OT: street racing show on MTV
 

I was channel surfing last night and ran across a documentary about street racing in LA.
It just cracks me up about how movies like "the fast and furious" , and some of these new video games glamarize street racing like it's something new.
I was involved in street racing 13 years ago , even trailered the car to different cities for races. No one glamarized it then ,well except the media on how bad it was.
In that whole show last night I did not see one bad ass muscle car just these rice burner things. Maybe I'm just too old to get into the "new style" of street racing. I can respect that some of those rice burners actually run pretty good but it still doesn't get me going.
Back then we used to go into downtown Detroit and there was some serious hardware. I remember seeing 8 and 9 second cars race . There is nothing like seeing a 68 Camaro leaving with the wheels 2 feet in the air on the street!
I guess I'm just not opened to change !:D

I know your pain!

:D

the new kids to street racing think rice burners and computer technolgy is the cool thing. I read a artcile i read in HOTROD a few years ago was about the changing cars in street racing, its goes on and tells a story how a rice burnin car challanged a older muscle car to a drag race. Rice burner showed up driving his car and the other guy pulled up with his on a trailer, he said they left the line and by the time the rice burner got to the finish line he already had his car in the trailer :D :D They labeled the article like " muscle cars live another night in detroit"


A professer for my dad's class said the best quote last week.


" Less then 8 cylinders is unacceptable" :D :D :D :D

We used to street race here in Philly on Saturday & Sunday nights till 3:00am talk about a rush. We had a lot of mean machines running around betting $500 to $1000 a run. Guys would bring cars on rollbacks and trailers. This was about 6 years ago. Cops came down hard now no one races anymore. We have a lot of rice burners that run 12's and 11's that think there bad untill I pull up and rip into them.:)

I hear ya chuck, I use to go down there on my bike, and a mustang I had and run it, nothing that needed trailering though.

I cant get into the rice rockets either, however my friend Jonny that sunk his fountian this summer. A few years ago he had a newer RX-7 that he changed over to a rocketship with intake, bigger turbo's, exhaust, chip, cam, and who knows what else, and that thing was really fast and fun, but still it didn't have the feel of a big bad ass american V8 smashing you into the seat! I think those are 1.3 or 1.6 liter twin turbo's, small motor, big turbos'.

Here in detroit they just had a videotape of some street racing where a mustang lost control and killed 26 yeaar old woman. In the video tape just before the race, they zoomed up on two police cars sitting in the parking lot across the street watching the races. The news crew got the tape and aired it, then the police finally caught the guys that were racing, both drivers got charged with murder or manslaughter, the cops lost thier jobs, ect... A real mess.

The guys that were racing, just left the girl there and split, and never came forward until the video tape was on the news, and people came forward and turned them in.

Sad story, but what are these guys doing just thinking they wouldn't get in trouble for killing someone? The cops that witnessed it never came forward, they got f'ed too. They were from a bordering city, and the race was on the city border, the accident was in detroit, the cops were in the lot across the street in thier city.

So what they just leave and pretend it didn't happen so they dont get in trouble...

Still irritated me, mostly about the police watching, people are always gonna race, and when I did, you got the hell out of there fast when the cops came!

One of problem with street racing today around here is it is too built up now. Back in the old days when we were out at 2 am if we saw any headlights we knew it was the police. I was out the other night at 3AM & there was so much traffic on the road I did not even try to count the cars/trucks. Around here almost every saturday & sunday morning you see on the news that some one either got killed or was hosipitalized due to someone racing.

I use to folow the street racers 25 years ago in Los Angeles. We would meet behind the Bank of America on Van Nuys Blvd. at midnight on saturday nights. Had some pretty trick cars show up. Ithe guy I ran with had a 70' Mach 1, he would win alot of money every week for the 'out of towners' that would come in to show up us 'valley guys'. It was alot of fun.

Hey Rob,
Both of those cars that were involved in that accident were 8 second cars. A friend told me that the Mustang was spinning the tires the whole quarter mile, the guy just wouldn't lift.

Wouldn't you love to have a car like that though!

