Something everyone who street races should watch **graphic warning**

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The video is a fantastic illustration of the common sense fact that, when chit goes wrong in a motor vehicle, it does it in a big hurry. More speed increases the "wrong" part exponentially. Once aforementioned chit goes wrong, you can't get it back- its gone, and you ain't fixing it- now you just hang on for the ride. Motor vehicles seem to provide a sort of safe zone for some who seem to think they're looking at the world on a set of wraparound TV screens, instead of believing that thats the world out the windows of said vehicle, and whats happening out those windows is real. When they hit that car, that tree, those people, they don't seem to get that its gonna hurt, til the airbags go flying. Street racing is just another way you throw speed into the mix, in a way uncontrolled environment. Speed you don't need. I drive for a living, and I go into each day with a couple predetermined ideas- one, I'm going to see my kids when I go home. Second, I'm going home, not to a hospital. The rest of my day, I try to employ those ideas into every decision I make. Good post, Chris, they need this sorta thing in drivers ed.:nice:
 
Perhaps where you live. They can be amazingly effective in Philly.
YouTube - Illegal street drag racing busted up by cops, group outruns!
This is why I don't race down there. Also, the majority of the people down there are ricers with 15-17 sec cars. FWIW, they are down by Eagles stadium in the video.. Very industrial area when there isn't a game.

My racing was 18,20 years ago, and idk if its changed much since. I'd guess prolly not. There were a few kinds of street racers, idiots, amateurs, and my guys. Idiots zipped through the mall, down neighborhood streets, wherever, in junk. Got caught(and should have), totalled cars, caused damage. The amateurs had nice cars, gathered at the local spots in groups, went to the frontage roads, where there were fewer people, ran 5.0's and Trans Am's for $100 bucks, set the other guy out two cars and the bust. Me? I sprayed 150 on my 86, timed once at 11.4, and was one of the slowest guys in our crowd. Boris had an all steel 68 Camaro, 468/T400 with a Pro Fogger kit, trailered to the Amphitheater, South Chicago Avenue, Cline Ave, Doty Rd(I hated racing Doty, too bumpy),sometimes out to Dukes, to run guys from New Lenox, Orland, or Justice, the Archer Ave guys. Boris ran an 8.68 once. We usually ran weeknights(2 AM, no high school kids, few amateurs), didn't like crowds, and wouldn't start our cars if money wasn't involved. And money was $5,000, or $10,000 to the fast guys. I watched Boris lose to a back halfed 65 Chevy II, $6,500, because the fuel guage sending unit broke, he was out of gas. But he got it back the next week. Never saw a car impounded, Chicago would just tell us to get lost, then marvel at the hardware. This one Lansing cop ran a blown 86 Monte Carlo SS, maroon with Welds...ah, to be young and stupid:D
 
My racing was 18,20 years ago, and idk if its changed much since. I'd guess prolly not. There were a few kinds of street racers, idiots, amateurs, and my guys. Idiots zipped through the mall, down neighborhood streets, wherever, in junk. Got caught(and should have), totalled cars, caused damage. The amateurs had nice cars, gathered at the local spots in groups, went to the frontage roads, where there were fewer people, ran 5.0's and Trans Am's for $100 bucks, set the other guy out two cars and the bust. Me? I sprayed 150 on my 86, timed once at 11.4, and was one of the slowest guys in our crowd. Boris had an all steel 68 Camaro, 468/T400 with a Pro Fogger kit, trailered to the Amphitheater, South Chicago Avenue, Cline Ave, Doty Rd(I hated racing Doty, too bumpy),sometimes out to Dukes, to run guys from New Lenox, Orland, or Justice, the Archer Ave guys. Boris ran an 8.68 once. We usually ran weeknights(2 AM, no high school kids, few amateurs), didn't like crowds, and wouldn't start our cars if money wasn't involved. And money was $5,000, or $10,000 to the fast guys. I watched Boris lose to a back halfed 65 Chevy II, $6,500, because the fuel guage sending unit broke, he was out of gas. But he got it back the next week. Never saw a car impounded, Chicago would just tell us to get lost, then marvel at the hardware. This one Lansing cop ran a blown 86 Monte Carlo SS, maroon with Welds...ah, to be young and stupid:D


Thats how its supposed to be.
 
Thats how its supposed to be.

