This issue's rant continues on the topic that my colleague and counterpart, Amyot Bachand, began in our previous number and is concluding in this one; having a good time with our cars in a safe and legal manner. I am not so old as to not remember my younger years when I used to watch illegal street racing. Ten years or so ago, my buddies and I used to make our way to the Technopark in Montreal near the Bonaventure autoroute late on a Friday night. Although the goings on were against the law, everyone that was there was very well aware of the risks that they were taking. This location was very isolated. There was nearly never anyone driving by except for the police... No one could plead innocence if something went wrong.
Although I do not condone the fact that these activities were wrong, what I do find incredibly criminal are those that practice Illegal Street racing in broad daylight on busy roads. In the last four months, I have tested some very tuner-type cars: the Impreza WRX, the Mazdaspeed6, the Volkswagen GTI and Jetta 2.0T. What I am getting at is that these are some cars that regularly attract, in this case, negative attention from young men driving around in their tricked out cars. The week that I spent at the wheel of the WRX earned me two challenges (before the huge Friday snowstorm) from individuals desiring to show me who's boss. I live in Montreal and do my errands in the area. I of course did nothing to encourage the behaviour and could not believe in what could have transpired at an intersection where pedestrians were going about their daily business. It angered me to no end; because of young idiots like this one, I have to pay higher insurance premiums and am more likely to get pulled over because I am a young male driving a "hot" car. I have been branded and am paying the price for their stupidity.
In my opinion, the only reason why these situations occur is because these youngsters are too lazy to actually take their hopped up cars to a track and really show what they and their creations can do. Either that or they are too afraid that their little egos will get shattered when they realise that they in fact do not know how to drive. It certainly is not because they do not know where to go to have a good intelligent time with their cars.
Although I do not condone the fact that these activities were wrong, what I do find incredibly criminal are those that practice Illegal Street racing in broad daylight on busy roads. In the last four months, I have tested some very tuner-type cars: the Impreza WRX, the Mazdaspeed6, the Volkswagen GTI and Jetta 2.0T. What I am getting at is that these are some cars that regularly attract, in this case, negative attention from young men driving around in their tricked out cars. The week that I spent at the wheel of the WRX earned me two challenges (before the huge Friday snowstorm) from individuals desiring to show me who's boss. I live in Montreal and do my errands in the area. I of course did nothing to encourage the behaviour and could not believe in what could have transpired at an intersection where pedestrians were going about their daily business. It angered me to no end; because of young idiots like this one, I have to pay higher insurance premiums and am more likely to get pulled over because I am a young male driving a "hot" car. I have been branded and am paying the price for their stupidity.
In my opinion, the only reason why these situations occur is because these youngsters are too lazy to actually take their hopped up cars to a track and really show what they and their creations can do. Either that or they are too afraid that their little egos will get shattered when they realise that they in fact do not know how to drive. It certainly is not because they do not know where to go to have a good intelligent time with their cars.