Not BMW's but man this still hurts

[Jean H.318TI]

it just hurts, its like pulling out its heart, i really hope this never happens to anybody here


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zadq9...layer_embedded

[roadrash]

Wow... that's one badass machine! I loved the way the operator casually picked out the radiators and tossed them to the side.

[tiFreak]

what a waste, between that and Smog I'd rather freeze my butt of in Vermont winters than move to Cali

[RAiMA]

Man, that was heart wrenching to watch, even if it was another person's pride and joy.

[hatchgrafix]

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/p...r_brakes.shtml

"Two vehicles recently stopped by DragNet-trained peace officers during an illegal street race in Elk Grove, California were found to have stolen engines and transmissions and highly modified emission controls. They were subsequently ordered destroyed by the court. Crushing the cars not only removed potential safety threats from the roadways, but it also removed significant emissions from the air as well."

This upsets me, all coming from a state which is going to fall into the ocean in 2012... hahahaha take that and crush it california.

[cooljess76]

Am I the only one who thinks illegal street racing is stupid? Ask yourselves this, if you lost a loved one due to some kids driving like idots, would crushing their cars be enough to take away the pain? Of course not, but think about it, if these idiots love their cars so much, taking it away and crushing it might be the closest thing to losing a loved one or a family member to them. Would you rather have our tax dollars spent keeping these kids locked up just so they could get out later and do the same thing over and over again? Fact is, their cars are probably the only thing they own worth any value. Most of these people dumped all of their money into their cars. So sticking them with a fine is practically useless since most of them couldn't pay it anyway. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Also FWIW, I live in SoCal right between Malibu and Santa Barbara(Google or Youtube "Ventura, CA") and IMO it's a wonderful place to live. It's funny how people judge California as if the entire state is like Los Angeles or Oakland or what they've seen in the movies

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Also FWIW, I live in SoCal right between Malibu and Santa Barbara(Google "Ventura") and IMO it's a wonderful place to live. It's funny how people judge California as if the entire state is like Los Angeles or Oakland or what they've seen in the movies

I'm not judging it on that, I just like having the somewhat lax inspections

[Bluebimma]

I loved the radiator plucking, such a petite pull for a manly machine.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

I'm not judging it on that, I just like having the somewhat lax inspections

The only inspection they do here is a smog inspection. There's no safety inspections or state inspections, all they do is stick a probe in your tailpipe and measure how much polution your car produces. How many swapped ti's do we have here in Cali? Just about every other Honda, Acura, Subaru or Mitsubishi has an aftermarket turbo, aftermarket HID's and illegal tint.

[cooljess76]

It cracks me up, people think California is so strict when all they do is put your car on a dyno @ 25mph for 5 minutes, hook their diagnostic machine up to your OBD port and stick a probe in your exhaust.

Heck, when I lived in Virginia, every year you had to renew your inspection sticker. It was a big ugly sticker they put on your windsheild. Windows tinted, you fail. Aftermarket lighting, you fail. Car lowered, you fail. Airbag light or CEL on, you fail. Tires bald, you fail. Exhaust too loud, you fail. Shocks worn, you fail. Brakes too worn, you fail. Windsheild cracked, you fail. Winsheild wipers worn, you fail. License plate lights out, turn signals, brake lights, low beams or high beams out, you fail. Windows don't roll up or down, you fail. The list goes on and on, and after all that, they don't even test emissions! All that just so you can have a big ugly sticker slapped on your windshield. If that sticker expires or starts to peel off, you have to get re-inspected! Not to mention the expiration date is in big bold print, so cops can see it from a mile away.

And California doesn't inspect any of that. They leave it up to the police to find and enforce the infractions. I've never once had a cop check my shocks or brake pads, lol

[roadrash]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Am I the only one who thinks illegal street racing is stupid?

Well, yeah, pretty much. Nah, seriously... I agree with you on that. If the drivers didn't know that racing was illegal, and that their car could be taken from them and destroyed, there's a remote chance that I might muster up some sympathy.

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Heck, when I lived in Virginia, every year you had to renew your inspection sticker. It was a big ugly sticker they put on your windsheild. Windows tinted, you fail. Aftermarket lighting, you fail. Car lowered, you fail. Airbag light or CEL on, you fail. Tires bald, you fail. Exhaust too loud, you fail. Shocks worn, you fail. Brakes too worn, you fail. Windsheild cracked, you fail. Winsheild wipers worn, you fail. License plate lights out, turn signals, brake lights, low beams or high beams out, you fail. Windows don't roll up or down, you fail. The list goes on and on, and after all that, they don't even test emissions!

And don't even THINK about driving over the speed limit in VA. From what I hear, the fines are pretty harsh.

[cooljess76]

I think one thing should be noted. Ontario California is known for having weekly organized illegal street racing meets. I know one of our members who USED to participate regularly(no it wasn't me and I'm not going to say who). These people weren't your average "short pull on an open highway at 10pm" types of racers. Yeah, we all like to play around a little when traffic conditions permit. A little fun spirited pull against your buddy in his new Evo or some twisties through the canyons, but these guys were busted in a major street racing roundup. When people have money on the line, safety becomes a secondary concern.

It's like when the cash for clunkers thing was going down. Everyone was upset because cars were being destroyed that they could've used parts off of. Well the program wasn't intended to help keep YOUR clunker on the road, it was designed to take clunkers OFF the road and stimulate the economy with new car sales and help the environment. Whether or not it was successful is open for debate, but the arguement that good parts were being destroyed is null since it went against the program objective to take clunkers off of the road, not help others keep theirs on the road.

We're all car enthusiasts and it sucks to see nice cars destroyed, but the people you should be mad at aren't the people doing the crushing. It's the people who betrayed the auto enthusiast community and gave us a bad name. There's plenty of tracks here in Cali where people can race in a safe and controlled environment.

[BimmerBum]

I agree with Jess...

With so many legal ways to race these days there is no excuse for street racing. I hope the owners of these cars had to watch as they were crushed. I am disappointed this did not get more coverage!

[chrisbec]

Florida is strict on street racing too, but AFAIK it isn't a zero tolerance type of law. It does however, put a lot of authority in the hands of the police IMO. Law enforcement here has a program to keep illegal street racing off of public roads similar to California by making the penalties stiff. But, it is not like they bust you one time and they take your car and crush it. But if the COPS suspect street racing they do have the option to impound your car at their discretion.
I do have a story about my neighbors' dumb ass kid (late 20's ~ish still living at home with mommy and daddy). He had a really nice brand new souped up bright yellow 25th anniversary VW GTI. Getting busted for street racing once wasn't enough for him. NOOOOO, he got in trouble twice and they slapped him with a felony and he is really, really, really lucky he didn't get his car crushed. All I have to say is that he must have had a good lawyer representing him in court. Directly after his 2nd offense his VW was gone never to be seen again. I speculate the court was lenient with him and allowed him to get rid of his car that was getting him into trouble. AFAIK he hasn't been in trouble like that since then so I would say that in his case the law worked and he has moved on to being much more productive in life. I consider this a success story for everyone in his case.

This is the FL law as of '05, a little dated so the law could have changed by now...
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/03/379.asp

[familytruckster]

If it was my car, I'd rather have it crushed than to see the cops cruising around in them. NY city did that. They converted a few siezed stangs into police cruisers.

As for VA, it's a little harsh, but I'd sure like to see yearly safety inspections done everywhere. Do you really want people running around in cars with tires ready to blow out and no brakes? And I sure like being able to tell when people are applying their brakes. And I can't friggin stand the illegal HID retrofits and poorly adjusted headlights blinding me.