It was the lower level dimly lit parking garage with an eerie blue glow from the lights in the ceiling. There were 40 people in their respected cliques from the ages of 20 to 25 wearing mainly two styles of clothes: the wealthier crowd wore slim fitting jeans with black pea coats while the other crowd wore two layers of hooded sweatshirts and tight fitting mechanics gloves with baggy cargo pants or messy torn up jeans. Hair styles differed as well: the wealthier guys had gelled hair with many angles and time spent on it; the other guys had shaved heads, short hair, or wore knit hats. The wealthier, better dressed crowd owned the cars that were black or silver with chrome accents on the wheels, exhaust pipes, and door handles; where they really thought it would matter most. When asked to pop their hood, they did with no hesitation, parking their cars directly under the brightest lights in the garage so that everyone there could see what they were running. Their engines were clean, well put together machines with every possible wire tucked and out of sight. A true marvel of what the German factory is capable of.

The other crowd, known as the “gear heads,” would park in the darkest parts of the garage with the fronts of their cars parked against a wall. There was a reason for their method of parking: they were trying to keep their engine bays out of sight, and if you really wanted to see what they were running, you better have brought a flashlight and a trunk full of knowledge. They made sure that their wires were running all over the place, to look as though they had no knowledge of what they were doing. No wire tucks, no plastic heat shields or shiny chrome, they let it all hang out in a mess of what looked like garbage, but it was really a labyrinth of expertise in tuning. The gear heads drive Japanese cars: Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. The Honda guys had civic’s and (Acura, Honda’s “luxury” brand) Integra’s, both of which were 2 doors with a gutted interior. None of the gear heads racing tonight had passenger seats, nor did they have windshield wipers. As Tim was telling me, “the windshield wiper motor itself weighs 2 pounds, that’s too much for me.” Luis also had the same modification and also rid himself of a full interior, “the girlfriend wont ride in my car in the summer time, I took out the [air conditioning] to save 10 pounds, no radio [be]cause that’s another 5 pounds, no back seat either.” Luis and Tim have been doing this as a serious hobby for nearly 5 years now. “Hondas are the easiest car to work on and the most fun when everything is done right. Last week Tim’s fuel rail started to leak on the highway…within 20 minutes and a few turns of a 10mm wrench, we were back on the road, handing German cars their asses for $500, easy. Aint nothing like a b18c whooping some ‘Kompressor’ ********!”

Tonight’s race was a little more than $500 cash. The stakes this evening were the titles to the cars, known as “pink slips” or just “pinks” and $2000. The $2000 was not necessarily for the winner of the race, but for his close friends as well. The stakes are collected by someone that is neutral to both groups holding the pink slips, as well as the combined $2000 collected from members of each group. Everyone is on a “team”, and they all put money in to support their main contender for the evening, hoping that they will win for respect and to hopefully leave with double their contributions. By putting in money you are showing that you truly believe your guy will win which shows support, boosts the self-esteem of the driver, and can intimidate the other group if you are willing to shell out some serious cash.
Once the stakes were collected, both groups decide on a road to race on, what time, and what speed to start. Not every street race is started at zero miles-per-hour, also known as “starting from a dig.” The racers must decide on a speed ranging from 15 mph, 25 mph, or 40 mph to start from. Once both cars are aligned on the road at the designated starting speed, one driver will honk their horn 3 times and on the 3rd beep both cars will launch off into the night. There is no true designated distance because if the stakes are this high, it will be obvious who the winner is as the loser will be pretty far behind at triple digit speeds. Both groups go prep their cars for the race either on site or at another location, not too far from where the race will happen so that everything will go quickly and there is a less likelihood of getting caught by the police.

Tim is racing tonight, against Bryce. Tim is driving a 1997 white Honda Civic hatch back with only a driver seat, a dashboard with only the essentials (speedometer, gas gauge, tachometer) and vitals (oil pressure, boost pressure, air-to-fuel ratio) needed to win. The rear bumper of Tim’s car has a slight mark of black exhaust residue which is unusual for what Tim has under the hood of his car. By unusual, I mean there should be a lot more exhaust residue covering the rear bumper. Tim has a SC-61 turbocharger, forcing air into his b18c type-r motor straight from Japan. His motor is built, which means the stock internals of the engine have been swapped for stronger components to handle the amount of power and pressure added by this monster of a turbo. The reason for the little amount of exhaust residue is because Tim has an exhaust cut out, just behind the exhaust pipe coming off of the turbo. This means that at the flick of a switch, Tim’s car goes from being quiet and subtle, to a roaring monster from the depths of hell. When Tim opens the exhaust cut out (literally what it says, a small door that opens and closes on the exhaust pipe) the sound is deafening and very obvious that this car is capable of something more than just getting you from point A to point B.

Bryce is racing tonight as well, in a Mercedes SL500, stock from the factory. The only thing that Bryce has changed is the license plate to say, “THX DAD,” Thanks Dad. The Mercedes SL500 is no joke of a car. It is quite expensive, starting around $90,000. It has been tuned for maximum speed and comfort while making the driver feel safe when taking turns in excess of 85 mph. It is very pristine, powerful, and a true gem to look at whenever you see one in the area. “I wouldn’t mind having one,” says Tim, “but I also don’t mind seeing it in my review mirror getting smaller and smaller.” Tim has also modified his driver side mirror to say, “Objects in mirror are SOFT.”

