Street Racing: pros and cons (or pros vs. cons?)

OK Gang, a day or two ago I flat out broke my own rule of treating others on the forum with respect and then got my back all up when the newcomer countered with a similar barage of his own. One of the points that I called him down on was street racing, particularly the "Brotherhood of Street Racers" tag on all of his posts. This is me eating some crow and making a peace offering! What I want to do is allow the air to be cleared on this particular subject and get some feedback from the rest of you.
I will share my experience and my take on street racing in general and I have some questions that maybe EKF can answer. I took a few minutes to look at the website on his posts and there is more to it than I thought, but it leaves me with some doubts as well.
Personally, where I grew up and continue to live, there wasn't a huge street racing problem. For one thing there were never more than a dozen decent street cars at any given time and a five minute drive took us outside the city limits to a nice long straight stretch where we could mix it up without causing problems. However, racing kinda died out on the streets over the past 20 years as most of us moved onto marriage and families and no new blood picked up where we left off. I considered it a matter of having grown up and felt lucky that we had never hurt ourselves or anyone else in the process. We also didn't have a track nearby, our closet tracks were and still are nearly 90 miles and 120 miles one way trips. With a dirt oval track ten minutes outside of town and two more within an hour's drive, you can see why street cars and drag racing aren't so big around here.
The other contributing factor was new laws. These laws (I live in Ontario, Canada) came into effect to combat the escalating number of deaths related to the "ricer racers" in Toronto, not coincidentally, the Provincial Capital of Ontario and home to the Provincial government and therefore the lawmakers! When the dust and shock all settled we were left with laws that allowed instant license suspension/towing/impoundment of any vehicle/driver caught speeding more than 50kmh(31mph) over the posted limit or engaged in a contest of speed regardless of the actual speed, the driver is also on the hook for a $1500 fine and towing and 8 day impound charges. The second half of this law also allows the permanent confiscation and destruction of said vehicle if it is determined to be purposefully modified for street racing, ie: nitrous, slicks etc. as determined by the courts.
Newly enforced emissions laws also became an issue. While it has always been illegal to remove or tamper with emissions controls, enforcement was always lax until a few years ago. The general understanding (by the public anyway) was that when your car was 20 years old or older and no longer required an E-test every second year, then it was OK to modify to your heart's content. Not so say the smog cops and MTO(Ministry of Transportation Ontario, our version of the State DOT) and they are performing road side spot checks targeting any classic or custom vehicle newer than 1970, handing out fines for missing or inoperative emissions equipment. A good friend of mine was stopped 7 times in one summer in his high 12 second 1979 Chrysler Cordoba (I know, why a Cordoba?) on his way to and from various shows and cruise nights in the area. Each time he was found to be legal (visibly, anyway) and let go.
Another friend, 50 years old and driving a 1970 Torino GT 429CJ was passed by a ricer while going a legal 35mph between lights and a cop pulled him over and threatened to charge him with racing. The ricer got away and Bob was able to convince the cop that he wasn't involved, nice huh? Now you know why we(I) don't street race!
Now my question is this: the Brotherhood of Street Racers was formed by the LAPD (same guys that were involved in the Rodney King deal?) and they (LAPD) are willing to turn a blind eye to street racing if the racers are blocking off a whole street and policing themselves against violence etc? And the city doesn't get complaints about this from business and residents? Don't get me wrong, I think the idea is noble, I just can't swallow the story. What about the California emissions? I thought Cali had the tightest and toughest smogger laws in North America? From all of this, you can see why I question the validity of street racing. Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me.
Looking forward to broadening my horizons,
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

Good post Steve, I'm sure Fabian (EKF) will chime in and hopefully enlighten us on this controversial street racing thing in California.
I can't comment a yea or nay because I simply don't know enuff about the subject.
This could become interesting.

