So there are three somewhat related things going on -
While there are never as many sports cars as I'd like, sedans - particularly the electric variety have never been faster. 3.5 seconds 0-60? No problem, I'll just call my Kia dealer
Racetracks continue to die, as much by increasing real estate values as anything, but it seems that the new ones are being built in the sticks, and are often private membership. During my lifetime I've gone from having dirt biking, autocross, circle track and drag racing all available within 20 miles to the nearest being 40 to 120 miles away.
Street racing and sideshows have become epidemic where I live.
This makes me think of my youth as a skateboarder. In the 70s and 80s there was a smattering of privately owned skateparks around. At it's peak, there were probably something like 20-25 in California. In time, increasing real estate values and lawyers doing what they do shut down almost all of them.
But the skateboarders kept riding, and in time cities smartened up and built parks for them. Better to give them facilities than have them running the streets (although that still happens).
Is it time for cities to host or at least facilitate high performance driving and riding? It's counterintuitive to some, but after a track session, I usually drive like an old lady. If sideshows had barriers, people would stop getting run over at them. If that guy dive bombing me at 110 MPH on the freeway had a chance to do drive a real track, would he still be placing other people's lives at risk?
Inquiring minds what to know.
I think electric bikes/cars will make things easier by making them quieter.
In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :
PIR has done this. It's owned by the city. It's why there is a huge uproar over Portland okaying the "homeless in the parks" thing. Because, technically, PIR is a park. And therefore, some homeless dudes can go meth out there, right on the starting line.
I've been saying this for a while. Municipalities need to establish a place for autocrossers, drift kids, drag racers, and all the rest can play without endangering the vanilla driving public.
Especially since it seems anyone with a Hemi powered anything wants to race at any given time of the day.
Houston metro population is 7 million. The last SCCA autocross had 147 entries. That's a hard sell.
I don't know about the argument that just because there ARE facilities or events that people will go to them rather than do it outlaw style. For some that's part of the appeal. There's also the money issue. These places still need insurance and medical teams to run events. That doesn't come cheap... and why pay when you can do it for free? It's the same argument with dirt bike tracks for the inner city youth. You really think these kids want to ride at a motor cross park where they need helmets and a bike that was legally obtained? No. They want to ride in streets and terrorize people, lol.
Riding on a track is a whole different world than popppin wheelies down the street. Same applies for drifting, drag racing,etc.... and the people that want to do it the right way will figure out how to do it. I've driven many hours countless times to both race and ride.
At the start of the pandemic, Detroit was allowing sideshows to take place in vacant lots to keep the kids off the highways. Not a perfect solution, but maybe a step in the right direction.
https://jalopnik.com/detroit-police-chief-okd-a-sideshow-in-a-vacant-lot-to-1842238649
I don't think the guys doing sideshows and crazy driving on the freeway have much in common with the average car enthusiast other than they both drive cars. They are lawless shiny happy people that are more interested in calling attention to themselves and causing disruption than enjoying cars. It would be like opening more gun ranges and expecting shootings to go down.
For the average lawbreaking car enthusiast- street racing, messing around on the back roads and empty industrial parks- I think it may help reduce the numbers of people driving dangerously in public.
It's an interesting topic with a lot of parallels. I started riding mountain bikes in the early 1990s in northern CA (where it was supposedly invented), and shortly after, tons of public areas started specifically banning mountain bikes. The same area used to be a kind of hotbed of autocross sites (not anymore, really), and locals around Laguna Seca have been fighting for years to get the track shut down.
When I was a kid, the following was a popular sticker: "Skateboarding is not a Crime." Every suburb/exurb everywhere has a local skatepark now, as it's part of being appropriately attractive as a community.
Fast forward a couple decades, and cities and towns all over the country (including my new home of Atlanta metro) are clamoring to build mountain bike-specific parks to attract new residents and tourist dollars. Even northwest Arkansas (Walmart family home) is cashing in huge on the market.
As for race tracks, I always kind of figured living within 60 miles of one was pretty good (just ask the grumpy people who live near Laguna Seca). Here in Georgia, I have three great tracks within a couple hours of driving. As for autocross, 60 miles is generally farther than I'll go (AKA Atlanta Motorsports Park), and I'm past the point where I'm willing to tow in order to drive my car for four minutes in eight hours . . .
I guess I have no complaints, as I have several great mountain bike parks within 15 minutes of my house . . .
