Let me start off by saying that here at BangShift.com we do not support or condone street racing. It is illegal and dangerous, and we know that. With that said, from the late ’80’s through the ’90’s I was a street racing son of a bitch. It was fun, it was exciting, it was dangerous, it was scary, it was fast, it was …stupid too. But I did it, and so there we go.
Yesterday we had a gentleman on the site who reported a post in our forums where street racing was being talked about and shown on video. I thanked him for reporting it and told him that we don’t condone street racing here, but that our readers are free to discuss and share their stories in our forums.
Of course, the street racer in me also wanted to check out the video and it is super bad ass. In fact, you can watch it at THIS LINK.
But back to our Question of the Day. What do you think of street racing? Should people talk about it? Should we run videos like the one mentioned here? And don’t give us your politically correct shit answers. Give us what you really think. Change your name in the comment section if you want and be anonymous. We don’t care, we just want to hear the truth.
So…What do you think of street racing?
Illegal and dangerous. While probably 99% of street races happen without any issues, the possibility of hurting some innocent bystander makes it a bad idea. There is no reason the race can’t wait until the track opens up. Race on the race track, drive on the street.
Dangerous,yes but hell its fun and exciting. The Fast and Furious movie ruined it by making it too mainstream and known,got a bunch of kids crazy and they took it too far.
dunno about in the US but in Australia they’ll kill you and stomp on your remains here…having said that, there’s heaps of it in this country. I think we’ve all been there – it doesn’t have to be full on to be a street drag… gunned it off the lights to beat another car? well yep, you’ve done it too then. We’ve had at least 3 deaths in my local area that were just traffic light type drags – at least if its on a back road with people making sure the coast is clear its possibly marginally safer – oh, who am I trying to kid? but yeh, part of the whole car thing, whether people like it or not….
Stupid, dangerous and illegal, in that order. If it only endangers your own life, go for it. If it potentially endangers innocent bystanders, it’s stupid, and they deserve whatever’s coming to them. There are racetracks EVERYWHERE, USE THEM.
Well..you got to start somewhere..we didnt start riding bicycles at a race track either :).
Yeah like thats a real valid and relevant argument … [ hint ; its not ]
Stupid as all ______ irresponsible as well as asinine ! Either have the cojones to put it on the track in a genuine heads up race …. or admit you’re too damn chicken ____ to do it right ! As far as the cost of Street vs Track argument is concerned ? Give that one a rest kiddies ( referring to maturity .. not age ) Street Racers spend as much if not more than legit track racers do so that argument is worthless . I see this argument constantly in the M/C world as well [ a character by the name of Addy is a major mouthpiece of the street M/C racing idiots ] and its total BS with them as well . All show … bravado and stupidity … and still not having the Cojones to do it right . Back in the 50’s and before …. there was no choice but to street race …. today though there is ZERO excuse !
I feel it casts a bad light on the entire car hobby. How often does a headline scream DRAG RACERS KILL 6 when in fact it was street racers. It’s taken a long time for towns to embrace cruise nights and such, lets not make them think all car people are street racers. My vote is keep it off BangShift.
Put up or shut up. Make it three yards and you got a race!
The whole reason we got involved in racing is that our Dad didn’t want us racing on the street. He told us, “I’ll help you buy your car, tune your car, and I’ll even take it to the track for you, but if I ever catch you racing on the street, you’ll never drive again”! When our Dad said, “never”, it meant Never to us. So that’s how we got started. We ran S/S, Pro Stock, A/FX, and eventually,a turbo nitrous funny bike.
Street racing is stupid, dangerous, and illegal. Just because someone does it and gets away with it doesn’t change that one bit.
Street Racers … sit on their brains … & think with their …. ?
Wow,this is sure a “do as I say not as I did” issue is’nt it?
I did’nt line up too many times out on the 118 freeway after they layed a perfect 100% concreate dragstrip in my back yard,or on Woodley…..
I can only say after my first pass at Big Willies on TI I didn’t want to look over my shoulder while running anymore.
The Lunchbox is a perfect example of why those guys will not run at the track,they wont let it. The “Rules”,run 11.99 and you have to have a roll bar,well in the old days (up to late 80’s) a mid 11 car could pay for itself on the street,add that bar and nobody would run it,forget about it if it had a cage. Its been a long time sense I stood on the side of the road at 2am,but I would guess a low to mid 10 car without bars would clean up now too.Put the cage in and it would be over.
In my “if I win the lotto” dream I would build a private “toll road” to nowhere,but back. 1 mile of 2 lane 50ft wide,lined with 4ft high concrete walls on each side with a 1 lane return road. A simple red/green stop light about 100ft after the toll bothe,$.25 toll. I’m sure somebody would figure out why…..
