2Fierce

iTrader: (7)

first off, im only 20 and a student at the university of toronto. i dont know anything about law.

i THINK something should be done on both sides, the government, and the public. what that may be? i'm not exactly sure. i THINK on the government end getting a license should be more difficult, but public transit should also be more accessible and affordable. on the publics side, parents educating their children better and setting a better example themselves behind the wheel. most of the ppl i run across that endanger me and others are typically on a cellphone, or drinking coffee/eating, or applying makeup.

on the topic of the legislature, the ppl over at son240sx have this....sorta...

http://forums.son240sx.ca/showthread.php?t=17324

i dont agree or disagree with it. i posted it for others here to see. thats all.


as for street racing itself, i have 2 stories, intrepret them as seen fit.

1. i got into cars because of my cousin who is a few years older than me but more well off simply because his family emigrated earlier and he lives in chicago. i would spend my summers there and we'd go to these street racing meets occasionaly with me filming races, and even hand dropping some. he drives a 95 supra TT thats BPU+. i now drive an NA FC gxl, incase you're wondering. i have no interest in street racing myself, and my cousin no longer participates after the first 2 summers. at the time he did participate he was 18/19 -and no mom and dad didn't buy him the car- and from my observations he stopped because he matured, and realized it was stupid. most of the ppl there race to prove a point, or in most cases, for money. yes, the organizers did plan it smartly, as in industrial areas, away from homes and ppl, but...still. alot of the "spots" were not 1/4 mile, they were shorter. and exits when police came were few and inbetween and often times we got stopped leaving, but b/c his car has no wing, no bodykit, and looks stock, we usually say we're spectators and they let us go. worse off, most of the time when the police showed up accidents happened in the panic as people attempted to leave quickly, only to go to the next spot and get as many races in before the police came. their were nights when the police never came and we'd always stay out the latest until dawn, and when everyone left do our own private runs "just for fun" and it was than that i noticed the mess left behind, litter everywhere, graffiti, beer bottles, the smell of marijuana in certain nooks, amongst other obscenities. spectators DO stand too close for their own good. and many know nothing about cars. i almost got hit once by a transam when i was handdropping races. but the worst thing ever was once i was at the very end of this one spot with my cousin, and a car crashed and wrecked about 5 feet past me. the driver was ok, but the car was a writeoff and i was shaking. when money and pride is involved, ppl risk too much for no reason other than them being immature and not knowing any better. street racing in chicago is WAY different than anything i've yet to see in the toronto scence (not that i've gone looking). they're are lots of fast street cars in the 11's and 12's, ppl bring slicks to the "spots" and do tirechanges on the spot, and you can get 110 @ the pumps. thanks for reading this far, you must be bored like me.

2. a month ago i was in my best friends car here in toronto, a twin turbo 350Z, its built properly and fast. he is 21 yrs old - and no mommy and daddy didnt buy his car for him. we had met up with another friend who drives a modified 350z, exhuast, intake, rims, nothing major, he is 19. we had met up at 3 am at owl of minerva (sp?), this 24hr korean restaurant on yonge. driving down yonge after at around 5 am heading south we got pulled over at yonge/wilson. my friend was not attempting to go fast, or anything, he was just cruising, he wasn't even in boost. he was doing 90 and the other Z was directly behind him, the officer said we were street racing because they were too close to each other and speeding. the officer gave them both careless drivnig tickets (thats 6 points i THINK). do you think that was fair? i don't.


i agree that if you are a car enthusiast and you're mature, you can sacrifice the gas and track fees and time to go to shannonville, mosport, TMP, for a day and learn to drive your car better in a safer atmosphere. a track in a metropolis area is unlikely and if you're not sure why, just search, or ask. most of you already know why. personally, i don't think one can EVER rationalize speeding. on a track, or on the street. the consequences you MAY ultimately pay are not worth the pleasure. is dying really what anybody wants? even if you don't care about yourself, i'm sure you're loved ones don't wanna lose you. its the reason my mom (and some friends) won't let me buy a bike. but the majority of us do it anyways don't we? < this is a real question, i wanna know how many ppl here take their cars out alone at night for some spirited driving on a backroad they know too well, or find themselves speeding/playing with another sports car they run into on the highway/streets at night (please don't post saying you race down highway 7 at 5 pm to chase a civic, or corvette, because i'm just going to call you stupid. you should be mature enough to judge a situation before entering into it. 401, 3 am, no traffic, corvette wants to play, your own call. in traffic, in residential areas, in daylight, stupid w/o excuse. k i'm done ranting, thanks for reading.

Manntis

Thing is, you're talking about two different 'they's. Tracks are opened by enterpreneurs, not lawmakers, and they charge what the market will bear - or enough to cover their insurance costs plus some profit.

Manntis

Hmm... seems an odd stat, since deaths weren't attributed to 'street racing' until recently.

I looked at figures from just the 1st half of 2006:

January 24th, Toronto: 1 killed. A cab driver was struck by one of 2 cars racing each other.