 
When The Flag Drops,,,



The Bull Chit Stops,,,


P. Engineer, Engine Builder

Yep, excellent post because that street racing would not fly in my area at all.  
Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

Was pulled once yes the exhaust was on the loud side but nothing they should have pulled me over for and was let go with out any explaination why they pulled me just pulled me ask a couple of questions like are you racing and crap like that I was just sit there at the light waiting for it to change and no I was not intending on racing care too much about my ride to have it impounded.
Any group would be considered a gang and would be dealt with .  
Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

i'm from chicago illinois and the street race zenith was during the early 80's to the early 90's the police used to just turn on the fire hydrants to stop us and we would cruise to other locations to race anyways to anohter industrial area, let me tell you all it was freaking dangerous! i had a 73 formula firbird my buddy had a 73 grand am his brother had a 78 gran prix and all were NOT street legal, and scary fast. we were young and did not own tow vehicles nor trailers to go to union grove dragway in wisconsin, anyway i have seen horrible crashes, blown engines, and fights with tire irons, golf clubs hockey sticks ect.over unpaid race debts or who won, the laws are very strict now and your looking at some serious offenses that's why union grove promoted and revamped their facility to keep the racers (not just kids) off the street race scene. i posted one of the tracks slogans why race on the street? time slips don't lie. and too many cars were unsafe and would never pass tech and put the driver and others in constant danger, as for today, be safe showcase your rod's ability to a crowd at the track and you can still cruis that beast to local car shows and set up grudge matches all you want i don't want your dumb crazy a** killing anyone i know or love  
Widetrack,Superduty,Ram-Air.The chief will never die!

I'm from the south.

I've been busted for it once, as a minor. Dad went to see the judge and got my license back, hee hee.

I've been shot at for it, by a farmer. One car had to make it back to town with busted headlights.

I've been accused of it and almost but not quite caught. Got a "reckless operation" anyway.

And there were countless less eventful "events".

All those are independently great stories, but thats not the question or issue.

Just to enlighten any young ones who might read:

There was (believe it or not) a time and a place in the United States of America where the speed limit was simply "safe and reasonable". The officer lurking behind the billboard had no radar. If you zoomed past at 120 MPH in your V12 Lincoln Zephyr on a deserted stretch, you would get pulled over. But if your wife was in labor in the passenger seat, you got only an escort to the hospital. But there were a lot less cars on the road then.

Today, your new car shuts down at 105 and you're done. So times have changed. BSR has been around a long time, and if you watch enough episodes of Adam-12 you will see kinda what things were like in the musclecar heyday, in a Hollywood interpretation of course. Cops and racers pretty much had to choose between war and peace. Nobody take this wrong, but the idea was much like passing out condoms at school, by today's standards. "You shouldn't, but if you are going to anyway ... here."

Me, now, today? Hmmm- Give me a long enough stretch, or enough lanes, to create a buffer between us and the public, yeah I'll come to a dead stop and we will race, but only up to maybe a hundred, and only if our cars are say 13.5 or slower. I would wuss out 99% of the time if you tried to take me up on that, to be honest. I got no rollcage or helmet.

My official standpoint- bite the bullet and go to a dragstrip on test n tune night instead. Use your timeslip to make your point and don't go to jail. Or the morgue. Or the hospital. Or back to Mom driving you around. In today's world the risks are high. You can RACE a cop on the dragstrip, and you can compare timeslips with him on the sidewalk, all that is legal. Somewhere EKF pointed out that lots of people CHOOSE to stand downstream from the starting line, sans guardrails. Well, y'know you take your life in your hands anytime you step out of the house, but those people are BEGGING to die. To me, driving OR spectating wheelstanding vehicles is a no-no on public roadways, and NHRA bracket regs are SMART.

Parting shot from the resident bodyman- WEAR YOUR SEATBELT! When I was convinced to wear my seatbelt, fortunately I had mine on. Otherwise I might not be nearly as handsome today!