The racing time is set for 2:30 AM when no police are out, from a dig (starting at zero mph), with $2000 on the line and the titles to the cars, on a four-lane highway, straight for 10 miles or more. Spectators are not encouraged to stand at the “finish” because it is more dangerous when people are on the sidelines. If people want to watch, they can stop on an overpass a few miles down from the start where they will see who is in the lead and can cheer from above. Four additional cars will be behind the two racing cars with their emergency flashers on, blocking all lanes for the 30 seconds that the racers will need to line up and take off. One person has agreed to stand in the middle to spread his arms and then drop them, signaling for the racers to take off into the night. This motion is very similar to a green light. The person dropping their arms is also neutral to both parties so that everyone can agree on no cheating and no false starts.

 

It is time. 2:28 AM and Tim is on his way to start. Bryce flies by and taps his brakes to slow down and align next to Tim. 4 cars behind both of them slow down and start to put their flashers on. Tim and Bryce come to a complete stop, with the fronts of their cars lined up. The 4 cars behind them stop about 20 yards away as one person, that was me, from the 4 cars quickly runs over and signals to Bryce and Tim that the race is about to begin. Both Tim and Bryce start to rev up their engines. Bryce has a small smile on his face as he bounces his engine off the rev limiter, doing his best to intimidate Tim. Bryce flicks a switch to turn off his traction control so he can launch correctly. Tim reaches by his right knee, flicks a switch near his cigarette lighter. The rumble is unsettling to all those that can hear it. Bryce is still revving his engine as his smile gets wider. Tim looks over to his left at Bryce and watches Bryce’s facial expression slowly change as Tim revs up his engine. The sound of the turbo spooling up tickles Bryce’s eardrum, so much so that he has to open his window. Tim then bounces his engine off rev limiter, startling Bryce to leaning against his door. Tim looks ahead. Bryce looks back. I, in the middle of it all, get ready to drop my arms and yell, “Hey!” to get Bryce’s attention back on the road.

My arms raise up, Tim starts to rev again but slowly increasing from 3000, 5000, 7000 rpms and holds it. The arms go down. Both cars are clouds of rubber. The only thing audible is anything but human; but its definite that it was made by man. Roars of engines, hissing of intakes, and the sounds of small pieces of pavement bouncing off the insides of the wheel-wells is all that is seen, heard, and felt for the next 6 seconds.

The 4 cars following start in pursuit of the two racers with their flashers still on. I hopped in the car that dropped me off there, excited, and ready to see who won. We got up to 120 mph following the cars ahead. Luis was driving me when his phone rings. “Serious?” and then he hangs up. I asked what was happening and he told me that Bryce had lost, but now he was trying to run from Tim. “There’s no way I’m gonna chase him down,” says Luis. He quickly looked up a number in his phone and put it on speaker. It was Tim. “I’m way ahead of you, Jake was under the bridge you just passed on his bike (a Suzuki gsx-r 1000, capable of 192 mph in less than 15 seconds, from the factory),” said Tim. “He should be passing…” just then the whine of a 1000cc Japanese super bike passes us as if we were standing still with the rider nearly laying down across the bike. Luis laughs and says, “He’s only in 3rd gear out of 6. He’s got Bryce, easy.”

That was it for our part of the evening: Tim beat Bryce and now Bryce was trying to outrun Tim, and a motorcycle, to get out of giving up the title to his SL500. There is no outrunning a 1000cc bike in a car, and Bryce was just going to have to pay up one way or another. The neutral guy holding the money and the titles to the cars handed off the money and the titles to Tim’s group. Bryce was going to have to get caught in order to get that car from him and it was very unlikely that he was going to get away.

 

wat

 

Street racing is bad. This story is far worse

 

Yeah, what?

 

Fer sher, this story sucks.

 

This was an assignment for school in my anthropology class. A short ethnography on street racing. This is why there are specifics and definitions for things and stuff. What a hoot.

 

TL;DR

 

I found it interesting.

 

I don't know what TL; DR means :-/
so until then: YIECWOS
yeah I eat chips without salsa.

And thank you!

 

Wait did you write this or did someone in your class write it....?

 

If this story is like one of abui's BS stories about a hot white girl going after an Asian guy (because that never happens), it has to be totally false.

 

Anyone else think this was another Fresh Prince RickRoll? I kept waiting for the two of them to race past a basketball court where a couple of guys were up to no good and making trouble in OP's neighborhood....

 

Pretty good story...But it sounds more like the outline to a movie than an actual story...you need to go deeper into details

B-

 

The SL500 should have installed an oil cooler, would have given him better chances of victory. Then again, most of those wealthy guys believe that spending 90, 150, 200k will ensure them a victory. I've seen a Ferrari get raped by a Civic and it had less mods than the guy in the story.

BTW, is Bryce in this story the same guy that used to own a 350z on this forum?

 

 

I wrote it!!!

No fresh prince here.

Bro, I'm not a bro yo.

No, not the Bryce we all know.

Did I miss anything?

 

i liked it...civic beating a $90,000 car FTW!

 

Meh, needs more drama. You could've had Bryce and Tim exchange a pleasant dialogue after the race:

Bryce: "But dude, I almost had you Bro."
Tim: "Had me?" "You...almost had me?" "You never had me, you never even had your car!"
Crowd: "OOOOOOOH!"

 

couldn't force myself to finish reading it. the writing style was pretty bad. no writer myself so hardly any room to critique or judge.