Just wondering how the street car shootouts in your area go? Have much of a turnout? Full of legitimate street cars?
I'm talking about street car shootouts where you typically have a 10-30 mile cruise beforehand to "prove" it is a street car and a few rules...has DOT legal tires, mufflers, full interior, and matching tags/registration/insurance.
I think the biggest turnout I've seen was about 14 cars.

Around here they have become a joke. No one checks insurance or registration. They allow cars to run that are on slicks. They allow cars to run w/ no interior other than a driver's seat and a hacked up dash. I ran in one shootout that specified stock suspension only, yet the car in front of me in qualifying was on ladder bars. When I confronted the promoter about it in the driver's meeting, he said "oh I know that guy, it's a street car".
If they have no cruise before the race, you get cars that have to be towed to the line and back to the trailer every pass and some w/o radiators.

It seems there is always at least one car causing a controversy.
I'm well aware that I will continue to get my a$$ handed to me by 2600 lb turbo mustangs that run anywhere from 4.70s to 5.10s in the 1/8 that are probably just as much of a street car as my own, but at least they are legal for the class.

Just curious if this same stupid crap happens in other places?

This is the local series I had hoped to race in this Summer with my heads-up car. They have about 3-4 different classes and boy do they have some GREAT sponsors. These guys work hard all year to make it happen. Hopefully I will get the racing bug and get off my lazy azz and finish some projects. Its held at Quaker City in Ohio and is about a 2 hour or less drive.


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exact same BS over here.......we have a top ten list #1car has lexan windows,glass doors with just a hole in the lexan to open the door.....i dont care about slicks, ladders, 4link whatever as long as you can drive it for a 30mile cruise and not wear out the valvesprings or die of heat exhaustion.supposed to check for valid insurance and sticker also.....low 8s seems to be the mark around here.car count for the first event was over 20cars and probably more than double that registered.

This comes up all the time, everywhere. There is NO true definition of a street car and never will be. A street car is whatever you can tolerate to drive. Doubt anybody would ever walk up to Tom Bailey's Camaro or Jeff Lutz 57 and thing them anything BUT a race car, yet the have both completed and won Drag Week, while running 6 second elapsed times.

Suspension rules in a class would be one thing........but stuff like seats, interiors, dashes, windows..........who cares. None of that means anything about it being a street car or not. And just because something will run 30 miles without overheating, doesn't mean much either.

Lets just face facts here...........All these FAST street cars are really race cars, with just enough concessions and maybe enough comfort to make us feel good about calling them street cars. They really aren't and we know it.

Monte...you missed the part where the tires, interior, etc. were part of the RULES. This is not a what defines a street car debate. I'm wondering if other tracks have street car shootouts w/ rules, and then throw the rules away on race day.

When the rules clearly say the car has to be on DOT tires and have full interior (back seat optional)...how are you gonna let a car in that's on slicks and has nothing inside other than one race bucket for the driver?

I don't understand why this is so hard to do. I mean if you were having a 28x10.5/275-60 race and you had a car show up on a 29.5x10.5, you gonna let him in?

these things are such krap!! "street legal drags" started at my local track about 10 years ago, and it was fun as hell. i [/i]drove[i] my car up, and won fastest et (about 50 miles each way). now we've got this [censored] "541 outlaws", and they got pro mods coming over from the valley. total krap. if it ain't registered and legal to drive on the street, IT AIN'T A STREET CAR. seems pretty obvious to me. what a load o' whooie this whole thing is. see you on the street.

Our local track has one. It's pretty much anything goes as long as you complete the 20ish mile cruise and you must cruise on the tires you will race on.

As a matter of fact DTHemi won the class this past Sunday.

if it can be registered, it's a street car. if not, it's not, right? seems pretty simple.

I understand exactly what you are saying Chip.......but at the end of the day, most of that meaningless stuff doesn't matter. I said I understand about the tires.........but interior rules? who cares

As said, it could be debated... But if there are sanctioned rules, and they are just ignored, that is a whole different issue. In this case, the street car class IS defined. What he is talking about is a defined class with rule bending. That is wrong.