Rob and Scarab, Friends of mine are in those video tapes and were at the scene that night. One of my buddies sold parts to Aaron Reynolds (charged with murder) and helped him with his car. I used to street race a sprayed Mustang back in 98 and 99. Plymouth and Outer, Joy and Evergreen, Lynch Road, French Road, Northline, Grand River and Tele, you name it. It was a crazy scene. 8 and 9 second cars were not unusual and 10 & 11 second cars were the norm. I have hours of videotape. I remember if someone showed up with anything other than a healthy V8, they get laughed and booed off the scene. Tthese Cali punks wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes in the Detroit scene. I'm not claiming to be tough, but you'd better know what the F your doing down there and you'd better have some backup. I've seen cars get shot at, fights break out, all kinds of **** go down on the streets.

I never understood why the spectators thought they were immune on the streets. I'm surprised I didn't see more people hurt. Street cars aren't required to have c-clip eliminaters, drive shaft loops, roll bars, etc.. Then youd see people standing right next to or across from the cars as they launched. You didn't know who the driver was. How stupid.

I know it doesn't make it right and she didn't deserve to get killed, but here are a few other points to that story. The race took place around 4am on an otherwise deserted street. The girl was with the racers and not an innocent bystander like the news makes her out to be. She and a few others decided to go to the end of the "track" to see the finish of the race and was thus standing right at the curb as the cars were coming. Doesn't make it right, but she knew what was going down and chose to place herself there. Word on the street (although it's hard to believe) is that Aaron was looking back at the other race car behind him and he somehow lost control. The car did not break. and cause the accident.

Anyway, if you get caught street racing in Detroit, they now have the power to confiscate your car. You do not get it back. After this and acquiring 3 drag racing tickets in 18 mos., I gave it up. Sold the car and bought my Donzi. Havent had a ticket since and the Donzi is way more fun.

Ranman

I laugh at these kids with their Honda's and Mitsubishi's.
If I still had my '66 Shelby I'd show'em what racing's all about. I've watched a few race and they don'tr have the poff the line torque that I'm used to. My friend would rev the engine then side step the clutch in his '71 Chevelle SS 454 and plant your brian in the back window.:cool:
I've done my share of street racing in the 70's. If the local roads were busy we'd drive about 8 miles to a deserted road that we had marked off for a quarter mile. The road was about 4 miles long and straight as an arrow. On Saturday nights the cops would stand by and watch, but no tickets were ever issued.
That was fun!:cool:

We used to have some killer street cars here in northern VA. I remember the "boy's from MD" would come down on a hunt. They would want to run 1/4 mile on slicks, and we would want to run 1/8 on D.O.T's. We had cars that would hook on snot. They were big inch small blocks or small inch big blocks with lots (and I mean LOTS) of nitrous. Those MD boy's always had big inch motors and they would never hook, then they could never catch us in the 1/8 (we got our share of butt kicking though). If they got us to agree to a 1/4, we would say "you have to give us something, say......2 cars and the boot"? What a rush to pull off a high 5 or a low 6 second 1/8 mile pass on the street, a fender length in front of a rival.

Then, the rice burners started to hang around. They would follow us to a place to race and while the fast cars would be getting ready, they would be non-stop racing. Sometimes 3 at a time. The cops would show up, and the big race would never get off.

Then, we got old, some of us got married, some of us had kids, some bought houses, and some BOUGHT A POWERBOAT.

Still have my street car, but it's just a slow bracket racer now, and my Pontiac GTP will out run the rice burners at a stoplight.

Sometimes change is good, sometimes change sucks
Hopefully no one puts one of those stupid mufflers on a 4 cylinder boat.

i have done more than my fair shair of street racing in the past. D.C. used to have some of the best street racing around, i have personally watched plenty of times cars get ready on the entrance ramp while people stopped traffic on i495 (YEAH!) and they pull up on the interstate and race. i had a low 10 second street car and was considered SLOW by those guys over there. i just cant relate to these ricers, i think it is actually more the people than the cars i really cant stand. in my eyes real race cars are built, not purchased on mommys credit card.

Rob

Hey Ranman,
I'm sure we know some of the same people , and what you say is the it was /is down there. I didn't see too many guns back in the early ninties, just in the past few years. Back in the early ninties everyone seemed to get along (somewhat), sure there was arguments but it didn't alway resort to gunfights.
From what I hear allot of the people that had REALLY fast stuff are either in prison or dead.
Do you remember the 69 Camaro (survivor) that used to have small tires and a big inch Rodeck motor ?
How about Averys GN or Dart ? Remember Mike Morans 8.50 wheelstanding Pinto station wagon ?
That was some street racing !
I remember a street race were they blocked off I696 , It was a 69 Hemi roadrunner and a B1 motored Duster. Just awesome !