I smile whenever I get someone who wants to listen to the old stories:D. Smiled the whole time I posted that little bit. My daughter ain't interested, laughs at the dumb ones. My son, he's another story. My Dad has the same stories, about a place called Vinces Drive In, in the Kensington section of Chicago's south side, where he and his boys raced out of, circa 1960. They used the Bishop Ford Expressway, I94, before it was opened. He had a B-gas 58 Impala. He showed me things I didn't know a car could do when I first got my 5.0. My kids look at me like that, a hero. I don't want them to have the near misses I remember vividly- they were yesterday, and 20 years ago, all at the same time. I don't want to glamourize the dumb chit I did. But, he's 11, my stepson just turned 15, they see the 5.0 in pieces out in the garage, see me like a kid at Christmas, like when Cenok's stainless shorty's showed up at my front door. They want in, to BE the rock star. Its 2AM, you and a couple friends go up to a crowd of guys that rolled in to your White Castles(159th and Torrence) with a 68 Coronet RT, camming hard, sitting like it should, and you ask if they like racing. They reply,"We aren't racing you guys, we heard about what you guys run out here, we're just hanging out." You are a rock star, weather you like it or not. Dangerous addicting. My kids have to learn to respect it. It'll kill 'em the moment they don't. This video will help.
 
And btw, Boris races Craftsman Truck and Busch Series now- idk if its still called that, but thats what they were when I last paid attention. K, sorry for the brief hijack, Chris, back to our regularly scheduled thread!

Great posts, awesome stories. I love hearing about the old days, my parents always tell me stories too. Hell even my mom used to street race her challenger. How the cops used to block off roads FOR them. God I wish it could still be like that.

Boris Said. No ****. As soon as I read the name that's who I thought of haha.
 
Great posts, awesome stories. I love hearing about the old days, my parents always tell me stories too. Hell even my mom used to street race her challenger. How the cops used to block off roads FOR them. God I wish it could still be like that.

Boris Said. No ****. As soon as I read the name that's who I thought of haha.

Boris Jurkovic. He runs those series part time, I think some of the guys I still keep in touch with said he has a towing company out here now- I learned he was racing big time from one of my brothers calling me on a Saturday night couple years ago, he said to turn on TNT, the St. Louis truck race was on, see if I knew one of the drivers. Imagine my surprise, but not shock. He's won a couple of Illiana Speedway championships, with cars he's got. Like school friends, you go off where your life takes you, lose track of some people. Suzy was there for all of it, we get together with some of the old bunch bout once a year, Labor Day bash at Robs, he wound up right near my house, share war stories. Not like Chris's, he has real ones:flag:. Idea, Chris- you could post a sticky with guys old racin stories, like the one with the old articles, only, ahem, use it for, uh, educational purposes:rolleyes:? I got a headful of memories, take up a few pages, and a couple calls to refresh names/places. If'n you like that little yarn, I came up to this light, in 89, next to this new GTA, white, no plates on it yet, but it said "turbo" in the middle of the taillight panel...:D
 
No dude, hijack away... I'm enthralled! I'm tempted to post the most awesome street racing story ever (at least that I've read), which I've done on other forums, but as a moderator I really shouldn't post it here... I don't see why I couldn't post a link though, eh?

The biggest street race of all time (old school) - SVTPerformance

Chris

See Chris, this is the street racing I was there for! Tony describes it better than I do, but we had those same guys, here in Chicago. We used to listen to Nicky Crowley, Lou Dutka, guys who were racing before we had liscences, brought out their 67 Le Mans(Rat powered) and second gen Z28, made the women take the children inside the house. We wanted to be them when we grew up. So, I guess, we were. When my guys came up, in the mid to late 80's, the racing was still real. Unreal amounts of $ and horsepower. All the Vin Diesel wanna-be's, well, idk if its ruined, but they sure seem less capable of racing, like I remember- like Tony remembers. Its too bad. But I can at least say, I was there when it was SOMETHING to see. Lot of these holier than thou, BS spewing clowns, "Its so stupid and unsafe, I would never do that, cuz I'm so much smarter" blah, blah- have absolutely no clue what they're flaming- they obviously never raced. Post that story, we're grown-ups here- at least we're supposed to be. This isn't a street race promotion site, but these stories are the stories the Mustang was invented to be part of. A big part of, and the younger guys can learn the history. It ain't like they can go relive it, its gone:notnice:.
 
I don't believe I'm the one raising hell... I'm on your side and agree with pretty much everything you've posted... This thread was nice and safely tucked away until the typical big hero cop came and dug it up.


