No Rules racing

[Eric]

That's what would perk up my interest.

In high school, I used to go to street drag races. People who wanted to race would drive their car to the local McDonald's on Friday night. A group would then head out to where the race would be held - an isolated stretch of blacktop with a quarter mile marked off. Then they'd race - for money or just for fun.

There were no brackets, no tech inspection or safety check. You just brought your car and raced.

It was wild, because you never knew what was going to happen; what the other dude had under the hood. It could be a race - or one car might just walk away from the other.

Anyone could do it, too. There were no hassles (except from cops) and it was affordable because you didn't have to spend a pile of money on mandated equipment.

Was it dangerous? Sure, a little. But no one got killed and even if they had, much as it would have sucked, it was a different time and we weren't the safety-and-rules-obsessed creatures we are now.

If it was fun, we just did it. Informally, organically. I miss that.

[Vman$01]

Eric,

I can't post any pictures here to protect the Guilty. In Memphis they had the "Mustang Club". We too went to a hamburger joint to drink a shake and check out the hens in tow.

Now, during the week emails flooded in announcing the pairing for the weekend heats. This is a Joke right? No say it a'int so!

You get out on a stretch of Interstate highway. The number and mile markers are not listed to protect the Berserk.

Cars launch at 45 mph and off they go. A predetermined off ramp is established with a "safe house" nearby.

When you see lights in the rear view mirror you stay in the gas, hit the ramp and proceed to the safe house. Girlfriends and Wives man the garage door opener and with the precision of a pit stop you hit your mark or the drywall.

It was obvious when the cars were in. The Flowmasters and X pipes ceased. Down goes the garage door and you waltz upstairs to watch the troopers speed past the property.

One of the rules was your car had to have to speed limiter disabled and be able to outrun the TN HP.... That was easy. It's fun to "hit it" and watch the flashing lights disappear.

But then again the allure was we were "Breaking the Law"! V-Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psTUiQzNoxw <-- Priest!



<- Contemporary Metal

[Eric]

Eric,

I can't post any pictures here to protect the Guilty. In Memphis they had the "Mustang Club". We too went to a hamburger joint to drink a shake and check out the hens in tow.

Now, during the week emails flooded in announcing the pairing for the weekend heats. This is a Joke right? No say it a'int so!

You get out on a stretch of Interstate highway. The number and mile markers are not listed to protect the Berserk.

Cars launch at 45 mph and off they go. A predetermined off ramp is established with a "safe house" nearby.

When you see lights in the rear view mirror you stay in the gas, hit the ramp and proceed to the safe house. Girlfriends and Wives man the garage door opener and with the precision of a pit stop you hit your mark or the drywall.

It was obvious when the cars were in. The Flowmasters and X pipes ceased. Down goes the garage door and you waltz upstairs to watch the troopers speed past the property.

One of the rules was your car had to have to speed limiter disabled and be able to outrun the TN HP.... That was easy. It's fun to "hit it" and watch the flashing lights disappear.

But then again the allure was we were "Breaking the Law"! V-Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psTUiQzNoxw <-- Priest!

That, V-man, is capital!

Having a safe house at the ready.... made my morning!

[grouch]

When I was in high school, we did something a little different. At first it was stop light drags but too many wrecks and tickets plus increasing traffic made that nearly impossible. One of the guys had helped his dad in a rally race (that's where my interest in it came from) and we did something similar.

First off, money talks and B.S. walks. Both drivers put up some money. They race to a eatery norht of town and the first one back with a receipt with time and date on it got the money. No racing for funsies. You have a wreck or ticket and you lose. It was self policing.

Now, unfortunately you could cheat and one guy was beating the daylights out of really fast Mustangs, Trans Ams and Camaros with a 6 banger Rambler. He won 3 out of 4 times most of the time. Then we found out how he was doing it. One guy was racing him and as he pulled into the restaurant, the fire department was rolling up their hoses and it had burned down. It had been on fire for nearly an hour andall the grease kept the fires going. When the guy showed back up, he told everybody about the fire and that it had been going for some time. The guy winning was having a stop by a pay phone (remember those?) and calling his sister who would go get something and meet him half way. He would then go back and often would show up with a drink from the restaurant.

Some of the guys he'd been beating had a talk with him. He didn't race anymore.

[Vman$01]

You would never cheat in chivalrous manly sport like Drag/Street Racing?????????????????????????????????????

You're right man the sub-culture has changed, both legal and illegal.

On the legal side is this autocross crap where you do the "cones" race against a clock and no competitor on the track at the time??? OYY!

Now track time can be bought, but sometimes racers have to drive to the track and that might be hundreds of miles. It is a blast.