Crap- this is supposed to be a discussion of pros and cons and I've chunked it full of opinion. Well, I disapprove of group street racing and betting altogether. But just me and you on an empty four lane without surveillance? Lets have a l'il snort, yep.
 

Me and a friend were just talking about the emissions checks in Cali and other states (and provinces)this evening and were lamenting how lucky we are in Michigan...there would be total anarchy if they tried to regulate cars in the Motorcity. As for the racing when i was growing up we had Telegraph, Gratiot and Woodward as the main drags, you could find a race most nights a week if you were looking, and the races were taken to industrial drives where there was no nightime or cross traffic (still foolish). They have cracked down on the street racing, but just the other day 4 kids were killed while racing down a side street in a residential neighborhood, with 16" of snow on the ground!!! I look at it as the same as drunk driving, 9 times out of ten the person killed will be the innocent passerby, and none of us would want it to be our daughters or sons, wifes, family or friends who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are lucky to still have Milan Dragway close (20 minutes) since Detroit Dragway closed in 98 and they do a healthy business especially on no ET's for cash races, and it seems most of the racers have smartened up and take it to the track, i have a few friends that run 9-10 second Mustangs and drive them to the track without a second glance from the Police, heck a lot of the cops race out there too.  
http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/instg8ter/1966%20Tempest/

"learning as i go, and going as i learn"

Brian

Well I don't street race anymore, althrough I did in my early 20s untill I left a light in Fla. kinda hard one nite. You see there was this dude in a new caddy beside me at the light and he was looking at me grinin and tilting his head like "lets race". I laughed at him and just for giggles I thought I'd give him a thrill and burned thru 1st and second and caught 3rd at the speed limit. Little did I know Johnny Law was on a side street and fell in behind me pulling me over letting the caddy go. Unfortunately that little stunt cost me my license for 5 yrs and tho I kept on driving for those 5 yrs I drove like a granny as to not get pulled over and beleive it or not I learned to drive safer and with-in the law. Fast forward 30 yrs and I love doing burnouts but it still scares the dog poop out of me but I will not leave the light next to a Mustang with tires spinnin. What was it Judge Wapner said "Don't take the law into your own hands", take it to the drag strip. -T  

Ok bare with me guys,I am probably alot older than most of you. I grew up in central Illinois,got my license to drive in 1959.We used to have a blacktop road south of town that had a strech about one mile long with out any crossroads or driveways that we would race on.
Then in the early 60tys started going to Peoria and would run Adams and Jefferson  stoplight to stoplight which back then was an all commerical district. By 1965 things had changed as the law started cracking down on the muscle cars.
 Then we got with a county deputy sheriff that made us a deal if we stopped our reckless ways he would shut a country road down on early Sunday mornings so we could match race who ever we wanted to race. In turn we formed a car club and with the help of one guy who built the Havana drag strip which is still operating to date as a sanctioned NHRA track. There is no way things we did back then could be done of tolerated today.  

Here's my input for what it's worth.  I went to Damascus High, which is kind of a red-neck town.  We had a reputation as the hill-billies of Montgomery County.  Anyway, big crowd of red-necks at this school.  I was kind of in between, I'd hag out with the red-necks in the McDonalds parking lot in town when my other friends were busy.  I drove (and still do) an '86 Flareside F150, 302 EFI, 4x4.  It's got headers, glasspacks, a homemade intake, HE coil - you know all that good stuff.  And it is slow as molasses.  This kid with a lowered full size '80s Chevy with a tired 350 with open headers challenged me to a race for a tank of gas.  I declined.  It probably would have been fairly safe since we're both so slow, but it just isn't worth all the risks IMO.  It is very dangerous (not just for the racers but bystanders!), you can lose your license, your ride, whatever the bet involved, etc...  What it comes down to is that it's just not worth it!  There are much preferable, safer, professional alternatives anyway!