But yes the boat thing is better you can race all day long and not worry about cops !

13 years ago ... how about 36 years ago. Great memories. I started with a 427/425 from a 66 Vette ... and put it in my 64 Chevelle. 13.5 to 1, Crane, Hooker etc Anyone remember a Holley 3 Barrel carb? Drove it every day on the street to college and work. Could only fit 7" slicks. Pulled the wheels about a foot turning 11.83 @133, which wasn't bad at that time.

For those of you in the Northeast, there is an event held every July called the Syracuse Nationals. This last summer we had 6,000 muscle cars and hot rods show up for the event ... and it was fantastic. It's held at the New York State Fairgrounds.

They stay on the Fairgrounds during the day and go "cruising" at night. On my side of town is a regular cruising place called Erie Boulevard where, that weekend, about 5,000 people line the road with lawn chairs until lilke 2AM just to watch the cars go by. There isn't any racing going on, but it's still a great show. Here's a web site:

http://2002.syracusenats.com/

I'm still in the scene in Central Ohio. Just like someone from Detroit said earlier, the ricers get laughed at by us V8 guys. In fact, most of the time we just ignore them. When we set up race between a couple of the heavy hitters, we send a set of decoy fast cars out with a group of others to draw the ricer kids out of the parking lot. The decoys will take them to a spot that we would normally race at, but no race would happen. Sometimes two sets of decoys are sent out. It helps with the cops too. I think the ricers are the best thing that ever happened for the cops, they make such a frigging scene wherever they go, with the strobe lights and fart pipes, always drawing attention to themselves by acting foolish in the wrong place. There have been times in the past where the older, more established guys have chased some rice boys out of the lot, sometimes by force. This has happened when they start doing stupid **** around parked cars.

I choose not to race on the street anymore. I'll watch and help out, but when approached to race, I tell them to meet me at the strip anytime. It's $8-$10 depending on the day and legal. My car is in the 10s all small block motor.

Here's a pic of a major "FART PIPE" on a ricer.

Holley 3 barrel?
Yep, I remember them. MY Dad's 36' ChrisCraft had twin 327's that had them for carbs.

A friend and I were partners in a '71 Dodge Dart that ran SS/IA in NED 1 back in '74. This car had no title, serial numbers, tags, etc. We used to slap a false tag on it, a set of header mufflers and drive it to the Saturday night races, on slicks. Run a few guys, blow their doors oof and go home. Sunday morning we'd load it on the trailer and run up to Raceway Park in Englishtown for day of "legal" racing.:D :D

Hey Scarab, I'm sure we do know some of the same people. It's not like there were gunfights every weekend, but I've seen em, especially on Lynch and Joy road. In the early nineties, I was 16 or 17. I had a 4cyl Mustang coupe that was converted to a 302. It was fun, but I didn't understand (or have enough $$$) to really tune it well so it was pretty slow I remember a distinct Pinto that was tubbed with I think a 460 with the dual quads. Maybe that's who you are talking about. I also rember a rather quick GN that had "all throttle, no bottle" in the back window.

If your into the Mustang scene, you'd know one of my buddies Eric Paurazes. His latest car is in the middle 7's. He's getting more into the Pro 5.0 stuff now though. He also runs a shop in Redford and sells Mustang parts all over Detroit. He's pretty much (in)famous.

It's too bad I never got to meet up with you and some of the other OSO'ers on LSC. There's so many people out there in Muscamoot, it's hard to weed through all the boats, plus I kind of hang back and watch from a distance. Oh well, maybe next season.

damn ricers! :D :D

Wally
 

No kidding!
Those ricers can't even drive a slow ricemobile!

Ranman,
Yes that Pinto had a big inch Clevelend with a Jericho 5 speed.
My friends (Jim and John ) currently run a SS/outlaw 5.0 Mustang there best pass is a 8.10 @170 , they used to street race until the car got into the nines.
In the early ninties I had a 85 Mustang that looked all stock except for the front runners and 9" slicks and the sump hanging out of the gas tank with 2 -8 fuel lines coming out of it. That car went 10:80's back then which was respectable but definitley couldn't hang with the big boys.
My best race that I can remember was on the old on ramp from Hall rd to I94. I was racing a tubbed blue 69 Roadrunner with a 500ci motor /w Indy heads. He actually got a car out on me (14" slicks vs 9") and then I just slipped and slided (my car usually hazed the tires thru 3rd gear) past him , Man he was pissed... he felt the same way about Mustangs as I feel about the ricers !

