”Street Racing & the Boy Racer” its not a headline that will shock any of you i’m sure, You must be immune to it by now and the hype that invariably follows. Pleasant Sunday mornings ruined & readers horified to learn of organised street racing etc, young testosterone fueled modifiers flying in the face of all that is good & decent, ”Something must be done to stop them”
The reality on the other hand may be harder to push as headline news so whats the use in that?
I have been involved in the scene here in Ireland for a long number of years now and am constantly amazed at the level of Hostility towards modifiers. Ok we’ve all seen idiots acting reckless on our roads but for every boy racer who speeds past you’ll find
1. The Tdi driver: King of the motorway who secretly thinks he/she is michael schumacher’s distant cousin, Tailgating ’til you finally submit & make way to see him passing in a cloud of black smoke Most likely to drive: Diesel Merc/Beemer/VW
2. The cool school run: applying make up in the mirror,shaving,ringing child minder, stretched between rear child seat & drivers seat dressing children while dressing themselves with no concept of whats happening on the road outside their family econo box. Most likely to drive: Picasso/Galaxy/Trajet
3. Lane Hogger: think they own the road in front of them, these are the people who wont pull out & allow you to join the motorway, in rush hour traffic they leave 2 km gaps to the car in front & will make no attempt to close this gap unless someone tries to pull out in front of them at which time they accelerate at breakneck speeds to prevent this. on the few occasions when traffic is light they insist on doing 80kph on the motorway blocking the flow of traffic. Most likely to drive: Yaris/Polo/Seat
Which catagory do you fit into?
I think its refreshing to see young men(and ever increasing numbers of young ladies) take so much pride in what they are doing to their cars, they spend time planning their next ”Mod” they toil, they save, scrimp & scrape, they persevere, they polish and all for NO REWARD except the pride they achieve from their hard work. These are the types of Qualities that we all want to instill in our Nations Youth, Yet when our youth show these qualities themselves we want to clip their wings
THE MEDIA
I will not spend much time here as the once noble art of reporting the truth is mostly led by ability to sell hype without much substance at the moment, give the people what they want lol
THE RSA(road safety authority)
I think should recieve all our support, although they need to be more pro active. I’ve never met anyone who ever admitted to being a bad driver but there are plenty out there. We need to push for advanced driver training and graduated licences.Recently i have heard that in Poland the authorities allow young modifiers to race on designated city streets at night, at any speed in a semi controlled environment. Now i’m not suggesting the RSA push to close off O’Connell street at night but they could get behind the building of facilities for these young modifiers. I spoke to a ”MAN” in a position to set in motion the developement of a track about 18 months ago, he returned a few days later in no doubt it would be a viable business however he did’nt believe it would recieve any type of political backing & would be unlikely to receive planning etc.
THE MODIFIERS
Need to grow up & show some responsability………. and they will, in their late 20′s/early 30′s, just like the rest of us did!! In the meantime,they spend all this money & put all this effort but have no outlet, no Dragstrip, no Track, so like any wound up youngster they end up making their own in a quite industrial estate & end up in trouble with the Gardai. These young people come from every type of background imaginable, they are the driving force of Ireland 20 years hence and we should not Demonise them if we value our pensions.
THE GARDAI
Tend to react to media articles & tar all modifiers with the same brush, i’ve been told openly by members of the Gardai that i should change my car if i dont want to be stopped so much, but i was under the impression it was supposed to be ”How You Drive, Not What You Drive” ( full B,C,D licence with no points) . So a story appears in one of the rags on Sunday & by monday morning the commisioner decides to crack down on ”Boy Racers”. So it travels down the chain of command & for 2 months young modifiers have to spend large parts of their journey sitting on the hard shoulder getting Grief for the sins of the few who made the headlines.It would be counterproductive to alienate a large portion of our mechanically propelled youth. Gardai should try to reach out to these young men & women to become involved in organising events, these are ordinary kids with healthy interests in cars, not criminals.
YOU, SOCIETY
I’m sure that some of you reading this will admit on reflection, that you took some pleasure passing a so called ”boy racer” pulled over by the Gardai reassuring yourself ”They’re only getting what they deserve” blissfully unaware of why the hapless youngster was pulled! Should we really want to smother our youth or strangle their development, if you try & stop young people doing something they will rebel against you. Most of these young people sacrifice everything for their cars, we should try to harness this enthusiasm & provide the facilities for these young modifiers to flourish, as we do with other sports, As kids we all played football on the road, did’nt we?? nowadays people book the astro-park for an hour, a proper facility, floodlit etc. if we provide track facilities for these young modifiers it will take them off the streets keep them away from drink & drugs & generally keep them out of mischief. Access to Mondello is limited & very expensive although they are getting better with more open/private trackdays in my opinion they really are cashing in by charging people to come in & watch amateurs. A couple of drag strips dotted around the country would be relatively cheap to develope & run, we must build safe environments for young people to race & test their efforts, if we dont they will race where & when they get the chance.You cannot stop it & if you try you will drive it underground. if like the young footballer booking the astro-park your son or daughter was able to book the Dragstrip for a few safe runs & get it out of their system would’nt you rest easy knowing the were’nt in some industrial estate.
there are worse things you could be doing
very good read!!! good points 2!
