What’s wrong with drivers today? Earlier this month, a hooligan was busted doing 157 km/h in an 80 km/h zone on Big Bay Point Road near Barrie. At 57 years old, that guy ought to have known better! An 18-year-old G2 driver was stopped near Fallingbrook Mall in Ottawa, after police caught him doing 127 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. It’s unbelievable how many idiots think public roads are racetracks, traffic signals are starting lights, and pedestrians are spectators.
Illegal street racing has been a problem in North America since the ’50s. Speed demons like this put lives at risk and give legitimate racing a bad name. You wanna drive fast, just take it to the track! That’s what they’re for!
Police in Louisville, Kentucky, decided they’d had enough. Rather than simply handing out tickets and impounding cars, they came up with a much more permanent way of discouraging illegal street racing. Back in 2024, Louisville Metro Police seized a heavily modified 2009 Dodge Charger during an illegal street takeover at Shawnee Park. What looked like an ordinary sedan turned out to be a Frankenstein’s monster of stolen automotive parts, including a supercharged 6.2L Hellcat V8 engine. Other stolen components included transmission parts, wheels, brakes, suspension and electronics. After the investigation wrapped up, police were left with a confiscated muscle car that nobody was getting back.
On Saturday, October 17th, the Louisville Metro Police teamed up with Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live to deliver a very public punishment. At the KFC Yum! Center, the Charger faced Rhinomite, a 12,000 lb. monster truck, in front of thousands of spectators.
Police Chief Paul Humphrey explained that dangerous driving had consequences, and losing your car was one of them. Rather than quietly sending the Charger to a scrapyard, police turned its destruction into a public spectacle. Cops in Vegas did something similar earlier this year, feeding an Infiniti G37 to a car shredder, turning it into automotive minced meat. But watching a car get run over and crushed by a Hot Wheels Monster Truck is a different level of bonkers. It’s like a public execution of the car kind.
Did crushing a stolen-parts Hellcat solve the problem of illegal street racing? No, but it certainly sent a message, and maybe police in the GTA and across Ontario need to consider the same kind of extreme measures here. Next time Grave Digger comes to town, he’s going to be hungry for a crunchy BMW!