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"Underground Street Racing" article on Jalopnik


zeitgeist57

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Street racing is still going on. You just have to be in the “know”.

 

Back in 1996 I have a 94 Honda Accord coupe with a H22 swap (second one in the country at that time), on a good day when all the stars lined up I can get that thing 14.5’s on street tires. I thought I was driving a space rocket lol. The day I beat a mustang GT I was hooked.

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Ahh the Good 'ole Days. I have a variation of this conversation almost every day either with customers, friends, or random people at the bar who see what I drove up in or the shirt I have on. Until the mid 2000s as JP was saying if you had car that ran 12s you were a hell of a car/driver to contend with. Someone who had that much time/money/energy in their ride had developed it with a plan and learned along the way how to handle it. Money/Credit was also much easier to come by and costs of living weren't yet at painful levels they are now. Ask anyone now in their late teens early 20s how much available cash they have to spend on "Upgrades" and you'll get a laugh...or a tear.

 

Twin turbo V8s? That's dream land in the early 2000s and if it DID exist it made somewhere around 500whp. Now? We see Turbo/Procharged/Supercharged cars in and out and down the road literally daily most of which make WELL north of that number.

 

Police involvement absolutely is a part of this as well. We were the victims of our on success, is it got more and more popular the widespread success brought attention from the powers that be. Couple that with some high profile accidents and arrests there's your end of an era.

 

Technology definitely had a part to play in this as well, there are just far more things now demanding your ever shrinking attention. You've got a smaller and smaller interested younger crowd, that can expend less and less money, that have fewer and fewer nights with "nothing to do but wrench"

 

P.S. I Daily Drive a big rumbly loud American Muscle Car VERY day during the summer, at least 40 miles a day around the north end 270/161 area and can count on 1 hand the number of nods or thumbs up I get anymore much less a rev/hunk/beep like it used to be. A/C on, windows up, face in the phone, thinking about their Tindr hookup for later that night and how best to filter their next selfie keeps people from even bothering to look... if they would even be interested in the first place.

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PREACH AUSTIN!!! lol It doesn't help that with being in the "know" most don't give directions to Mexico as freely as they use to. Not to mention, nowadays if you're not breaking 11's, it is really tough to be competitive in the streets. I know mine is by far not the fastest, but still fun to tool around and make a pull every now and again.

 

It is sad to say, and I'm sure my location has some part in it, but anymore its diesel trucks that are lining up with me more so than sports cars. But once again, quite a few do hall balls with how they are set up so its still fun just the same lol.

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

 

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Nah, I met Anthony at a Cols DSM meet at Hilliard HS pre-CR when he had his green camaro with the WIRE LOOMZ and was one of the first to register on CR until I forgot my login and password one day and just decided to start with a new name ("92tercel" wasn't garnering the street cred I thought it would). I was originally member #62. You're #195.

 

I'm still certain it was pre-whenever you're thinking because that Civic interview might have predated CR even.

 

BRING BACK THE SHORT BUS

 

Signed,

<<<The Guy who owned the Short Bus with an '01 Maxima back in 2003 ;):lol:

 

I second that.

<<<The guy who played gatekeeper until Mallards (IIRC) sneaky pete Saturn snuck straight on by me.

Edited by Otis Nice
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Nah, I met Anthony at a Cols DSM meet at Hilliard HS pre-CR when he had his green camaro with the WIRE LOOMZ and was one of the first to register on CR until I forgot my login and password one day and just decided to start with a new name ("92tercel" wasn't garnering the street cred I thought it would). I was originally member #62. You're #195.

 

I'm still certain it was pre-whenever you're thinking because that Civic interview might have predated CR even.

 

 

 

I second that.

<<<The guy who played gatekeeper until Mallards (IIRC) sneaky pete Saturn snuck straight on by me.

 

Ahh, ok. And lol at the wire loom. I was around for that.

 

And that wasn't my Saturn. The only Saturn I had was a Sky, and that was only from 06-08.

 

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Ahh, ok. And lol at the wire loom. I was around for that.

 

And that wasn't my Saturn. The only Saturn I had was a Sky, and that was only from 06-08.

 

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I am def McSteakin then. Someone with, like, an SC2 or some older Saturn had a sleeper (still stupid slow by today's standards) and whooped my Tercel. Can't remember who that was.

 

Ah...the good ol' days.

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Its been a long time since UNOH so I could be mistaken. I do remember a turbo saturn story though.
There was a guy with a turbo Saturn and I forget his name, but Jesse is right-ish, Doug had a Grand Am.

 

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There was a guy with a turbo Saturn and I forget his name, but Jesse is right-ish, Doug had a Grand Am.

 

I'm honestly not sure I could tell you if something is an Am or Prix of that era if you showed me a picture that didn't also have the badge in it.

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I'm honestly not sure I could tell you if something is an Am or Prix of that era if you showed me a picture that didn't also have the badge in it.
With a turbo bolted on, it may have been more like a Gran Damn!

 

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You guys are killing me with nostalgia of the 90s. I grew up in the 60s when the place to be was green gables, dans drive in or the bbf on Livingston.

 

If you could get your car into the 12 you were bad ass and the 11s were slicks, uncorked headers, and 456 gears along with a car that was pretty much undriveable on the street.

I had a 67 cutlass with the hipo 330( an engine used in the 1st year 442 and it was pretty quick for a stock..besides mufflers and tires but no where near where the real street racers were.

 

Like someone else said I'd go light to light nothing really big like the real races.

 

As far as Cali I remember reading an article in hot rod magazine about the cali racing scene talking about someone pulling an all out dragster off the trailer running it down the road and then it pulled the chute..THAT would have been a site.

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I'm honestly not sure I could tell you if something is an Am or Prix of that era if you showed me a picture that didn't also have the badge in it.

 

It was definitely a Grand Am. Grand Prix was actually a car worth modifying.

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

 

Haha....Connie Chung. It was Tram(p) Mai from fox. She ran up on my car over at Kmart one night because someone told her that my friend and I would race on camera for her. She was super friendly until I told her hell no. She did smell really good :)

She told me that they would blur the plates....I laughed and told her that the tape of our plates would still exist and no way. They definitely upped patrol of west belt and charter after that aired. The cops still didn't care, they just showed up more often.

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Haha....Connie Chung. It was Tram(p) Mai from fox. She ran up on my car over at Kmart one night because someone told her that my friend and I would race on camera for her. She was super friendly until I told her hell no. She did smell really good :)

She told me that they would blur the plates....I laughed and told her that the tape of our plates would still exist and no way. They definitely upped patrol of west belt and charter after that aired. The cops still didn't care, they just showed up more often.

 

She fucked over Scott by hacking up his interview for sound bites. Terrible.

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