stop street racingplease post your stories here for why you quit or why you think it's okay to do it.
I quit after a trip to the hospital. I wasn't even running my car. (I doubt my 1.6 L Nissan could do much)
I was riding with my friend in a '89 GMC something or other truck.
We were racing my other frien...
stop street racingplease post your stories here for why you quit or why you think it's okay to do it.
I quit after a trip to the hospital. I wasn't even running my car. (I doubt my 1.6 L Nissan could do much)
I was riding with my friend in a '89 GMC something or other truck.
We were racing my other friend's Camero.
It was about 1:30 am on a backroad with about 2 miles of straight away. We'd camp the start and finish so that we could use both lanes.
It was the first race of the night.
The camero pulled out ahead, but when we hit second it was over.
We pulled ahead and kept gaining ground.
About 2 seconds before he hit third a deer jumped out.
We hit it at about 110.
I woke up in the hospital.
In the end I was glad it was us and not the Camero.
He was okay and I was just a little banged up, no broken bones. Just a hard hit to my head.
They stitched me up and gave me some pills.
Please don't let your friends tell you that it's safe. I thought we'd be okay with the start and finish blocked off. I thought we were safe from cops and oncoming traffic. Never thought about a damn deer. If it was the camero and not the truck someone would be dead.
The trip to the hospital cost me over 1000 dollars. It would have cost $135 for all of us to go to the track.
The truck wasn't too bad off and somehow the engine was spared. I don't know how much repairs cost but I'm sure it wasn't cheap either. And the the court costs. And the community service. Yeah, shitloads of fun.
That is exactly why it is bad. Consider yourselves lucky because that idiot very well could have ran right into you. Killing all 3 of you.
and that way your mom wont kill you if you dent her honda :P hehehe.
You'll soon realize that it's a good decision. Everyone at the strip usually shows up, unlike on the street.
People there are willing to help and give last-minute advice.
The crowd is usually nicer.
You can take your car apart while you wait and not worry about things being stolen.
Safety is always first. (I appreciate that one more and more every time I go)
You are given time-slips. For serious drag racers this is the ultimate badge of honor. (They don't give those out on the back roads.)
Okay time to update. (I meant to do this a while back.)
My friend, my girlfriend and I took his '03 GTO to the track.
He was just testing out his racing clutch.
Okay, that was a dumb excuse to waste 40 bucks, but you'd want to show off every chance you got too.
We cleaned the place up.
While I was there some kid's import tuner caught fire.
The staff had the fire put out before he took three steps from his car.
No shit, they swarmed the car covering it in a white cloud.
I'd say for $40, that's the best damn service that kid's ever paid for.
It doesn't end there.... no, they had an on-hand mechanic find what caused the fire too.
Now imagine that on a back road..... Exactly.
Everyone runs off while your car burns to the ground.... 10k or whatever down the hole and a fun story to tell your family.
What if there wasn't a nail in the road at the end of your strip?
I wouldn't have had that blowout.
What if there wasn't a lost out of towner driving aimlessly around?
I wouldn't have plowed into him.
What if there wasn't a kid playing in the deserted area?
I wouldn't have run him over.
All these "What if's" could easily be prevented with another "What if":
What if I didn't race on the street and kept it at the track like I should have?
I wouldn't have hit that nail at high speed, causing me to blowout my front tire, collide with that Civic from Pennsylvania and knock him into that kid chasing after his ball.
The easiest thing to do to prevent it is keep as many variables out of the equation as possible and go to the track if you want to race. It's not just for your protections, it's to keep everyone else including you safe. You talk about repercussions, do you know the moral repercussions of taking someone else's life? I don't, I don't ever want to know about that type of thing. What I don't understand is why these guys racind around on the street, killing each other and innocent people, don't just take it to the track like they should.
Many of us here do know.
I for one know too well.
Honestly a deer.... sure we were ready and we knew the consequences. We didn't think of death being one of them. Well we did, but not seriously enough. My girlfriend and my family would kill me again in the afterlife if I died in an illegal street race. I'm sure your's would too.
Bad reputations are given to all street racers (or anything trying to be one) because of people who talk trash. Theres a team that I know of, and below their neat decal of their team name is, "YOU AINT SHIT." Its on all their cars and it makes everyone I know mad at how anyone who looks like a racer will be looked at from then on including me. Im with a couple of friends and we know whats stupid and whats not.
