Dunno specifically about UK but street racing is everywhere. I grew up in Tennessee and there was one stretch of highway there that turned into the local version of nascar some days. Cops NEVER watched this 15+mile stretch. I have since moved to Cincinnati. There seems to mostly be rice here. My car counts for that('07 Scion tC) I wanted turbu but can't afford that atm, still got it on tein coils, intake, headers and exhaust done. It's raspy but fairly quick for what it is.. I don't try to do a lot but it happens. The last person that tried to race me though was hillarious - I pulled onto the highway and look up in my mirrors, I notice a state trooper a few cars back. I wasn't worrying about it, not doing anything wrong, just knew to watch what I did. A few entrances later a kid pulls onto the highway next to me in a red civic(at this entrance a lane is added on the right, guessing he didn't see the trooper). He kept revving up and speeding up a little and then backing off, trying all he could to get me to race... I know the trooper is there so I'm not having it. He eventually gets annoyed with trying and takes off, I have no clue how fast he got up to but I look in my mirror in time to see the lights go on... That was a good laugh.
Maybe its just that the more upmarket marques are more conspicuous so they get the reputation. For instance, if you were being tailgated by a Skoda Fabia you would think - "some prat was tailgating me", maybe having a moan about it to a friend/colleague but possibly less likely to mention that it was a Skoda than if it was a Audi/Mercedes (not a BMW, BMW drivers are awesome and never tailgate, ever)
Another Audi driver here! I take pride in my driving and not putting anyone else out though - So I do try to make up for the reputation... Again - not much street racing here, best one was a riced civic in sheffield on a dual carriage way (as you come out of the city it's got traffic lights at the start) in my dads Volvo S80 T6... embarrassed the guy slightly, and I must admit to occasionally having fun with the local chavs (novas, corsas etc) pulling on the the motorway - a 2.0 Turbo is sometimes too much fun! RwD
Not the UK, but Sweden: Getaway in Stockholm Does it count as street racing when they race the cops? Dunno.
Not really into this as its dangerous and people can and DO end up getting seriously hurt. A friend of mine did it a few times though when i was in the passenger seat, one springs to mind because of what ensued; We were at a traffic light on a duel carraige way that went all the way down and split off with one going up a flyover and the other going along its side around as they do. We were on the other side of the stretch and a 1.6 vauxhall astra pulls up against our 1.4 peaugot and floors it. Its neck and neck as we head for the flyover and im on the edge of my seat. It was about 8pm in the evening and with the streetlamps everywhere looked like twilight. As we speeded towards the flyover (and it can only hold one car as its a single carriage way) we noticed a woman was crossing the road and had come over onto our side from the rival cars so we had to suddenly break to ensure we didnt hit her. Due to the twilight she wasnt spotted immediately but with enough time to slow down luckily. The other car however continued to speed on claiming victory....onto the flyover where by a police car was parked on the lay-by lane and had watched the whole thing. We had taken the left lane around at this point under the fly-over and watched from below as the police car signalled them to pull over... Ya...they got Owned.
This area is loaded with German-engineered cars, V-10 trucks, and the occasional exotic, Yet we have the stupid kiddies with the riced out civics trying to race each other. 60% of the sensible drivers on the road could humiliate them in a race. The big gripe I have with them here is they have a horrible problem with punching it to get in the lead, then they don't drive 1mph over the speed limit. Houston has some truly scary machines hiding in it's garages. Most of them only hit the open road on a trailer, (to go here.) -1st vid has some nice 'oops' moments.
The people who say street racing doesn't happen in the UK do not know the right/wrong people. The lack of dead straight roads with traffic lights to race in-between means more drastic and stupid measures. A popular one requires at least 4 cars and a dual carriageway, if you are clever you will work out the rest without reading on. 2 cars are the racers, and 2 cars do some "blocking", basically all 4 cars drive together in a square and slow right down to around 15/20mph. Then after a minute or so when the road ahead is clear, the front 2 race off. Then after a minute the other 2 follow. I guess while there is a risk of all the cars behind smashing into them, it does mean the road ahead is clear and free from people getting in the way innocent bystanders. You do get a lot of idiots sticking turbo badges and huge alloys on their otherwise stock cars, but then you get that everywhere. Disclaimer: I drive a completely stock 2003 (k12) Micra 1.2s and drive to get as much MPG as possible because I am poor, I do not street race.
I apparently took part in some street racing on my way home from work tonight. Next to me at the lights there was a clapped out Corsa - blacked out windows, comedy exhaust and a body kit that didn't quite match the colour of the rest of the car. Corsa nails it off as I pull away calmly and *shudder* beats me to the next set of lights. The passenger in the other car said something along the lines of "oh we so had you mate" and nailed it off again as the lights turned green. I resisted the temptation to bury my right foot, after all the car isn't broken in yet. I really don't see the point of traffic light drag races. How's about everyone just carrys a top trumps card of their car along with them and compare at traffic lights, so much simpler.
