honda tryed to pass my charger

[74charger SE]

He was way to close to my bumper to see any signal.

[demort71]

I would have been super pised off the idiot was riding my bumper, only a few feet back. Is that stupid-H yes it is! You are right, the moron had no respect for your car or the work and money you put into it. Of course dodo brain Honda boy could always go out and replace his car real easy, but yours is a different story.

For all of you who missed the whole point of this story and thought he was bashing FWD cars, I have to say that anyone who has had their drivers license since the early 90s, probably has owned a FWD car. I have two of them right now, plus three RWD muscle cars. Yes, there are some fast FWD cars being made and some people love them.

The point is that dodo brain Honda boy didn't respect this guy and he was driving like a smart asse and unsafely-risking this guy's Mopar ride. Got it?

[DanL]

Some idjit in a Honda was riding his bumper, showing no respect for the Mopar. So to make things better, they had a street race. Yeah, that's really, really intelligent...

I have people tailgating me all the time but I'm also smart enough to know that a street race certainly won't make things any safer. My response is to slow down, not mash the loud pedal.

I think the question is, "do YOU get it?"

[Bigshot]

I love how some are so concerned that putting the pedal down on a normal road is so bad and dangerous, and say when you race at a track you're completely safe.

Sorry, but going fast at all is the danger. It doesn't matter where you do it, it's "dangerous" no matter what.

The reason we have so many people getting killed from street racing is because people don't know when, they'll do it on roads with trees close on the sides and even with other cars near by. That's the problem.

[1973Swinger]

Who ever said racing at the track is completely safe? Nobody did. The difference between racing on the track and on the street is that there are safety precautions in place at the track that are meant to minimize damage or injury to private property and bystanders. Street racing is illegal and IMO wreckless and stupid. Theres a time and place for everything and the place to race is NOT on a public road!

[Stoga]

Originally Posted by 74charger SE

He was way to close to my bumper to see any signal.

I have to admit, I'd have brake danced him, I can do body work....
It would depend on which of my vehicles I was driving, of course.
I can understand if you don't want to nick the paint on the Charger.....

[demort71]

Dear DanL-
Sure I get it Dan buddy. Do people from Donut Hole, Colorado get it? I am not sure where that is, but I have been all over your state, possibly before you were born, so give me a general idea where that is and I can relate better to you bro.

Is it safe to tailgate-not in the six major metropolitan areas I have lived in during my life. Do impatient people still tailgate me-sure. I still don't like it either. Sometimes they want to pass and sometimes they aren't paying attention, just jabbering on their cell phones and breathing in your exhaust fumes, which is another unsafe act of driving.

In the 70s we would street race in town a little, but there were no 120 mph blasts. We would go out on some empty county blacktop and risk our lives on a straight and flat blacktop. Of course in Colorado they don't have that many straightaways, do they? So street racing or racing on a back road isn't too safe in Colorado (except in the eastern plains) any way you slice it.

The Honda boy was being stupid and trying to egg the Charger into a race on a back road. See, I got that much from the story and his replys. Should the Charger driver have just pulled over? Maybe that would be the safest thing to do Dan, but he didn't choose the safest course of action and got on it. Maybe the Honda driver learned a little respect that day and so the next time he comes up on a guy like you or me out with their pride and joy, he won't be so cocky and maybe he will live to see another day.

Of course the Charger driver could have pulled over, flagged down Honda boy and had a talk with him about street racing and how much he valued his Charger and explain to junior that tailgating isn't a safe driving practice. But we don't know what kind of person Honda boy was and if he would have pulled over or even heeded such advice. Maybe Honda boy was a little drunk or something else? Who Knows? Pulling over and having a heart-to-heat would have been the most ideal situation, wouldn't it Dan?

See Dan, I really do get it.

[DanL]

Excuses, excuses. Fact is, you DON'T get it, as your last post proves to anyone who reads it.

So, you took your races to the blacktop straightaways, I assume to make it "safe". Sure. What the hell would you have done if someone had pulled out in front of you on the supposedly empty road? Or if a deer had stepped out in front of you? You see, it's not just about YOU and your opponent. Racing on public thoroughfares puts others at risk, I don't care how many precautions you seem to take. A street race is a spontaneous, poorly planned event caused by a rush of adrenalin and testosterone and no matter how you slice it, when you put those two hormones together, you WILL take risks with your lives and the lives of others. And frankly, if you or your opponent kill yourself in a street race, I don't give a damn; it'll likely increase the average overall IQ of the population. It's the others that I worry about when you act dumb.

Nope. The street is no place to race, under any situation. None at all. You want to race, take it to the track.

**Attention Bigshot** As Swinger said, nobody ever said the track was perfectly safe. What it DOES prevent, however, is some kid or other innocent bystander from being hurt or killed from a deliberately careless and reckless act of stupidity. A pretty good example of such a deliberate, careless, reckless act of stupidity was demonstrated in Tennessee a couple months ago. It was a "sanctioned" event, and a TAFC did a burnout during a parade. He lost control, went into the crowd and killed, IIRC, about 5 people. And this was an event that was planned in advance, sanctioned by the event promoters, and the car was driven by a professional drag racer. If this can happen to the pros (and this wasn't even a "race"), imagine what could happen to an amateur like you? Or even worse, to those who you don't even know are around you.

