CNN says it began with trash talking. It ended with Gavin Simcoe’s 1993 Civic EX leaving a straight, two-lane road at more than 100mph and crashing at the bottom of an embankment. As always, CNN portrays a bit of bad (if spectacular) news as part of a dangerous and growing trend. Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller provides the requisite quote: "The last four years it's been out of control.” Worse than before? Bryan C. Harrison, president of Evo Street Racers, shrugs his media-friendly shoulders. And anyway, he says, nothing short of a million police officers– yes, a million– can stop street racing. “Everyone knows that won't happen.” Meanwhile, out in Pasadena, so-not-a-little-old-lady Johnny Wong (if racing you is right…) says car crushing has had a damping effect on street duels. But not much. "Making all these laws— to me it's pointless, because the more boundaries you put up, the more people want to race.” Police are betting that Mr. Wong is wrong about the inverse effect of reverse psychology. Ye Olde cat and mouse game continues.
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Here in Toronto, Ontario, a recently passed law says that if you’re caught going 50km/h over the posted speed limit (31mph over), its considered automatically “street-racing” and a “stunt”, they take your car away (might crush it), suspend your license for 10 days and can level a fine between 2,000 and 10,000 dollars. It sucks, plain and simple, got to love the 5-0.
If it takes a million police officers, then maybe they need to change their approach to things. I firmly believe that a major contributing factor is the lack of racetracks that street racers can go to to stay off the streets. The distance to the racetrack isn’t the problem, but the scarcity of them is. The closest racetrack to me is three hours away and on a good test and tune day, I can get maybe six or seven runs in, but if it’s crowded with drivers qualifying for NHRA licensing or trying to get their chassis certified, then I’m lucky to get even one run in.
San Diego has been running their Race Legal program for 10 years and by all accounts, it has been a tremendous success, both in attendance and in reducing the number of street racing incidents and fatalaties, it’s unfortunate that not many cities follow San Diego’s lead, but instead choose to battle existing racetracks over noise ordinances or go the NIMBY approach and oppose the construction of new racetracks and then wonder why a million cops and increasingly restrictive laws that snare legitimate drivers and illegal street racers alike doesn’t make a dent in curbing this problem.
While Harrison may be joking about hiring a million police officers I think that a lot of municipalities are taking that strategy seriously. Not to mention crushing. Crushing perfectly good cars just seems wrong to me. The money and effort would be better spent on putting in a few racetracks where these kids can race safer. Maybe even allow them to register their cars as road/race cars to gain access to the tracks.
Quasimondo and I were obviously thinking along the same lines here!
Racing an ’93 Civic? Oh My.
They chose a straight two-lane road. It had hills, something Simcoe needed for a running start because first gear in his 1993 Honda Civic EX didn’t work.
Its right in the article, the solution is to just eliminate hills.
Perhaps they could use a portion of the fines collected to provide funding for trackday programs. Whoops, there I go being idealistic again. I swear I can’t control it sometimes.
I agree with Quasimodo as well. The closest thing to an open race track “near” me is 2 hours away, and even then you go through a testing program to get your license ($$$) before you can actually pay for time on the track without an instructor during open racing periods. We do have a drag strip that has slot racing for various types of street and non-street legal cars. The only requirement being a helmet and fire suit. But, personally I’m not into drag racing; I like turns. The local track has a cheap racing option, the “Hornets” class, and the “Bombers” class wouldn’t be much more expensive. But, your still talking modified cars that would and could only be used at the track. On top of it all, it seems that small local tracks are closing. I would love a Nurburgring situation, where I can pay my money and just take my street legal car as near its limits as I feel comfortable.
There’s always autocross. You don’t get the high speed jollies of a racetrack, but it is timed and an actual competition.
The Ontario law also applies to voluntarily stimulating a loss of traction in all four tires. Otherwise known as drifting.
We have a pretty active SCCA group here. They set up cone tracks in several of the publicly owned parking lots throughout the year. You do not race head to head on those tracks but you definiatly put your car (even your 93 Civic) thru its paces. $70 bucks a year and 20 to 40 dollars on a race day. Hanging with a group of people of like intrests. What’s not to like?