On the other side is - Street Racing. As you recall when we were a whole lot younger you did not have to move your 1/4 too often as the cops thought it was cool and good clean fun (Unless you had long hair and knocked up the police chiefs daughter).

Modern Street Racing is an Underground network where they email you dates and times and the prize pool. Kind of like a Poker home game. Illegal but discreet.

The problem as I see it: 100 young people with show up with their Mitsubishi Lancers and it tends to wake up the police especially on weekends. But then again the protocol for "dispersing" when the Man shows up is very sophisticated.

Also, Street Racing clubs don't like stoned or boozed drivers who wreck and bring visibility to the 200 race evening with tons of good looking women.

There are a lot of knuckleheads with some seriously fast cars (Nitrous). It's all good clean fun as far as I am concerned.

Still researching a good starting point for the Rally Thread and the season.

V-Man

[swamprat]

V-man -

Good stuff.

I like street racing and that Mustang club thing a lot better than watching a bunch of overpaid hypocritical* gonads driving around in cars dressed up like cereal boxes. *Dale Earnhart, Rusty Wallace participated in anti-speeding campaigns.

Before NASCAR became some corporate endorsed go slow fest, it was exciting. The fastest car won. The guy driving the fastest car was damned good.

I dissociated from NASCAR around the time that they put restrictor plates in, slowing the qualifying times from the 225 mph range to 190. If NASCAR is ever to come back, they need to remove that BS and advertise that fact.

If there are clovers in the crowd who don't want that, WHAT THE HELL are they watching a race for?

[Vman$01]

Hey I'm down the street from you in Vero. Hell man anybody in Sanford knows his racin'

The only reason why I still watch is I am an NFL freak and when the season is over there is a huge void to fill.

Honestly I wish I was one of those drivers with a Super Model Trophy Wife like Jimmie. And make all that money and race cars.

I know it's a stupid pipe dream. I have somehow gotten past the commercialism of the sport and tuned it out. I don't go to the races as it is noisy, hot and crowded. But I confess that I do watch on Saturday and Sunday. It also makes me happy that do all that stuff before the race that other sports don't. God Bless America, yada yada yada. I'm a Southern country boy and there's not many Southern country boy's left in Nascar.

It is amazing that it has gotten so popular. Kinda like BB King. When he was great he was broke. Now that he is kind of a joke, he makes the big money. That's life man.. Don't be a stranger.

V-Man

[grouch]

You would never cheat in chivalrous manly sport like Drag/Street Racing?????????????????????????????????????


On the other side is - Street Racing. As you recall when we were a whole lot younger you did not have to move your 1/4 too often as the cops thought it was cool and good clean fun (Unless you had long hair and knocked up the police chiefs daughter).

The problem as I see it: 100 young people with show up with their Mitsubishi Lancers and it tends to wake up the police especially on weekends. But then again the protocol for "dispersing" when the Man shows up is very sophisticated.

Still researching a good starting point for the Rally Thread and the season.

V-Man

Ummmmm.......when did you knock up the police chiefs daughter?

Seriously, I won't cheat in racing. Okay, if I'm at a race event, I might look for ways to..um...bend the rules a bit. As far as out and out lying, nope. One guy I help out from time to time has a saying on the back of his race trailer. "When the tail ramp drops, the B.S. stops". Both of us and our buddies feel that if the other guy is a better driver and pays attention to details, then if he wins, he wins. If he cheats, what else will he do? Steal other teams tools and parts? People who do that tend to be handled roughly to say the least.

As for street racing, it is not drag racing. I was a cop for 10 years. I had to clean up after street races. (Hint, it involved pry bars, cutting tools and body bags) I remember not too many years ago there was a street race on a semi deserted 4 lane. After the cars left, the tire smoke was so heavy nobody saw the car coming. A car ran through the smoke and found that there were people standing in the road. Many injuries.

When you race on the street you basically take over other peoples property. You add risk to other people without their knowledge or consent. While I like to go fast probably as much, if not more so than most on here, if you street race and hurt someone else, you really don't want me on your jury when you are charged with reckless endangerment.

[Vman$01]

You NEVER went to that "spot" out of town and Friday and did a little Drag Racing with your Friends????

C'mon Man! I'm not young anymore. But we all raised a lot of Hell??

I never got to "formally introduce myself" to the Police chief's daughter, but she was there Bud in hand flirting with the racers.

Drag racing on Saturday night is not just about winning $20 off your rival. It's a gathering of young people growing up and having fun doing it.

The track teaches us that the winners get all the attention and the losers, well you know. They take the car back to the garage and try a new approach.

I never want to endanger anybody's baby or Uncle. I just feel the need for speed and I am admittedly a full-time BERSERKER!

Post name wanted Dead or Alive
Take my License all that Jive
I can't drive 65!

V-Man