I would suggest that the flames in this thread should have been expected simply because of the thread title. If it said something like "driving on the highway at 90mph" I doubt that anyone would have said boo (most people probably would not even have opened the thread to see what it was about).
The concept of "street racing" is frowned upon by the public and for good reason. That is why cars are now confiscated in parts of New York for doing just that. Yes, there is a difference between "speeding" and "street racing" and I think people will still continue to criticize the latter way more often than the former.
From the NY Times:
November 18, 2007
Slow Down? Never. Well, Maybe.
By PHILLIP LUTZ
WEST BABYLON, N.Y.
ON what figured to be one of the last mild Saturdays of the year, an ethnically diverse and eclectically clad mix of auto enthusiasts engaged in a burnout contest here in an industrial area on Bell Street. The contest is an enduring ritual in which competing cars’ rear ends are held aloft while their drivers spin the front wheels against the pavement to generate as much sound and smoke as possible before speeding off one at a time.
But just as the contest was shifting into high gear — fueled by free-flowing beer, burgers and a huge sound system that pumped rap music — four Suffolk County police cars arrived, alerted by a 911 call. “We want to nip it in the bud,” Officer Robert Cardona said. “We’re trying to make sure they don’t kill themselves or others.”
Nip it in the bud they did. Before the competition could escalate into actual drag racing, the police gave out tickets for nonmoving offenses like parking violations and warned the participants to clear the street and not race. The burnout contest resumed after the police left. But the atmosphere had cooled, and the crowd, which had come from as far away as Vermont and North Carolina, drifted away.
The urge to build and race powerful cars is a constant, said Robert Ponzo, the assistant chief of patrol in the Suffolk County Police Department. Even two off-duty Mount Vernon, N.Y., police officers were accused of drag racing in their town last year on North Macquesten Parkway; one officer lost control of his car, injuring his passenger.
The consequences can be even more dire. Two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old were killed in an evening drag race along Route 33 in Neptune Township, N.J., in March. That same month, a Newark police sergeant involved in a crackdown on drag racing on Doremus Avenue, a frequent site of illegal late-night races, was killed when his squad car flipped while chasing a suspect. And on Long Island, four people died in 2005 because of drag racing, including a woman in Elmont whose car was hit by one that the police said was racing.
But drag racing persists on public roads — especially industrial areas, like the one in West Babylon and on Doremus Avenue in Newark — in both impromptu and organized competitions.
Aided by computers and cellphones (participants in the burnout contest were organizing up to the last minute on a live Internet feed), hot rodders regularly congregate across the New York metropolitan area.
But for many of them, the risks of illegal racing are beginning to outweigh the thrills as the police step up enforcement and racing etiquette breaks down.
David Moy is a case in point. Leaning against his shiny red Honda Civic at the competition here, Mr. Moy, 28, of Ridge, N.Y., said he had sworn off street racing because he feared the police would seize his car, a 1997 model on which he said he had spent $25,000 for improvements.
Reacting to the drag-racing deaths on Long Island in 2005, the Suffolk County Legislature approved a bill last year authorizing police to seize racers’ cars. Since then, more than 20 have been seized and nearly 30 arrests made, the police said.
“They’re cracking down so much,” Mr. Moy said, “it’s not even worth it.”
For Nissin Trujillo, of Ocean Township, N.J., the risks are more personal. Mr. Trujillo, who is in his 20s and works with engines for a living, said a friend of his died a few years ago in a race along Main Street in Asbury Park, N.J. He said the death prompted him to stop racing on the street, though street racers’ diminishing sense of how to behave had already led him in that direction.
“People don’t know how to act anymore,” he said.
CHRIS MILLER, 26, of North Babylon, N.Y., said the risks were a career issue for him. Driving a black 1995 Honda Civic, he races only at tracks, most recently last month at the National Hot Rod Association’s sport-compact fall nationals, at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. He said street racing could jeopardize thousands of dollars in prize money and corporate backing he is seeking.
Mr. Miller’s move up the ladder parallels a general upgrading in drag racing. The National Hot Rod Association has 80,000 members, 140 affiliated tracks, multimillion-dollar cable-TV deals and a raft of star drivers who, like the crowd at the burnout contest, are a diverse mix. All of which gives young drivers something to shoot for beyond the cheap thrills and small cash available racing on the street.
Not that cheap thrills don’t retain their allure. Efan Krcic, 21, who lives in Flushing, Queens, and works as a doorman in Manhattan, said he races his Lexus SE 300 on highways in the metropolitan area when he is “egged on.” Mr. Krcic, who was among those who showed up in West Babylon, said he enjoyed the “bragging rights” that come from minor victories.
A spontaneous race apparently led to the three deaths in Neptune Township, N.J., in March. Capt. Andrew Ludder of the Neptune police said the accident did not indicate a wider pattern of drag racing, but Adrian Villamil, 26, of Little Ferry, N.J., who works at Z10 Motorsports in Neptune, said that impulsive racing takes place on nearby Route 18 and Route 9, as well as on Route 33.
Still, he said, most drivers backed off when the police took aggressive action against speeders, which Captain Ludder stressed was department policy. His department also focuses on known racing hot spots.
Mr. Villamil said that he and other racers chose to test their cars at Raceway Park, not far from Route 18. Alex Knapp, the track’s co-owner, said drivers from all over the metropolitan area regularly take part in open-track nights on Wednesdays and Fridays. He said that more had come from Nassau and Suffolk Counties since Long Island Motorsports Park in Westhampton closed after half a century in 2004.
Plans for a new track in Yaphank, in Suffolk, have languished amid opposition from the community and environmentalists, as well as developers with other interests.
Hot rodders said they would use a new track.
“There wouldn’t be all that jumping lines, burnout burnout stuff,” said Lauren Morales, 24, of Richmond Hill, Queens, the girlfriend of Mr. Moy, the former street racer.
But Chief Ponzo was skeptical, saying that much street racing would continue.
all they get is a slap on the wrist the first time. Street racers get their cars crushed.