We had a local street car shoot out about two months ago so my wife and I loaded up a cooler and lawn chairs and drove the Dart down to check it out. About all the fast cars had one seat, no dash or door panels and no plates. I ran 6.504 @ 106.67 loaded up my lawn chairs and cooler and cruised on home before all the BS started. It was a joke IMO.

There is always "that" guy or two, who's car stays in a million pieces about all the time. He throws it together at the last minute, gets one seat in it maybe and rolls in at the last minute and wants to race. He is local, probably has no chance to win if it even MAKES the cruise. They don't want to send him home and everybody knows he tries hard and the interior REALLY doesn't matter anyway. So you let that slide and before long it's a non issue, even though it may be on the rules sheet. If you are stone cold on EVERY rule, even the ones that don't effect performance, you will run off the guy from above. And believe it or not, you NEED him

My feeling is that not enforcing the rules pi$$es off and discourages potential, loyal participants.
Once you(I) see that it's a free-for-all...... I lose interest pretty fast.
If I'm building a car to compete in a series, spend my time and money to build it right according to the rules, and then show up and see there is no real enforcement, I'd give it a short time to be rectified. If they continue to let things go unchecked, I'd find another venue to race at.

The rules are the rules, and should be the same for everyone.

I get what you're saying Monte. I've been on both sides of this, BUT... the guy didn't accidentally throw ladder bar suspension on just before a stock suspension race.

I've been there a lot.... in div 3 we are allowed
to use a trans brake in NO BOX class.. also called
PRO... I raced in super pro and pro... all I did was
unplug the box.. I had a adjustable button which is
legal... but everyone wants to cry about the TB and
the adjustable button... all legal stuff... but I followed
EVERY RULE TO A T

I moved out of the Chicago area a few years ago, so no more street car shoot outs.

Nice looking car!

some of these "rules" that these types of events have, seems to cater to one, or a select few cars, to insure they win.....
they seem to have rules to exclude other legitimate cars, so they help insure certain cars will win. stuff like limiting the amount( one vs twin) or size of turbo, limiting the amount of nitrous stages, tire size, electronics, etc.....

i once saw a guy not able to race, because his interior didn't have...... CARPET.
car had a factory dash, with a bunch of gauges all over, two ( race) seats, this car even had a radio.... but no carpet, nope, can't race, it's not "full interior"

Its a tough situation. These small tracks and series NEED car counts and not all these guys can have the best of the best and follow the rules to a T, because they simply can't afford it. Yes, you know a guy is not quite legal, but does what he have REALLY give him an advantage. If the answer is no, they usually let it go at these small tracks, small series and limited tech staff.

It's tough to make those calls. I have been on both sides, as both a racer and a track operator.

ONE thing, that has NEVER changed, is that it doesn't matter what you race for........be it money, a jacket, a hat, bragging rights......whatever. There will be SOME who take it very serious and want to win at any cost. These guys will run off the guys who just want to race and have some fun. Ask anybody at a Mopar event who ever tried to run the KOS cars. The "fun" guys will only come for so long to get their teeth kicked in by the serious guys. It works the same way on some of the rules. You nitpick a guys car to death who is just trying to have some fun, he won't come and like I said earlier, you NEED those guys. They may only be "field fillers" but you got to have them. A class with only a handful of serious guys won't be a class for long.

We see the same at our local track, we have a guy with a twin turbo, smallblock Nova on leafs and drag radials. It is a TRUE street car, but it also hauls butt, to the tune of low 5s. So some of the "fun" guys are not going to make a lot of changes to come get their butts handed to them anyway.........so the track lets some stuff slide. I am sure it's the same everywhere.

Got to remember, most of these type classes are at local tracks where they are trying to give some of their career TnT guys a place to race and also cash in on the "Street Outlaws" or "small tire" craze. To me a class racer that goes out there and beats up on the fun guys, because he can win, has no business there, but you can't just tell me he can't race, if his car fits the rules. The tracks MUST have car count, or the class goes away

that's why I went and put tubs in my car. we had a small tire race years ago and it was a blast. everyone was pretty close on et. then after a while it was this bubby and that buddy of the guy making the rules and it went to hell and I got tired of all the bull and just tubbed mine and just go now once in a while with my kids and make some blasts