California is the birthplace of car culture as we know it. Many go-fast parts businesses were established in California in the ’40s. Drag racing was practically invented in California in the ’50s when the Santa Ana Dragstrip launched as the world’s first commercially operated drag racing facility. The car culture of hot rods and Illegal street racing eventually resulted in the formation of the NHRA and sanctioned drag strips.
Fast forward 75 years and some are tolling the bell for California car culture. Interestingly, it is not being caused by tighter environmental regulations. Today’s ingenious gearheads can meet the challenges of hybrid or electric vehicles, just like they did in the past with the introduction of unleaded gas, fuel injection systems and electronic control units (ECUs). Motoring maniacs always find ways to make cars go faster!
What’s killing California car culture is intolerance. That’s the hypothesis of the video (below) by YT channel ‘Mechanic Built‘. California used to be a strong supporter of motorsports. Car clubs and police agencies worked together in public outreach programs to convince young gearheads to ‘take it to the track‘ rather than street race. Initiatives launched in the ’50s and ’60s were far more progressive than what’s happening now. In California today, the car scene has been demonized by focusing on street takeovers. Furthermore, excessive regulations have criminalized automotive enthusiasts.
With empty roads during the pandemic lockdowns, street takeovers increased in popularity with frustrated young gearheads. These car enthusiasts weren’t grease monkeys tuning carburetors, but instead, a generation of thirsty social media whores seeking ‘street cred’ through views and likes on Instagram.
It does not matter that the old generation views the habits of the young generation as silly. The problem is that there are no safe and regulated areas, like those old drag strips the old-timers had, where young gearheads can 2-step their engines, drift their cars, or shoot flames out their exhausts. Surely the horse-and-buggy crowd thought drag racing cars was stupid, too!
Seems it is easier to solve the ‘problem’ of street takeovers by getting more funding for police enforcement, by passing increasingly restrictive laws and regulations on automotive enthusiasts. Law enforcement act like predators, hunting down vehicles with lowered suspension, wild paint jobs or rumbling exhausts. This ‘profiling’ sows seeds of dissent among the youth involved in car culture.
California governments seem to paint anyone with a modified vehicle as a public menace, the same way hot-rodders were viewed in the ’40s.
As property values rise, urban sprawl reaches those out-of-town race tracks and puts them out of business. Replaced with subdivisions and shopping malls, speed demons have nowhere left to go to race legally. So, the only way to stop street takeovers is for those old-timers in positions of power to accept the behaviour they see as ‘hooliganism’ is actually just modern car culture.
California must provide publicly funded areas for takeovers activities. Create regulated spaces where barriers can be installed, where spectators can safely watch, and where car enthusiasts looking for a thrill can enjoy modern car culture… including the booming subwoofers and exhaust pops that the old-timers hate so much.
The headline on the news broadcast, above, mentions ‘New State Laws to Battle Street Takeovers’ which sounds like the failure that was the ‘war on drugs’. Just because something is illegal doesn’t stop it from happening. It just pushes it underground. Does society really need to declare war on the youth? Seems that what California needs is safe injection sites for car junkies.