I've got a great arcticle on street racing, but it's too long to post. If anyone is interested, email me. I don't have a place to upload it so I can't post a link.

hey flyinbrian ya know if that guy adds racing stripes and stickers
he can gain 20hp:D :D

i love this post. anymore i thought i was all by myself in hating these fart cans. the kids who drive them are rich boy punks, and on top of that they're ugly cars. i can't wait to finish my 70 stang so i can mop up the street with these tarts. as to street racing i am no longer involved in it. i live near Philly and they cracked down so hard its rediculous. several years ago i was with my buddy in his mustang and we were sitting at a redlight and one cop pulled infront of us and another behind us. he got 4 tickets for doing nothing. the worst part is we hadn't even got to the races yet. we were targeted specifically because of the type of vehicle we were in.:mad:
anyways its good to know there are still a lot of v8 heads around

Russ

Chuck,
Very close friend of mine that I grew up with in the Shores was a helicopter pilot for the Detroit police, now flying for one of the newstations, and a common assignment was to go out looking for the "organized" street racers. After they were spotted then he could call in the ground troops.

Wilerty,
I can relate like you to the mid-late sixties street races. No turbos, to laughting gas. Just cubic inches. The cars really didn't handle that good nor did that stop that good, but they sure did feel good going in a straight line. Try to have fun now with a good car, Vette, Viper, Porsche, etc. You have some fun, and you got a blue light in your mirror. NO thanks. I've had enough of that. Thats why I like the boat. I can go out in the lake, and unless you are really stupid, you can blow your brains out without being arrested. I like fast cars and bikes, but you just can't use them anymore.

Ranman,
I'd like to read that article
[email protected]

Larry,
I'm sure your buddy got to see some interesting things !

Good to see that there are alot of Mustang guys on this site. Here's mine.

This was the mustang I used to race.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/gallery/...stang1-med.jpg

Notice the gauges for the N2O.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/gallery/...stang2-med.jpg

Whiteknuckle-
The helicopter is our biggest enemy. That's another reason for the decoy/s. Once they see that giant line of cars running single file somewhere at 2:00 AM, they tend to lock in on them. Meanwhile, we're busting off one quick run and scattering at another location.

For a good while, several years ago, we had a fellow street racer that was also a city cop. He worked nightshift and patrolled the area we raced in. We could get away with anything then. That was prior to the ricers too.

RCM255-
The stickers are worth all kinds of speed. Did you ever notice that the stickers are normally yellow?!?! I think the bolt aluminum wing is worth tons of speed too.:rolleyes:

Ranman, i like the story of how those tickets got down to almost nothing from where they started.

being in high school, i see lots of 4 cyl cars. most of these kids dont know much about their cars! one friend was asking if he could borrow my plug wrench, i asked if he needed a gapper also, he said "whats that?" if he wasnt a friend i would have let him put the plugs in as they were. (almost 2x bigger than he needed!!!). It was funny, were stanging around another friends 14sec integra, some kid has his Geo Storm parked next to it this was so funny, graphics down the side, wing on the back, and the exhaust, i wont go on long about it, ill just say a weed wacker does sound a bit more tuned than this exhaust did. then as he is pulling away one tire *almost* chirped and a big cloud of white smoke came out the 5" tail pipe!!!!

there still are a few youngins out ther knowin you need a full block to go fast, not one sliced down the middle. hopefully, ill get a 93 t bird from my parents for cheap, 5.0 235hp 300ft/lb which will pull a small boat pretty easily.

Check this link out there should be some pix
of my old Mustang

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=39535223303&n=487785749

Here's my 68 I sold. Sure miss that one. Will have to build another.

Now I have a new name for the rice racer coffee can exhaust, "Fart Pipe". That's great. We also have a name for those big oversized rear wings. We call that the "shopping cart" spoiler. Just go back there, grab hold of the spoiler and look for the milk and eggs aisle.

keeping american muscle alive down here......where's the rice We are HUNGRY !!!!