I can't say I haven't fooled around like an idiot almost killing myself, I have.  But, fortunately for me, I didn't have to learn the hard way.  
****
1969 GTO resto in progress. '76 350+.060 365, #13 heads, 9.2:1 CR, Lunati cam, Edelbrock Performer, 750 Holley, HEI, Ram Air manifolds, 2 1/2" exhaust. TH400 trans w/shift kit.  235/60/15 front, 275/60/15 rear on Rally II 15X7s.

Well on this topic I have to say who hasn't hammered down between lights at least once. I am definetly against any street racing. Not to be hypicritical because of course I have had my share of fast cars and trucks and used to love pulling next to anything that would look like a good race. Same story though late night in buckeye az long stretch of 2 lane 110 mph and no more license for 2 years. All in all I go to the track when I get the urge between the every other burnout for my kids....wich they love mind you but yes growing up and having my family is more important than spending a night in jail or losing my ride. Imho  
I don't burn tires I make them scream for mercy

Im in agreement 100% with Idrive!! Not just because he's a good friend, but because it sounds like we could have grown up together from his post.  Street racing, too dangerout and too many people get hurt anymore.  I had to pick up a 16 yoa girl and carry her to an ambulance one early sept morning when I was still on the job.  She died as I was carrying her.  One car in the race went outta control and took her out on the sideline.  I did not enjoy also having the job of telling her parents.  Have I street raced, of course, but like Idrive, it was a long time ago and we had alot less traffic.  Also, the kid that lost control of the car, the girls boyfriend.  Hows that for ironic.  Hes gotta live with that  the rest of his life.  Just take it to the track and dont worry about all the other crap assoc. with the street.  Just my 2 cents, about what its worth too.  JB  

Wow troop - great stories, pertinent thread. Wasn't sure where it was going at first, but very thought provoking and honest posts.

I think my last street racing incident was the point when I finally learned to control my temper. I was pleasantly cruising home down Telephone Road in my 455 HO
4 speed Trans Am one sunny day when I noticed a car approaching fast from behind.
Just minding my own business going the speed limit (35) and singing along to the radio. Suddenly, without any warning or provocation, this guy in a mid 80's souped up Mustang gets beside me - revs his engine - shoots the bird, and proceeds to cut so hard in front of me I had to slam on the brakes.

Cil knows me well and said "don't do it - just let it go."

I tried, but when he found himself stopped at the next light it was on. I went up beside him and Cil suddenly had our German Luger in front of her face pointed at the jerk. He ran the light barely missing traffic with me close behind. I glued myself to his rear bumper and he could not shake me off for nothing. The whole time Cil is going "pleeease don't do this!!!" We got on an open stretch and the guy tried to shake me off by abruptly turning off into a neighborhood. By this time he was frantic and I knew the streets well - so I fell waaay back like a spider slowly watching his prey. He was turning corners so fast his back end was sliding off in ditches.  When he finally got on a long street heading back toward the main street I started speeding up and he was giving it all he had trying to get away.    Cil's yelling "JOEY STOP!!!! HE'S GOING TOO FAST!!!"    I finally got control of my senses and backed off. The guy didn't even slow down and zoomed out onto Telephone Road without even slowing down or looking. He was going too fast to turn so he proceded to slam straight across the middle espanade and across all 6 lanes of traffic. By some quirk of fate there was no traffic at the moment coming either way. I sat at the stop sign watching him roar off into the distance with his front tires crooked and smoke pouring out of the hood.

Cil ask "OK, you've proved your point - now are you happy?"

All I could do was sit there thinking how many innocent families I could have been responsible for killing just because I couldn't control my temper. I later reflected on the incident and tried to rationalize who would have really been responsible - the guy who tried to start a fight or the guy who took him up on it.

I concluded "both."

Perhaps we were both taught a good lesson that day.  

Braz, we can always count on a good tale from you! That ol' Luger seems to factor in a lot of your stories! lol
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

Mornin' Barn - welcome to the week.