One thing's for sure; if anyone in my family is ever hurt or killed by some idjit racing on the street, that idjit will be living in a cardboard box for the rest of his life because I'll own everything he has.

BTW, demort, Donut Center is right in the middle.

[demort71]

Thanks for explaining where your hometown area is located. Being as it's in the Rockies, it has to be beautiful. I used to go out to Colo. every summer to visit relatives when I was growing up.

Back to your very insulting comments and reply...let's see Dan, this is the part of the forum where hobbyists share stories of street races. If street racing really bothers you Dan, then why monitor that part of the forum? You can skip over it.

Street racing is risky and not the smartest thing to do and frankly it rarely happens any more around where I live. But regardless, Charger guy was simply sharing his experience, be it good or bad, whether you liked it or not. This is the part of the forum where he could share that experience.

I really think Honda boy must have watched too many reruns of the Fast and Furious movies and was probably trying to re-enact them in real life. Remember the dark blue 71 Charger in the first movie and the Challenger/Camaro in the second? What do you think was on this kid's mind?

By the way, according to your profile, we are apparently the same age Dan, so you know what it was like during the period (the mid-70s) I referred to. If you grew up in Colorado, then I would say things may have been even more lax there, than in my hometown in Illinois.

Yes, Dan we had lots of empty black tops in my home county (and still do) and we really didn't have much of a deer population back in the 70s, unlike today. Those mulies (deer) were thick up in the mountains where you live, as well as the other wildlife back in the 70s and today. As a matter of fact I have a mulie rack hanging on my wall, five feet from my computer, that my uncle gave me. They came from his old ranch in Del Norte. He grazed his cattle on national forest land up in the mountains near DN. The valley there is too dry to graze cattle and as you know, there was a lot of truck farming in that valley back in the day, but everything had to be irrigrated to make it grow.

Any way, there really wasn't any risk from racing on these backroads I mentioned in regards to anyone pulling out. You could see for miles in both directions and this was out in farm country, so there were very few intersecting roads. Now I know you don't have that luxury in the middle of Colo. You had to be there to understand Dan. Frankly there was more risk from the beer drinking we did regarding potential traffic fatalities than from the street racing. A lot of people drove like idiots back then. The legal drinking age in the 70s in IL was 19. Personally I don't even drink a beer in the privacy of my home any more. Alchohol has no purpose in my life now.

I can understand if you are worried about someone getting injured/killed in your family in an accident. Driving is risky no matter where you live these days, even in the middle of Colo. As someone stated in another thread, which you qouted, even racing at the drag strip is risky.

The bottom line is this Dan, if reading about other people's risky behavior on the street really bothers you, then why torture yourself?

Since this is a forum, where people share opinioins and ideas, you should have already learned a long time ago that not everyone is going to agree with you on any given subject. Because I (or anyone else) have a different opinion than you do, doesn't mean they have a low IQ or they are a dumb a$$. As a matter of fact such replys as you have made to my comments reflect poorly on your tolerance for others' ideas. That might substantially decrease the credability with other forum members regarding the value of your own ideas and chat.

Maybe as far as your wife, girlfriend or ex-wife is/was concerned, you are always right regarding your personal opinions. But I don't sleep or live with you, so I don't have to embrace your opinions to keep you happy like you do. Certainly I would never wish for anyone's family member to be injured or killed in an auto accident and certainly not someone from your family Dan.

Best regards Dan and this thread ends my comments to your replys and to the story of Charger guy and Honda boy. You took all the fun out of what was supposed to be simple entertainment when Charger guy submitted this story.

[DanL]

Lessee. Where to begin....

Oh, yean. In no particular order:

1) I'm not torturing myself; I do this for sport. Debate is a good thing. Let's face it; if everyone in the world was just like me, the world might be perfect but it would be pretty boring. (That last sentence was sarcasm for those of you who can't sense these things.)

2) Look at a map. The center of my state does NOT put me in the Rockies.

3) I do know what this forum is entitled, and I do know what it's about. I also understand that the original poster was simply relating his story, and the thought of someone thinking of a Honda as a "hot rod" actually brought a little smile to my face. (Now before some of you FWD guys get your panties in a wad, just know that I realize that there are some really, really fast FWD cars; it's just that most of them I see with the Tokyo Tuneup are mostly for show. You know, big, loud fart pipe, huge spoiler on the trunk, 20-inch wide wheels, neon lights under the chassis, etc.) Anyway, I don't care. There could be a forum about drunk driving but that doesn't mean I wouldn't respond.

4) I don't give a hoot whether you agree with my opinions or not. I don't expect to change your mind, I'm simply expressing my strongly-held feelings that racing on the public roads is stOOpid.

5) I didn't see any of the FAST AND FURIOUS movies. The trailers for those films made them look like something I wouldn't enjoy, so I didn't waste my money. I have, however, read stories of the people who built the cars for those movies, and of how they made the movies, and have come to the conclusion that, in the spirit of Hollywood, everything and everyone in those movies is make-believe.