Besides it is fun watching a 78 VW Sirocco (modified) beat a newer Vette in the timed trials. Money does not always by speed and handling.
I guess being from Ohio, I already figured we had a million cops in the US of A…. 740,000 sworn law enforcement officers in a quick search of USA. I’m to lazy to figure out the number of registered 1993 civics or 1996 cavaliers with 2 foot high spoilers that look like old fashioned kites, but i’m guessing at MOST it’s 740,000. So it’s one on one… maybe more in Ohio.
am i seriously reading comments by quasimondo and others arguing that the problem of street racing is the lack of available tracks?!?!? the kids, and 90% of the racers out there are kids, racing on the streets haven’t even thought about going to the track. Why the hell would they pay to do something the cops sanction when they can “damn the man” and be rebels imitating their XBOXs for free?
the problem is the severe immaturity of our youth, the lack of responsibility and values instilled by our parents, and the absurd sense of entitlement built into our worldview. streetracers ultimately say: “i don’t give a *%&$ about you, i can do whatever the hell i want.” the answer truly is to make and ENFORCE stricter laws. i’m totally for crushing cars, suspending licenses, and imposing serious fines. you better believe that racers will get the message when their buddy shows up at the club with a buspass instead of his ’93 civic.
# MTeator :
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
There’s always autocross. You don’t get the high speed jollies of a racetrack, but it is timed and an actual competition.
This. Unfortunately, not a lot of younger folk are into something that involves anything other than straights and speed.
On the subject of crushing cars, I’m against it. I feel they should salvage the cars, make them decent, and donate them to people who could actually benefit from an appliance to get them to work and back.
Quasimondo, thanks for the link to racelegal.com. Great idea.
Can anyone explain why crushing the cars makes more sense than selling them at auction or donating them to one of the local charities or a highschool/college autoshop for practice? It was about 15 years ago, but I know that the local Fish and Game Office would donate the kill to the local homeless shelter whenever they caught somebody poaching. Rather than waste the meat, they put it to good use. Why not take a similar approach to the street racers out there.
And, maybe Quasimodo, myself, and others are voicing our own desires for a way to test ourselves and our cars legally. You can’t be against my idea if I say it’s for the kids, right. ;-)
This is a prime example of the culture war being waged upon our children. We need to get back to conservative values. Back when movies, TV and pop culture didn’t glorify street racing. I also blame video games. Kids play for hours on the damn X-Bbox their racing games and I have to hear them grumble when I want to spend a few hours on Sunday, watching wholesome programming on TNT, Fox, or ABC in the early afternoon.
rgs920 i agree,my wifes grandpa told me how back in the 50s they used to race through town in their Chevy’s doing a hundred miles an hour and the cops not chasing them cause they knew they’d never catch them,and after that they’d go home and play their video games:)
shortthrowsixspeed and people give me a hard time about driving the Ram. You all go ahead and be out there on the roads with these maniacs in an aluminum tin can hybrid and i’ll pay my $5.00 a gallon to ride a few feet higher.
Quasimondo- agree with you completely. In Latvia also many many teenagers die because they overestimate their driving capabilities releasing their adrenaline right in the narrow streets of cities and towns. government should understand that by building racetracks they could save lives. taxpayers lives, If you want.
Street racing has been going on since massed produced cars were introduced into society. You’re not going to eliminate street racing by building more race tracks and/or crushing cars. Street racing can be managed by punishing the criminal. Not by issuing tickets or fines but, by actually locking up the offenders in a jail cell with a duration determined by a judge and/or jury. If you want to stop it, you’ve got to show that there is a consequence.
Why crush?
Perhaps if the agency crushes the car and then returns the cube to the owner, it avoids an Nth Amendment “due process” legal proceeding necessary to take ownership away?
Allow the families of those innocently injured or killed to apply the “eye for an eye” principal to the racers involved.
Shortthrowsixspeed:
Thats right, its all America’s youth and no one else. And its only going on now. Back in the 60s and 70s, not a single one of the Musscle cars ever spun its wheels in anger on the street. This only started happening a few years ago with the Fast and the Furious.
