analog car, 13's in it feels pretty impressive when there is no TC or stability control to catch you. Now a days you can have a 400hp street car and it catches all sorts of stuff the driver doesn't even realize it's catching. yes the car is faster, and overall more dangerous just because of speed, but it also provides the tools for a more positive outcome. Where you really get into trouble is when Joe Blow figures out how to turn off the TC and SC thinking he's a hero and suddenly finds out how much the car has been making him look good by letting him introduce himself to a tree or guardrail or cars and coffee crowd.

 

The vehicle that drove this home for me is the bmw Sr1000 sport bike. The bike is an absolute monster, but with all the nanny controls in place you can't wheelie it more than 4" off the ground and the TC saves your ass when you come in too hot into a corner. turn all that stuff off, which takes some real effort, and the bike will loop you over if you look at it funny and spit you sideways like a sunflower seed if you overcook the turn. Full power mode is a track only proposition, but the bike doesn't know it's in a track paddock or the parking lot of a DQ when the rider turns all the aids off.

[Jeffrey]

Street racing in Columbus was great until that idiot with the orange Civic did an interview with Connie Chung.

[Mallard]

Street racing in Columbus was great until that idiot with the orange Civic did an interview with Connie Chung.

Huh and who? I don't remember that, but I could have sworn the turning point was when George Stanton (sp?) died and nearly killed that young girl.

 

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[Otis Nice]

Huh and who? I don't remember that, but I could have sworn the turning point was when George Stanton (sp?) died and nearly killed that young girl.

 

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I could be wrong but I think the Civic interview was pre-your time on CR. It was SUPER early on. That's when CR added the disclaimer at the bottom of the page that (originally) said, "Columbus Racing does not condone illegal street racing" or whatever and all of the cops and reporters were registering.

 

Ah...memories.

[Mallard]

I could be wrong but I think the Civic interview was pre-your time on CR. It was SUPER early on. That's when CR added the disclaimer at the bottom of the page that (originally) said, "Columbus Racing does not condone illegal street racing" or whatever and all of the cops and reporters were registering.

 

Ah...memories.

Nah, I joined the first or second month CR existed. You joined 3 months after me.

 

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[Cordell]

I joined after George Stanton’s crash, like right after, but didn’t hear about it until I joined. That had a big impact, but the big deal on 71 was the second nail in the coffin. Some of us continued for the next few years but it really fell off.

 

I’m fairly disconnected from it all now so it’s hard to say if there will be a resurgence. Like many things I’m sure we’ll see it again, but to what capacity is hard to say.