January 28, Vancouver: 3 killed, 3 hospitalized - 3 occupants of a BMW racing another car died, the 4th occupant injured along with the driver of another vehicle the racers collided with and a pedestrian

May 14, Burnaby: 1 killed, 3 hospitalized after a head-on collision - one racer dead after hitting 3 other vehicles and critically injuring the other drivers

May 27, Toronto: 2 killed - a couple out celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary, struck by one of 2 racers

That's 7 dead, 3 wounded in 4 incidences. And typical sentances for surviving racers who were apprehended were 2 years less a day of house arrest. If it had been your parents out celebrating their anniversary who were killed, and those responsible just got a curfew for 2 years, would you think that was just? Likely not - hence the political pressure to appear to be addressing the problem directly.

In reality, the laws already permit sentances up to 10 years for dangerous driving causing death - so why are they getting shorter, conditional sentances? Because the offenders are typically middle class teens and twentysomethings doing 'boys will be boys' activities when things go wrong, not Drunken Indians or White trash carrying out armed robberies, etc.

There used to be a slack attitude towards drinking and driving, too, until people got fed up. A 'friend' of mine recently got busted for her third DUI and was bitching to me about how unfair it was she had to pay $1,850 in fines and penalties, and lose her license for a year. I told her 1 DUI was too many, whether or not she got caught, nevermind 3 convictions and umpteen times she 'got away' with it.

B6T

iTrader: (2)

As stated above, they need more tracks or better access to tracks. "Take it to the track" is easier said then done, with Cayuga being over an hour away for most people, and only open for public racing a few days a week. There's already stiff penalties in place, and they don't seem to be deterring anyone from street racing. If a stupid young person wants to go fast, they're going to do it. The government can help by giving those people a designated place to go fast.

Manntis

and as said above, "more tracks" is completely separate from enforcement. Not only do police have no mandate to open business ventures like tracks, blaming a lack of affordable tracks as justification for racing on the street is like blaming a lack of nearby shooting ranges when apprehended for firing your rifle into a crowd.

Smitter

that guy is looking to get the attention of some 15 yr old girls

Smitter

that cavalier sounds mean......haha
maybe thats a rotary under the hood....
i am glad A channel chose a car like this and not somthing that actually had real power.
maybe the police will realize that drivers of rx7 are not a street racing threats due to the fact that we are not young punks like the jet pilot in the video....
rx7s should be classified along with corvettes,vipers,bmw and maybe even ferraris........meaning young irresponsible punks can not afford these cars.......therefore should not be considered street racing threats

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

I don't know...if you look at some of the posts on this forum, there is a good number of people here that are "young street racing punks". And what's worse is that it's encouraged.

Ctrl

I try not to street race but sometimes when the guy beside me gives it his best shot, I can't let him just speed away thinking he kicked an rx-7's ***.

I'm sure we're all guilty of that once in a while?

84stock

iTrader: (5)

Not now that all the young punks can scoop a rhd fd rocket for $10000

Crymson

I think 10k is still out of reach for most young punks.

I doubt you'd have an easy time securing financing for it. I would assume that alot of banks would go "you need 10,12,14k etc for a 15 year old car?? -- I don't think so", and most young folks would have a hard time getting a 10k unsecured L.O.C.

Smitter

aslong as they leave us old guys alone......they can crush as many rhd fd's for street racing as they want.....jk

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

I'm with crtl and Lawyers Spirit - and I've said it before on this forum regarding the Feds run at this last year - street racing laws are bogus political grandstanding, as there are plenty of penalties available on the books - reckless endangerment, vehicular homicide, criminal negligence causing death, to name a few, any of which has stiff penalties. That these charges, and penalties, are rarely sought is an indication that prosecutors either don't treat the results of street racing seriously when it does cause injuries and death, or that they don't think they can make the charges stick against these middleclass "good kids" who "made a mistake", and whose families will hire the best lawyers and parade a line of character witnesses through attesting to their sterling virtues. And if real charges can't be made to stick when the results are death and destruction, why would we expect a different outcome with new laws, aimed at premptively shutting down idiots who haven't gone seriously wrong yet. I don't have any sympathy for people who are out, drinking, toking, and generally being idiots, trying to recreate the ambiance of F&F, or racing their Mom's BMW or Dad's Mustang on 50kph streets, or whatever else involving gross stupidity. My parents narrowly avoiding getting killed by an idiot in a '92 4 door Corolla couple years back, idiot had 4 passengers, doing an estimated 140-150 on McKnight Blvd here in Calgary (70 or 80 zone). Guy lost control, probably swerving around other traffic, since the road's arrow straight along there, left the road ***-backward, crossing the 50+ foot center median, hitting my parents car in the side coming the other way - couple feet further over, and instead of just totalling both cars with a hard sideswipe, coulda been 6 or 7 dead. And if the driver was the one who lived, I know I wouldn't be happy with 2 years curfew.... by the same token, I don't want my car being seized because I'm doing 10-20 over the limit and some idiot thinks he needs to blow by me or try to get me to run with him, and some cop decides its racing.

As far as Adam and his wannabe Crapolier, that's pretty damn funny. I'm guessing the 10k includes the purchase of the car, and a couple or three G's thrown in for effect. And that when the obviously pressed-for-time news crew caught up with him, he was on his way home to his mom's basement, to eat Cheetos, watch ****, and spank the monkey

Ctrl

I was almost wiped out in deerfoot last night by some damned kid in his idiotic civic.
The kid was going so bloody fast he had two choices..... ram the car in front of him, or push me out of my lane. Luckily I had a left lane open beside me to move into.