We dont race on the Streets because:
We know what cars can and cant beat us, but we rather just go bowling.
Track racing shows more skill (if you dont believe me then your just denying the fact that you really suck at driving)
We cherish our lives and cherish the lives of others.
All of us have gotten tickets and into accidents already, some losing the engine of a car, to a Modified Intercooler, to a Whole Car.
Also another Stereotype that is given upon racers is dem UnRealistic Fast & Furious Movies.
Those movies gave Import Tuning or any type of tuning on a car a bad rep.
if you're racing at a track at a sanctioned event, then you're cool beans in my book
Uh...ok...that is just what people are trying to tell you in here is that they don't want the races on the streets. I try to keep it to the tracks as much as possible...or if you can coax the police into blocking some roads off for you....(heh that was fun). But in anycase, keep it to the tracks and racing isn't that bad. It does eliminate alot of the hazards...not all...but alot. All you have to worry about there is you, and the person you're racing.
It's fun to race...as long you're safe about it.
Fast and the Furious is an awesome movie for the following reasons:
-I can drive directly under a truck if I cut my springs.
-"I live my life one quarter pounder at a time."
-Car's slow? JUST ADD NOS!
-Longest.NineSeconds.Ever.
-Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Rick Yune, and Ja Rule? Surely, this must be the cast list for Othello!
-I can drive 140mph into a truck, flip my American muscle car, and escape with merely a few cuts and a broken arm.
-The movie lead to the popularity of Vin Diesel, which in turn yielded the creation of this site: Random Facts about Vin Diesel.
In reply to sunshineykit, #44:
As long as you keep it on the track, that's OK in my book. Tracks minimize collateral damage. They're infinitely safer than racing on a public street.
"On Military Trail, paramedics are strapping an injured driver to a backboard. Walton steps out of his cruiser and hurries through a tangle of car parts to a crowd of deputies in the road.
A white Civic is spun around, facing traffic with a smashed front end. About 50 feet away, a dark blue Chevy slumps over its three remaining wheels, totaled. A crescent-shaped dent cuts two feet into the passenger's side where police think the Civic hit at 90 mph.
Inside both vehicles, the air is putrid with a chemical funk -- the pressurized gas that deployed the airbags.
Witnesses tell police they saw the Civic streaking along Military Trail in a race with another car when the Chevy made a U-turn in front of them."
This happened even though the participants used blockers to "ensure" the road was clear. Everyone involved turned out to be incredibly lucky and noone was seriously injured. But think what would have happened if there was a passenger in the Chevy.
Another reason outside of other traffic/pedestrians/animals to race at a track is surface condition. Tracks are maintained better than your average highway, it is their buisness. If their track is in poor condition, noone will race there. Your state's highway department doesn't have the same thought process. They will let things go until something absolutely needs to be done. Imagine hitting a fresh pothole at 100+. I have caught them on the expressway doing 65 on a road that I traveled every day and still had to make some quick adjustments to avoid an incident.
no because if you wanted to actually compete in a track you would have a car that isnt street legal. If you compete in a Civic for the street that sound so loud but doesnt go anywhere, by all means go to the track and get owned.
I prefer people to drive on a track than on a road. If you do go on a track then that shows that you respect driving and others.
No you are not in the same category if you go to the track. People who stereotype are people who have no knowledge of racing.
They drive up our insurance rates too.
goddamn street racers! i know precisely what you mean dude. (go wingless you may get slightly less attention
That is why there are different classes of competition. To race unmodified classes you cannot have anything aftermarket, even window tint. Just depends on who is sanctioning the event and what type it is.
While wingless may reduce some of the attention, it really adds a good amount of stability on the freeway. And as long as I am only being followed/watched and not ticketed, it is nothing more than a nuisance.
Recently, '03 or '04, Volvo started producing a sedan, I think the S70? that does 0-60 in under 6. Doesn't look fast, but impressed the hell out of me. Can anyone confirm?
As far as the rest of the thread, it's nice to see enthusiasts who are more interested in survival than thrills. Kudos to you all for helping keep my family safe on the road :)
Thanks, my memory was a bit muddled. Sorry if I misled anyone.