The “kids” today doing thier drivebys are killing it for everybody,just like we did when we where kids, the ol pot and kettle thing again.
I think we should be thankful street racing still happens,because that shows hot rodding,car crafting,and BangShifting is still alive, I here it off in the night,2am, once in a while, I know the circle is still open,others will follow.
I really enjoy watching street racing videos by the 1320 crew, but that’s about as close as I wanna get to one. Also there are different types of street racing, there’s your classic two guys pull up to a stop light, rev em up, and go on the green, this I don’t have to much of a problem with. When it’s the organized race where 20+ cars show up and it’s planned out that I don’t like as much, it’s a lot more dangerous I think then.
Dumb sure but it shouldn’t be treated so heavy handed by the overzealous law. Life is dangerous we all die. It would be nice if the cops/county/state would close some low use roads once or twice a week and let it fly, if you are there you take full responsibility for your actions, wreck your car its on you, get run over, you knew the risks. We have gotten too soft and need to step away from the nanny state and be responsible for ourselves.
Never happen. Soon as somebody gets hurt, they’ll lawyer up and the cops/county/state is liable. SoCal has a problem, no drag strips. Street racing is only gonna increase.
Street racing will always happen no matter how many tracks open up. Young kids just getting their license do it the most and eventually most people grow out of it and head for the track. The difference today from what people used to do in the old days are the laws dealing with street racing. Now many places will impound the car, license revoked, jail time, fines and fees, and in some cases the county or city will sell the car. Now how fun is that? I think Bangshift should leave the topic to other forums where everybody trashes each other.
idk, street racing in the middle of nowhere isnt the worst thing.
racing light to light on a busy road is stupid.
ive seen guys street racing in busy city blocks and thats just plain idiotic.
ive seen one guy die going the wrong way down a track, street racing in the country. car caught fire and he burnt to death.
saw 2 guys flip on a road up in jersey, street racing in the rain, with the t-tops off..
but who can honestly say they’ve never raced somebody on the street at sometime in they’re life?
we had a lil 1/8 mile track here in the country that was gaining popularity with street racers. the county installed a bunch of speed bumps so people wouldnt race. now 4x4s are drag racing over the track. wont take long til somebody gets hurt on that, imo
Take it to the track. Don’t endanger average folks trying to get home at night after a movie or from the grocery store with your “mine is faster than yours” BS.
Stupid and vile it gets laws passed that hurt everyone.
Owning a muscle car myself (2004 GTO) I would venture to say street racing does nothing for the sport other than bring criticism and condemnation to us owners of modified cars. It’s stupid and dangerous.
Thanks to the Discovery Channel like it or not street racing is in the open now.
i myself street raced in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s and i don’t mind talking about it on forums or posting vids or pics
stupid, very dangerous, can be exciting and fun, are nearest track is along distance away, we had someone wanting to build a track and he previously had a track in a far away community for awhile and opened it up on fridays for street legal drags, basically run what you brung as many times as you can line up, but they ran this guy out of our town and said we don’t need a drag strip there is no street racing in our town, that is funny because there is all kinds of videos of street racing in our town online, you will never fully get rid of street racing, but a nearby accessible drag race track would certainly help curve alot of it.
Just be careful boys!!
There are so many killed street racing. Racers, passengers and bystanders. Bring it where it is Legal, Safe AND documented how fast you and your vehicle Go. Race Tracks are the only place to race. No TIMESLIP? Then you are just an idiot and a menace to society. Wanna race? Then PROVE it with a recorded time.
I would be a hypocrite if I got all preachy about street racing when I did it for years. As long as there are two cars in town owned by two people with something to prove, there will be street racing. There has been since the invention of the automobile. Before automobiles it was two guys on horses racing through town.
The real stupidity is the city councils who refuse to solve the problem by setting up a safe place for people to race.
Bangshift has done a pretty good job, in my opinion, of striking the balance. I’ll see street racing stuff here once in a blue moon, that’s enough for me. I can take it or leave it really, and it’s not something I come here looking for.
We all did it back in the day. Heck a 2 to 3 block blast from a roller or stop light never hurt anyone …. hopefully. The difference with today is kids don’t know when to quit. They go on and on through traffic whipping in and out of lanes and turn it into a road race rather than a drag race. We were never that stupid. Track rules are probably an issue for some too. Roll cage this, engine diaper that, fire extinguisher here, helmet there, are all cost prohibitive to many. Whatever the case, long live drag racing!