Right. Now, back to reality…
Where is this blame the youth mentality coming from? Really? I go to the street races out here, and I’d say a go 85% of the drivers are well into their 30s. You’d have to be to be able to afford the upkeep on some of the cars that show up. And its not a bunch of big winged Civics. These guys show up in cars that make an 11 sec car look like a a pedal bike.
I don’t know to many young dumb teenagers in fart canned Civics that are putting down tons of cash in side bets while running nine and eight second cars.
bahahahaha omg 93 civic with no first gear? WOW what a smrt racer!
I think the punishment for this should be to have the gov’t make you sterile. That way street racing will filter out of the gene pool :P
Do some friggin autocross. You can do it anywhere, there’s tons of SCCA (and I guess NASA some places where SCCA isn’t as big) regions to become a part of.
As soon as I got hooked on autocross my street driving became much less agressive. Sure I still open up the throttle on empty stretches but much, much less. I only redline the car 10-20 times a day now, almost always on onramps :P
forget criminal penalties like jail time, crushing cars is a good start.
If you want to encourage an activity, incentivize it
If you want to discourage an activity, tax it
That said
Its EXPENSIVE to race – $250 for the circuit, $40 for an autocross and $20 for a drag strip – a lot of people don’t have that kind of $ to throw around. SO – the government should allow tax deductions for $ spent on racing! Or it should give subsidies to the track so they can reduce fees and allow more people access (if the government TRULY wants to reduce hoonage on the street and encourage active motorsports competition).
On the other side, it should DISCOURAGE street racing by applying a massive fine and/or obliterating the car of the offender – no questions asked – you street race, you pay the fine and lose your car – they should take the license too, while they’re at it.
One slight, itsy bitsy problem with crushing cars…
The guys getting caught “street racing” are one of the following:
1) Non-racers who are just driving hard – Ontario’s law is utterly ridiculous.
2) Wannabes or casual street racers who are driving $1500 Civics. Now, these are perhaps the more dangerous type of street racer as they are not as experienced or prepared than the hard-core guys, but I suspect that many of them won’t change their behavior – the cost of their car is small relative to the cost of losing their driver’s license, and the fines that can be levied will be small due to the lack of assets.
3) Racers who have crashed already. It’s fairly obvious here that crushing the car does nothing to undo the damage and injury caused in the crash.
You’re simply not going to catch the hard-core guys with serious machinery and investment, unless they’ve wrecked. It would be like expecting to catch an F-101 Voodoo with a Cessna 182. The old expression “you can’t outrun a Motorola” doesn’t really apply here because all you’re doing is getting extra Cessnas.
I don’t think it’s a secret on these forums that an early C5 Corvette costs less than $20,000. Dead-stock that runs around 13 seconds in the quarter mile and 170 flat-out. If somebody spends twenty or thirty grand intelligently on making a car go fast, they will have a vehicle whose capabilities vastly exceed those of your average family car.
Pick your poison, ten grand total gets you five hundred horsepower plus out of the following engines:
Chevrolet SB
Chevrolet BB
Chevrolet LS
Chevrolet Ecotec
Ford SB
Ford BB
Ford EAO
Ford Modular V8/V10
Chrysler Hemi
Chrysler V10
Chrysler “Magnum” Four
Cummins B
No real secrets there, it’s all commonly available.
Why not just put a non-correctable governor on all cars that violated the law? Some uncrackable ECU reflash? That way, the person couldn’t speed anymore, nor could they get much during resale because of the limitation.
Chaparral:
“The guys getting caught ‘street racing…’ 1) Non-racers who are just driving hard – Ontario’s law is utterly ridiculous…”
Ummm… 30 over the limit? On a public highway that my wife and kids use? Sorry, no sympathy at all. 100mph in a 70mph zone is a serious speed differential in a country where no one is either trained for it or exercises the right kind of discipline to deal with it. They can crush the car with the offending driver still in it.
Chaparral continues:
“You’re simply not going to catch the hard-core guys with serious machinery and investment, unless they’ve wrecked. It would be like expecting to catch an F-101 Voodoo with a Cessna 182. The old expression “you can’t outrun a Motorola” doesn’t really apply here because all you’re doing is getting extra Cessnas.”
But some of those Cessnas are ahead of the F-101 and they’re equipped with stop sticks. That F-101 may encounter some turbulence.
