3 ms·

Sideshows are not racing. They are typically shutting down an intersection and drifting in circles.

ziddoap 2y ago
I only gave a couple examples (drag and track racing) but the tracks near me do drift days, autocross days, etc. Two tracks near me even haul in dirt in the late season for rallycross. The local college opens up their back parking lot in the summer as a freestyle drift pad. I'm positive that if the attendees joy of these events is car-related (as opposed to enjoying the illegality of it), a track near them can give them the same (or better) feeling.
- altairprime 2y ago
  The tracks have noise and pollution restrictions, track days aren’t available year-round, and many/most events require the vehicle to have passed a safety inspection. These severely limit the number of personal vehicles that qualify for doing these activities safely, and as there’s no other unsafe or lower-cost method for doing these things, they end up on the streets. This is also a side effect of cuts to street traffic motorcycle police staffing, with limited resources allocated elsewhere and funding starved due to seized-up local politics and police mistreatment of citizens. People sometimes now just disregard red lights in the Bay Area as the chances of a traffic cop seeing them do so are so close to zero as to make it a safe bet. I generally loathe the idea of increasing policing but it’s either that or automated camera enforcement with plate readers, since we can’t trust ourselves to be sensible about it.
  - ziddoap 2y ago
    I’ve been to many many different tracks, and none had a noise or pollution restriction. My race cars exhaust dumps straight out of the hood and has 0 pollution control. It’s loud. Until I was running sub-11 second quarters, I never had to produce anything safety related. But as others have pointed out to me, it seems these may be more of a counter-culture/party type thing than a purely car thing. I was looking at it from the wrong perspective.
    - olyjohn 2y ago
      Drag racing is a lot less strict on noise. Your car would get kicked out of a lot of races. Even the 24 Hours of Lemons has noise limits. Most sanctioning bodies do because they don't want to get noise complaints from neighbors who moved in after the track opened.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - altairprime 2y ago
        Lemons also has extremely specific safety requirements; they're a best in category example of how to do relatively cheap safety. https://24hoursoflemons.com/safety-checklist/ https://24hoursoflemons.com/safety-checklist/
    - altairprime 2y ago
      At all major Bay Area raceways a noise limit is published, and exhaust limits are either stated or implied (i.e. limiting to 90dB requires a muffler). Sonoma Raceways - 103dB at 50ft. Thunderhill Raceways - 103dB, mufflers required. Laguna Seca - 90dB, with rare exceptions. Antioch - 95dB at 100ft. Ocean Speedway - 90dB at 100ft. Petaluma Speedway - 95dB at 100ft, mufflers required. Stockton 99 Speedway - 95dB, "exhaust must be turned down or out". Measurement techniques vary; Laguna Seca is especially hostile to noise to the point that some stock exhaust systems do not comply from factory (i.e. Subaru WRX STi); Stockton 99 buries the limit deep in the fine print viewed by racers; Nascar is difficult to host as their cars can reach 130dB; enforcement may be more or less strict; it's possible there are smaller local tracks I don't personally know about that aren't listed here (I'm more familiar with North than East or South, for example).
      - ziddoap 2y ago
        Thanks for the extra information! I didn't realize it was that strict in that area. I stand corrected. I actually went and re-read the rules for the three tracks I most commonly go to (just in case I was mistaken/misremembering), however there are no noise provisions at all. >some stock exhaust systems do not comply from factory (i.e. Subaru WRX STi); Yikes! They definitely wouldn't like my WRX STI.
- marssaxman 2y ago
  It is a flash-mob street party as much or more than it is a car thing. I can't imagine that many of the people who show up would care about anything happening at a track enough to bother driving an hour out of the city for it.
  - olyjohn 2y ago
    A good example is when I go to the late night drags at Portland International Raceway. It costs like $70 to get an NHRA license for a year then each event is like $30. Then you can run down the drag strip over and over and over. Meanwhile less than a few miles away on Marine Drive, there are weekly street races happening at the same time. These guys spend thousands of dollars on their cars, but won't spend $100 to get actual times, and have actual timing lights, and avoid any worry about killing someone or getting arrested. Part of me thinks that the city should help fund a free or discount drag race night just to get some of these guys interested and off the streets. It can be intimidating to bring your car to the track the first time. But I took my old car that ran 18s and had a blast! And I've done it a ton since then. You learn a lot being around other drag racers who are really tuning cars to get the most out of it.