Hey hey hey ...........we aren't all the typical big hero types...

sometimes I put the hammer down on public roads, we all do at different times. I ticket only the ones who drive dangerously and risk others, usually but not always young kids with mom's caravan on cruise night doing mach 10 in heavy traffic. It's not the guys with a million dollars in their cars. These people do it for the love of it (like you) and have general respect for the public. If they are going to race it's gonna be on an industrial road at 1:00 AM.

I always laugh when I pull up besides a nice stang or muscle car and I ask the guy to pull over so I can look at their car. When I tell them that I just wanted to check it out because it was cool this is usually their face = :eek:

Anyways we are not "all bad." Most cops are just like everyone else. I just hope that when my 3 kids start driving that they will be safe out there!
 
Right on, man. I think you can still find pockets of cool dudes in some places, but you're right it just isn't what it used to be, and that's coming from a guy that's only read about what it used to be. I've searched the places I've been to find these guys, but they just don't do it like they used to, now.

In Columbus, what you can find on Friday and Saturday nights, if you know where to go, is a group of kids aged 16-25 with a few older guys that'll occasionally come to see if anything new is out or are just bored. These guys mostly drive stockish imports with one or two that have something more than minor bolt-ons. The others all seem to worship these guys. Meanwhile, everything is a damned circus. Guys will randomly haul ass through said parking lot, others will do burnouts to show off.

Sometimes two guys will decide to race. Everybody who hears about the race follows them, and everybody else sees the herd move so they jump in their cars and parade through town with a big sign to all the LEOs about what's going to happen. Naturally, shortly after the idiocy breaks out, the LEOs block the parking lot and ask to see IDs and Licenses. The race is usually broken up before anything can happen, and even if it goes down no one but the fast 'n furious crowd is impressed with the hardware.

Elsewhere, a small crowd of older guys usually in their 30s-50s (we had at least 1 or 2 50+ y/o dudes come out each night) will find a small secluded parking lot where we'd all sit and turn out our lights, chase off the dumbasses that are likely to get us unwanted attention, and just BS about whatever... Occasionally, a couple of guys decide to have a little fun, and they'll go to a remote location away from the public and from the bears and have a run for the hell of it. It's not a very good scene here. Occasionally, I've seen trailers come back from TNT and just park to see if anyone is serious, though I have yet to see anyone willing to play for good money. When the cops find our spot, they usually just wave and roll on through without hassling anyone. I guess it's their way of saying that they're keeping tabs but don't mind what we're doing so long as we keep it civil. I was 22 when I started hanging out with these guys and always found them to be more interesting than the other group. One of the 50+ y/o guys has a 66' Mustang Coupe that is absolutely breath-taking and show-winning quality. He entered it in one national show for one of the biggest mustang clubs in the country, took first in his class, and other than that, he just drives it and enjoys it. He also had a beautiful '03 Mach 1 with a Procharger and went round after round with my twin turbo at a Silver Dollar Raceway TNT.

I guess if I wanted to find a real street racing scene, I could go to Atlanta. I've heard about some serious cars, there.

It's been 2 years since I lived here and I just got back at the beginning of February. So, I'm looking to reestablish some of the relationships I started back then.

I might have seen/been part of a couple of street races, but nothing near as cool as the stuff you're talking about. The stories I can tell just don't compare.... at least, yet. I'm still lookin', though.

Chris
 
Ps... Besides the story that I linked to, and the mag article I used in the mag thread, check out the new sig quote by Tony Defeo. I wish I could find more stuff from him. He has a kickass way off putting things.
 
Ps... Besides the story that I linked to, and the mag article I used in the mag thread, check out the new sig quote by Tony Defeo. I wish I could find more stuff from him. He has a kickass way off putting things.

Tony for president:nice:! Tony Defeo, Niel Van Oppre, Steve Collison, these were the guys initially writing about the 5.0, that got me to buy my first one. When they mixed the 80's Mustang with the true racer lifestyle- go to work, come home, wash the car, take out the GF, take her home, head over to the SPOT, now comes the fun, and try not to be late for work. These two things intermingled perfectly, prolly kept racing alive 10 years longer than it should've. I grew up exactly when I should've, I was truly at home in the 80's atmosphere of cardom. Not that this is bad, but then I don't want to race anymore, I got other thing to live for. Surely doesn't mean, when the LX is done, I might not swing by the US30/41 parking lot, where the obviously moronic teen rice gang hangs, to drown out the pimpin stereo systems vibrating thier collective doors with a proper set of gear drive and Flowmasters...:D Hey, Tony should be on here, as and old timer spokesman, like me!