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Lee Willis -> Safety, Respnsibility, and Street Racing (7/11/2007 5:01:48 AM)
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I sort of got up on my high-horse on another thread about public safety and street racing, and I thought it might be interesting to see how others on this forum feel about the issue, so I'll go first. I love high performance cars and, as far as I can remember, always have (one of the oldest memories of my dad is him taking care of me as he worked on his 413 hemi Dodge in '52). And since I have posted some stories (the three way race with the ZO6, the 192 mph top speed, the close but ultimately losing drag against the turbo Supra) I thought I'd go first.
In my mind there are three types of "driving."
Driving daily. How you drive every day, to work, etc. or cursing on weekends, Sunday drives, etc.
Solo performance test. By this I mean checking out the speed of your car or just exercising it for fun. No other car involved, just you and the road or the track.
Racing. Which means there is another car(s) involved and it is a contest of "who is fastest."
Now, in daily driving, I'm actually a pretty slow, conservative driver. I obey the speed limits or stay within 10%, and make a real effort to be courteous (really) -- mostly because it keeps me out of trouble and it's become habit. My friends and sons all kid me: "You drive fast cars but you don't drive fast." True. But I haven't had a traffic ticket in, oh, twenty years or more. Or an accident -- even a minor one no matter whose fault -- in forty years. And I never get into "road rage" incidents, etc. Fun as it is, daily driving is about getting there in one piece. And yes, I do floor the car once and a while from a light etc., but overall, you simply don't go extreme, on the street, when there even might be other cars around.
For either solo performance or outright racing there are several "levels" of legitimacy, safety and responsibility, and lines I won't cross (and others I will).
I see this progression from safe and legal to unsafe and insane
- Santioned NHRA track
- Unsancioned track
- Closed or verified empty public road
- Public highway or interstate
- City streets
My own rules, never violated since I was 22 (35 years of driving since), are given below. My personal safety is not the primary rule-maker, responsibility to those not involved is what draws the lines in my book:
I only race off of public roads. On rare occasions I have used a closed "public road" -- there was a great section of I540 here in NC that was nearly complete but not open to the public for about three months two years ago, etc. But only I do really intense races -- usually the money races against cars I'm not confident I can beat soundly -- only at a track, because racing is legal and safe there (at least it's safe for those not racing). I strongly prefer unsantioned tracks, actually, because the safety rules are looser: in fact the vette can't run on NHRA tracks -- it would need a roll cage, and in its speed class, one with non-removeable side bars, and its a street car/daily driver and will never have one. The Camaro runs on santioned tracks too but I still prefer the unsantioned.
I make no exceptions: -- street race just a bit and the adrenalyn kicks in and pretty soon . . . you're doing dumb things. I discovered that 22 years ago, and like an alcoholic swearing off even a sip, have never ever deviated.
I sometimes do solo performance tests on roads I know are empty. There is a three miles stretch of a US highway near here that is flat, has wide hard shoulders, and 1.4 miles between entrances. You can see the whole thing from either end. On an early Sunday morning I drive the "the course" to make sure it is empty, then have a friend or a son watching (walki talkie), check that the road is completely empty again, then do a test run or too. But that's it on public roads.
Racing on public roads or interstates is just crazy. First, you are endangering others -- you can don't know who or what is ahead and cars like 'vettes and turboed pony cars, etc., can get up to prodigious speeds very quickly.
Racing on city street is pure insanity: a stock vette can reach 100 mph in 12 seconds, a modified one in 7 seconds. You can't see whats ahead or who might pull out even a block away. "Recipe for disaster" as they say.
So, that's my play-book's rules. What are yours, guys?
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