I/we used to street race all the time. Why? No racetrack close enough to go race at. When someone would try to open a track, officials/neighbors would stop it from happening. I saw some bad things happen street racing too. Lost a few friends along the way. (Was’nt there when it happened to them but street racing was what got them killed)What usually happens is if someone has a wreck, most everyone leaves, so they don’t get busted, and if anyone is hurt there is no one around that is properly trained to help. Small fires were not to big of a deal as many of us carried fire extinguishers with us but a large fire would have been a big problem. There is also a reason for the safety equipment and inspections at race tracks. I would never do it today as I have grown older and wiser but back in the day, Did it all the time.
Hell I don’t understand why you video it? I really don’t understand why we have to video everything in this world. Shoot you might as well put a number on the side of your car and stand in front of the courthouse…………I know why guys do it….it eliminates the politics of the race. It you and your machine against some other dude. No bull crap race against the clock. Face to face racing is hell of a lot more fun and kooler. Than racing against a clock…..I aint for street racing though. Too many idiots on the road as is. Hell people can’t drive in when it is dry much less when it is wet. I sure as hell don’t need them racing on the streets.
Incredibly stupid!, take it to the track!
in socal our local city officials have pretty much taken away all of our drag strips except one which is Irwindale and the current owners and track workers can’t prep that track at all to make it consistent . Plus being the only track in all of Socal and having more cars than what will fit in the pits you’re lucky to maybe get one pass . So alot of racers take to the streets and this will only get worse until these cities here in Socal realize they need places for these people to legally race at
I remember quite a few years ago Socal had close to 20 plus drag strips but all were closed due to noise issues and neighborhood complaints
yeah, I’ve done it, but only in the spur of the moment type deal. Like when you just happen to line up next to someone at traffic light. Not like the semi-organized, yet clandestine deal currently shown on the Discovery Channel. Seems to me the cops in OK City just need look for a ton of flood lights and a bunch of camera men to bust these guys.
Reality TV, not staged, really?
However, I did like how the sleeper pick-up took the import dude’s wing……..
with discovery channels “street outlaws” this was a good call by the producers to show street racing for what it is and it will just make street racing even more popular
After our local cruise nights, the better cars break into two groups. Nobody cares where the shit cars go. One heads to the bars and the other to a straight section of farm road outside of town (“county road”). Run what you brung. Nobody out there, late night, worst case hit a deer and ruin your front end, worster case break something and head for the ditch. But it happens. And it will happen. Can’t get around it.
BS does a decent job of not glorifying it, but the videos are good so keep ’em coming. Don’t want to watch just click and move on, just like the crash videos and whatnot. You are not my keeper and I am not yours.
It’s funny you say that but in our sew you so fast culture it just aint gonna fly.
While I spent my fare share of time doing it, (405 and western, 91 and Avalon) in SoCal in the early 90’s, I must say it depends greatly on the people involved…. There are so many morons, ricers, ect. out there today that think they have to run it out the back door that it is just nuts anymore. We found many “safe” places to race wher there was Zero traffic at 1 in the morning…. But if there is a track close by, use it…
Love it. Not a race track close enough around here, and they have too many rules.
I was part of over several huindred street races back in the 60’s and 70’s, was even a hired gun driver for some of them. I helped organize the races and made sure we raced in palces that didn’t endanger innocent bystanders. But I attended many early races that were not run that way and luckily I never witnessed a bystander getting hurt. Not to sat it didn’t happen, just not when I was there. A phone call could have prevented the worse crash I know about. If the Roadrunner owner had called me to tell me where to meet him he wouldn’t have tried to drive it himself and wouldn’t have hit the spectators at the finish line. Luckily no one died but some serious injuries. I stepped back the night the kids came to my house to tell me that “Ishould have been there”. The police blocked off the street and they were all told they could get away without a ticket if they could point me out to them. I was so glad my car lost a cam lobe the week before. Shudder to think what might have happend if I had been there. I doubt the judge would have been kind. That’s when I knew my luck was running low. Kept it on the track after that. The adrenalin rush is hard to get away from and part of that comes from the “illegallity” of it.
I have done it in the past and will probably do it again. It is real stupid when people line either side of the road where said race is to be held. Then gets really stupid when some dumbass crosses into the other lane causing a crash, and death to many spectators.
Street racing does nothing but take away from the true sport of Drag Racing. If they think they are that bad ass on the street they should prove it where it counts …..on the track. Every time there is an accident and the news gets a hold of it they label it as Drag Racing and all it does is take away from the hard work of trying to promote the possibilities of either building new facilities or keep the ones we have. I think you have lowered your standards in promoting this type of racing on your web site and yes you are doing just that by posting it, regardless of your disclaimer.