I only gave a couple examples (drag and track racing) but the tracks near me do drift days, autocross days, etc. Two tracks near me even haul in dirt in the late season for rallycross. The local college opens up their back parking lot in the summer as a freestyle drift pad. I'm positive that if the attendees joy of these events is car-related (as opposed to enjoying the illegality of it), a track near them can give them the same (or better) feeling.

altairprime 2y ago
The tracks have noise and pollution restrictions, track days aren’t available year-round, and many/most events require the vehicle to have passed a safety inspection. These severely limit the number of personal vehicles that qualify for doing these activities safely, and as there’s no other unsafe or lower-cost method for doing these things, they end up on the streets. This is also a side effect of cuts to street traffic motorcycle police staffing, with limited resources allocated elsewhere and funding starved due to seized-up local politics and police mistreatment of citizens. People sometimes now just disregard red lights in the Bay Area as the chances of a traffic cop seeing them do so are so close to zero as to make it a safe bet. I generally loathe the idea of increasing policing but it’s either that or automated camera enforcement with plate readers, since we can’t trust ourselves to be sensible about it.
- ziddoap 2y ago
  I’ve been to many many different tracks, and none had a noise or pollution restriction. My race cars exhaust dumps straight out of the hood and has 0 pollution control. It’s loud. Until I was running sub-11 second quarters, I never had to produce anything safety related. But as others have pointed out to me, it seems these may be more of a counter-culture/party type thing than a purely car thing. I was looking at it from the wrong perspective.
  - olyjohn 2y ago
    Drag racing is a lot less strict on noise. Your car would get kicked out of a lot of races. Even the 24 Hours of Lemons has noise limits. Most sanctioning bodies do because they don't want to get noise complaints from neighbors who moved in after the track opened.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - altairprime 2y ago
      Lemons also has extremely specific safety requirements; they're a best in category example of how to do relatively cheap safety. https://24hoursoflemons.com/safety-checklist/ https://24hoursoflemons.com/safety-checklist/
  - altairprime 2y ago
    At all major Bay Area raceways a noise limit is published, and exhaust limits are either stated or implied (i.e. limiting to 90dB requires a muffler). Sonoma Raceways - 103dB at 50ft. Thunderhill Raceways - 103dB, mufflers required. Laguna Seca - 90dB, with rare exceptions. Antioch - 95dB at 100ft. Ocean Speedway - 90dB at 100ft. Petaluma Speedway - 95dB at 100ft, mufflers required. Stockton 99 Speedway - 95dB, "exhaust must be turned down or out". Measurement techniques vary; Laguna Seca is especially hostile to noise to the point that some stock exhaust systems do not comply from factory (i.e. Subaru WRX STi); Stockton 99 buries the limit deep in the fine print viewed by racers; Nascar is difficult to host as their cars can reach 130dB; enforcement may be more or less strict; it's possible there are smaller local tracks I don't personally know about that aren't listed here (I'm more familiar with North than East or South, for example).
    - ziddoap 2y ago
      Thanks for the extra information! I didn't realize it was that strict in that area. I stand corrected. I actually went and re-read the rules for the three tracks I most commonly go to (just in case I was mistaken/misremembering), however there are no noise provisions at all. >some stock exhaust systems do not comply from factory (i.e. Subaru WRX STi); Yikes! They definitely wouldn't like my WRX STI.
marssaxman 2y ago
It is a flash-mob street party as much or more than it is a car thing. I can't imagine that many of the people who show up would care about anything happening at a track enough to bother driving an hour out of the city for it.
- olyjohn 2y ago
  A good example is when I go to the late night drags at Portland International Raceway. It costs like $70 to get an NHRA license for a year then each event is like $30. Then you can run down the drag strip over and over and over. Meanwhile less than a few miles away on Marine Drive, there are weekly street races happening at the same time. These guys spend thousands of dollars on their cars, but won't spend $100 to get actual times, and have actual timing lights, and avoid any worry about killing someone or getting arrested. Part of me thinks that the city should help fund a free or discount drag race night just to get some of these guys interested and off the streets. It can be intimidating to bring your car to the track the first time. But I took my old car that ran 18s and had a blast! And I've done it a ton since then. You learn a lot being around other drag racers who are really tuning cars to get the most out of it.