6) I don't care how much visibility you have on the road where you race. There is simply no way in hell you can ensure that nobody else will suddenly become involved in your reckless behavior, because there are no barriers, no walls, no fences around the "track". Anyway, being able to see "for miles" doesn't mean much; if you're racing some other fool, you're concentrating on your shift points, on the way the car feels, on where the other guy is. What you AREN'T looking at is what's in the road a quarter mile ahead because that's not where your focus is when the adrenalin/testostrone cocktail kicks in. And, of course, there's no team down toward the end of the track making sure there's nothing dangerous laying on the roadway that might cut a tire or cause you to swerve.

7) My wife certainly doesn't embrace all my opinions either.

8) I'm sorry I took the "fun" out of the thread. But that's a temporary thing. Someone hurt or killed by a couple of punks out racing on the street is affected permanently.

9) Street racing is an act of stupidity. So I stand by my comments about IQ.

10) Drunk driving is on the same "stupid" scale as street racing, so we actually agree on this. Along those same lines, here's a question: Why is it that drunk driving is universally accepted as a bad thing (even by those who get caught), yet people who race on the street try so hard to justify what they do?

Anyway, I think I'm done here, too. You know the old saying that goes something like, "It doesn't pay to argue with a fool because, from the outside, nobody else can tell who the fool is."

[Duster367]

After all that I would have to agree. I've seen a ton of street races and I mean serious cars some with chutes on the back "not kidding"I've seen brake drums explode off a 9 sec, head gaskets fly through a fender and cut some one , and one of the worst I saw was a guy had a 6 or 7 year old kid next to the road when a ring gear flew out of a car and almost hit the kid. The father jumped all over the driver the driver replied what kind of father are you to have a kid at a street race the guy left. A very good friend of mine was hit by a drunk guy when he was checking his slicks at a street race he was on crutches for two years. I have made a post about a street race but the race was along time ago. Race safe AT THE TRACK!

[demort71]

With all due respect to you Duster367, it's fine with me if you agree that street racing is dangerous. As your experiences indicate, it certainly can be. I would like to point out that I haven't street raced since the 70s. Thanks for your respectful thoughts, which is something that was not accorded by an earlier writer.

Back in the 70s we picked a spot to race that was miles away from any towns or main roads. Frankly I could care less if anyone thinks it was safe or not. They weren't there and no one can change the way it was any way. We thought it was safe thirty years ago. No one wrecked their car, got hurt or was killed. The cars were not high strung, pro-street, semi race cars with chutes. They were small block, low compression, smog motored, post 1971 cars with very basic modifications (if any) that had a hard time turning the tires, let alone fish tailing off the starting line. My Hemi Ram could outrun all of them. A typical race lasted a half mile at most and for a few seconds our testosterone went wild and the race was over with quickly. There were no crowds of people watching at the starting line.

This was the time period (the mid-70s) that I referred to when I described street racing on back roads in Illinois. If that sounds dangerous, then as they said in Top Gun, "you lost the edge". Frankly it was pretty tame.

I will be fifty years old next month. I don't go out cruising, looking for action on weekends. However, I do enjoy hearing about the good old days and that is what this part of the forum is about-bench racing.

I went to the Mopar Nats this year and sat on Brice Road watching the traffic go by. There were very few burnouts. I was disappointed at first, but I recognized that what occured in Tenn. this year was something that could happen in Columbus. Regardless of how much fun it had been in years past, I was well aware that we should think about the liability of the host municipality and the potential danger to those watching.

I admit that I still like to take my 71 Challenger out on a back road and kick the 383 down. I enjoy nailing my Hemi Ram into passing gear once in awhile on the highway. Anything wrong with that? If that upsets some people, then for heaven's sake the nearest Honda or Toyota dealer has a battery powered hybrid on the horizon for people like that.

You don't sound like a guy afraid to have some fun with his cars Duster367 and no doubt you have street raced. None of my rides are set up to race in the quarter mile, so I won't take them to the track. Kicking them down in a secluded spot is no different than a guy in a Suburu kicking his rice burner down and opening it up. If he can do it, then I can too. When I can't do that, I'll sell my gas-sucking V8 powered vechicles and go out and buy a tame ride that can't get out of its own way.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with everyone.

Respectfully yours...an old gearhead

[Duster367]

BOY! You like to type. You should work for a mag.Thanks for all your input.

[demort71]

Notice you live in Hollywood, FL. I've been there many a time. In lived in Tamarac, Delray Bch. and West Palm twenty years ago. I knew a fair number of the Mopar people down there then. Some of them are no longer there, but I'm a few still are.

By any chance, were you a member of MMCI (Mopar Muscle Club International) back twenty years ago? If so, then I can say that you have read some of my writing before.

Yes, I like to write. Mopar to ya bro!

[TK]

Originally Posted by Duster367

I stopped street racing about 8 years ago when a piece of my friends copper head gasket was stuck in someones leg.

*Rolling up pantlegs.......*