By the way, the cops never know WHY you’re running. They don’t treat these situations lightly and they will use stop sticks. Tragically, a MN police officer died a few years back employing them; so they’re much more careful about how they use them but perhaps more determined than ever to make the stop.
Just a few days ago, somebody doing ~100 plowed into the back of a squad car which had stopped to deploy sticks. No court date need be set.
Public roads are not race tracks, they’re infrastructure.
Nothing polarizes a car-nut population better than speeding fines.
I agree with a previous poster that this is not a new problem. Street racing is older than the small block chevy. I see a problem in that the streets are much more crowded these days.
I don’t have a problem with someone doing 150km/hr on a wide open freeway that was designed for that kind of speed. I have a problem with someone doing that speed in traffic. Too many variables that even top drivers cannot cope with.
I’ve long maintained that speed does not kill. It is careless and reckless driving that kills. Often this involves speeding. Unfortunately, ticketing for reckless driving is far more difficult than aiming a speed-gun at a car and pulling him over.
If I really wanted the cop to give me a solid ticket, I would counter his “Do you realize how dangerous it is to drive at that speed” with “Not half as dangerous as it is to sit at the side of the freeway waiting to be crushed from behind”
Chapral:
I’d add a few more motors to that list. I know plenty of Japanese motors that will get good power for very little cash. I would say a few Euro motors belong on that list as well, but beyond the VW 1.8T and 2.0T, most of the European aftermarket is amazingly over priced.
Virtual Insanity:
yup, you’re right. this did not start because of The Fast and The Furious. but how many of those muscle cars of the 60s and 70s spinning their wheels in anger were driven by adults and how many by kids?
the key words are “in anger.” i bet those 30 somethings aren’t running their 8 sec. cars from stop light to stoplight for free. they have accords they drive monday through friday to and from the office.
also, there’s more than seconds between those 30 somethings pushing 40 grand across a quarter and the 17 year old kids with an eclipse and a supercharger putting lives at risk on Sunset Blvd. the “racers” i’m talking about are not just the ones doing semi-organized drags for rolls of 20s. they’re all the wannabes flashing their lights at each other and weaving in and out of traffic. and those wannabes are mostly kids.
So what your saying is there is a difference between the 30 something who wont even start his car for less than $1000 and having a flagger, and a 20 something using a stop light?
And are you also saying that “back in the day”, street racers were all well aged adults, and not a single one of those people street racing their muscle cars was under the age of 30? 25?
If so, my dad must be about 110 right now, maybe 115.
And when I said in anger, I meant in a race. Be it on the track or street. Not some pissed off teenager that drive like Ricky Bobby.
1. yes, i am saying there’s a difference between the 30 somethings racing with flaggers and the 17 year olds racing between stop lights. the difference is in how and where they do it. that’s not to say that one should be legal and the other not. the line between the two is too hard to draw. it would be like saying that “good drivers” can have one speed limit while “bad drivers” need a different one. the idea makes sense, but is too hard to implement practically.
2. no, i’m not saying all the racers “back in the day were old . . . what i’m saying is that your dad was a “kid” when he was racing around town in his mopar muscle. though the problem did not begin recently, the problem has always involved an inordinately large percentage of young people.
btw, talladega nights was one of the funniest movies i’ve seen in a while . . . “will you be my Katie Couric?” / “I wake up in the morning and i piss excellence.”
Point of clarification: Your poorly written article incorrectly utilizes grammar to where a pronoun misleads the readers into believing FALSE information.
Your Article:
“Bryan C. Harrison, president of Evo Street Racers, shrugs his media-friendly shoulders. And anyway, HE says, nothing short of a million police officers– yes, a million– can stop street racing. “Everyone knows that won’t happen.””
CNN article:
“Simcoe says nothing short of a million police officers can stop street racing. Everyone knows that won’t happen.”
“He” implies Bryan C. Harrison said it when he DID NOT, rather Simcoe did. Please address this inaccuracy as it’s obvious from a few comments that the readers of your article are interpreting the writing correctly, but as it is written wrong are leading them to believe false information.
I would highly recommend a proof reader for future attempts.