“if like the young footballer booking the astro-park your son or daughter was able to book the Dragstrip for a few safe runs & get it out of their system would’nt you rest easy knowing the were’nt in some industrial estate”
very good point there
well wrote, it makes so much sense i let my parents read this tread and they even aggred wit it. its just a petty that everyone wont see this
Very inciteful, Good to see arguments from the other side..
Alright Mick just reading your story on boy racers TOP story man if everybody though like that we would all be doing well and might enjoy going for a spin in our cars.
Excellent article dude well put together lookin forward to visiting to hearing more about it, well done top marks.
[...] Original post by Mick Urban [...]
Excellent article I have to say.
excellent read and very true. as a Y.M.D (young male driver) i must say it has some great ideas for the modified car industry and racing lovers of all kinds.well put man
very good read man and its true ppl see some1 in a nice modified car and think ha another boy racer and there not
hi
I have been a car enthusiast all my life.For the past ten years I have spent most my wages,spare time and effort in modifying various different cars(pre f&f generation0.The sad truth is a few bad seeds ruin it for the rest of us.Cheap mods tacky cars and an extremely bad attitude on the road.Led and said by ill informed moderators on various car forums.I’m afraid to say the gardai are never going to change there stereotypical attitudes.I have held a full and clean driving license for over a decade and I still get followed around by the boys and blue I even had one backwater guard hold me for an hour asked for all my details went through the car with a fine tooth comb and then told me not to be going whoring around in that f***n yoke of yours.Its this typical attitude that the real enthusiasts have to contend after boyracers.
Car modifying is global and been around for decades.The simple fact is modified suspension eg.coil overs strut braces etc and roll cages(A lot of which are fia approved )save lives not take them.Properly turned out cars are far safer than there standard variants.Most enthusiasts use only the very best tyres and generally have there cars better serviced and taken care of unlike a lot of hose who take an ill view of them.Its up to us to just take the bad with a pinch of salt and just smile and nod to some of the gardas petty attitude.They still are only human and follow a chain of command.The bit that gets me though is that whats being happening what crime has been committed while they have been wasting time harassing an enthusiast unfairly.remember its tax payers who has them in power to protect us not bully us.
All that stuff about no tracks then you mention Mondello at the end…but only in a negative way. The reason Mondello started to charge in was to pay for the car parking staff and security that was needed to control the crowds that turned up to spectate at amateur track days. unfortunately this crowd always includes the (admittedly small) element who see ten square yards of tarmac or gravel and start misbehaving, leading to the necessity for security. You say that Mondello is expensive, just try setting up one of those ‘Relatively cheap to set up and run’ facilities and see how long before you make any money out of it.
The rest of the article is spot on.
They should open a track for boy racers so they can get off the street then…..
OMG!!! unbelievable article!!! I AGREE 100% … i got fined for just bein there when sum young fellas decided to do doughnuts!! What a joke lik a fine for being a spectator?!!! Im always bein stopped and searchd by the gards aswell and iv been told its because my car is a D reg when i live in Cork? unfair or what??
hey just to say opening a always open track may help get them off the city streets. us boys do it for fun and in some cities there is nowhere but the streets. opening a track will help get us off the streets. we start at a car park in the city but then we will cruz to the track if there is one. the only track closest to where i live is in taupo and that is an hour and a half away. we do it to let off self estem as well.
thanks
some statements true some false i drive a impreza and harrashed by honda drivers some driving really dangerous so without the media and gardas these dangerous drives would be a lew onto themselves
I take great distaste seeing car owners being categories by the cars they drive. I believe the “Most likely to drive:” section is just rubbish, it is completely impossible to tell what the driver is likely to do from the car they drive. Once people wake up to this fact classing people as “Boy Racers” will disappear, there are idiots driving all kinds of vehicles it’s time everyone woke up to this fact.
Richey… maybe he shouldn’t have suggested typical car drivers, like the TDI driver in a merc ect. but now you know how the impreza and other modified car owners feel… not nice being branded by your machine is it????
Artical is spot on, well done and great insight
PS – “Jerk in a Merc” and @sshole in a taxi are 2 sterotypes which are yet to break their particular mould in my opinion… I’m waiting to see either turn or pull over and have the decency to use an indicator!
Cill, I don’t have a merc, taxi, tdi, etc. I drive a modified car?????
It’s like saying “Impreza drivers are gay” I’m sure lots of impreza drivers would like to get rid of this sterotype ? as would taxi & merc drivers.
The information presented is top notch. I’ve been doing some research on the topic and this post answered several questions.