At the engineering school we have a couple hotted up Mustang GTs that can put down some horsepower but other than the odd ricer here and there not much.
In Wisconsin there aren't any ricers just "souped up" trucks. By "souped up" I mean all looks (chrome wheels, chrome door handles, 5" chrome exhaust tips, blacked out windows, fake clip on billet grills, chrome brush gaurds, and every single decal they can think of most being Fox racing, Flow master, K and N, Nascar, Browning with the most popular being "mudflap girl") and no performance modification except a loud exhaust or a 5 inch Skyjacker lift so everyone looks at there "badass truck" /end rant to answer the original question, there are not a lot of street races around here (the few that do happen are usually dumb high school kids in "souped up" trucks). I have never really raced but sometimes when the guy next to you at a light gives you the head knod I'll partake (non-residential)
Not many countries have unlimited speed motorways, I believe it's just the German autobahns that have no speed limit. You do get street racing round here, but not really where I live in the suburbs. Here it's just limited to council house idiots showing off in their modded saxos by accelerating to 40 really quick then having to slow down really quickly because the roads are short and they've just reached a turning. Or scooter gangs, I'm not sure which annoys me the most.
Last I heard, even some of the Autobahns are getting limited these days. Dad was really rather hacked off with it - He used to go there for work to 'test' *cough* the dev jags.
Street racing isn't a problem around here. Going back to the tailgating bit though, I mainly get tailgated by saxos, 106s, corsas and fiestas driven by kids, or audis and family-car peugots like the 307 and people carriers driven by blokes in their 40's.
I find it really funny getting challenged by chavs at traffic lights. I've been challenged a few times while I've been driving the Westfield, and my dad has a few times when he's been driving the R8. I mean, come on, do they really expect to beat you in a (insert chavvy car here)
At last count, just 6% of the German Autobahn was still derestricted. One of the bits is the Nurburgring. A lot of "fake modding" happens on cheap cars here - cheap racing pedals from a convenience store, seat covers, tank covers, "chrome" accents... all from the same store... even the exhaust tips. Then you get the racer kids: Big exhaust on a slightly souped City golf (you guys don't have them over there). 1.8l Engine, performance exhaust, and that's mostly where it ends. Then you get the people that know what they're doing: VW Caddy with an S3 engine in it, 52mm turbo, that kinda stuff... really quick. There's people that couldn't care (they normally by citroens/renaults around here, coz they don't know any better ) There's people that like sleepers (yes, me...). Noone expects a "Mom's taxi" Volvo to keep up with their little Starlet GT. And the Audi-tossers look really funny when i overtake them in my little Bravo in town...
Nottingham has 'the strip' about erm, 700 yards of straight road behind an industrial estate / morrisons where all the chavs go on a sunday night to mostly stand around and watch the pulsar GTIR (iirc) beat everything else that turns up. Some do race their corsa's vs each other, we managed to convince one friend to race his 1.4 corsa sri vs a 1.4 pug 206, slowest race ever, but funny nonetheless. It's just too chavvy a scene in nottingham, i drive my mini down to MFN car meets on sundays sometimes, as i have a few other mini-friends that go so we have our own little classic corner of it, but most of them, as allready said, are chavved up motors, little 1.4's with body kits. A nice v8 transam 2weeks ago, a 24" lift ford pickup, the most chromed out engine bay id ever seen in a supra, erm, a sqaud of dub polos slammed and all with leather bras over the bonnet. A select few nice cars, but most chavs.
Yeah. Chav scene is big here as well... City Golfs, Starlets, i have even seen a Daihatsu Sirion with new skirts, bumpers, rims, spoiler and stickers of about every big car accessory manufacturer out there... the one thing i want (and you can buy them second hand here... new only if you race the cup), is a VW Polo Cup edition. Buy one, respray it... Half the idiots in the polo GTI's will look at it, see the GTI grill and go "Hey... i can take him". Little do they know (if it has tinted windows) that this thing lacks the turbo, but sports a 2.0FSI engine that tweaked out to max potential (by VW), a suspension/wheels that can bring the power to the floor, rollcage, no spare seats, and 145-160kw (on 950-1000kg). On the track here, the one that was here (South african Polo Cup driver) dropped any number of warmed up Focus ST's, Golf GTI's, etc... let's just call the Polo Cup Edition a bit of a sleeper. Most people would mistake it for a Polo GTI, which is quite a piece of not-so-good-sports motoring...
Netherfield. If you go let me know, we could convoy down and i could play some n-dubz blasting out my sub init.
