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Thats all fine and dandy, except that the definition of "street racing" isn't so clear. Citations for "street racing" have been written for street races that involved only one automobile. The definition also doesn't include any specific velocity. So essentially on an empy road by yourself at a stoplight accelerating at a pace the officer considers excessive up to the speed limit could be cited as street racing, resulting in the confiscation of your car and the desruction of any aftermarket goodies on it.

If you noticed the ages on the "racers" they were not kids, they were in their 40's and 50's

Official story from Fox 50's website...

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

It would appear as part of the crackdown on street racing and such that the DA's office has been scouring the rule books. As long as the judge(s) in their district buy in on this. They have another avenue to make the consequences of street racing very painful.

I've heard of about a half dozen or so different laws broken when you street race. The police give out tickets for whichever ones fly in their area. Speeding, excessive use of speed, driving to endanger, participating in a street race, etc... This particular rule let's them go a step further. After citing you for your driving behaviour, assessing points and fines, possible loss of your license. They can then confiscate your vehicle too.

If it is a small town or county (one horse town) and the judge is in with the program then you're pretty well hosed. In a large city with lots of lawyers and money I suspect someone will appeal that and get their car back.

On all newer cars, at least American ones, the 'puter' (ECM, PCM, whatever) already has a top speed limiter set. Which is well above any speed limit in this country. So other than faking out the puter by using taller tires/gears, different VSS, or getting the puter reprogrammed your top speed won't change with performance parts. Just how quickly you get there.

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http://www.greywinds.com

Tell me about it. My Z-24 is speed limited to 108 MPH (top speed is about 130 BTW) which hurts me on the straights of VIR-F by about 5 MPH. The only way to get around it is to cut the VSS wire so the PCM doesn't know how fast you're going. It has the side effect of killing all the gauges and causing a CEL.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Does this mean that if you are caught speeding in a modfied car it can be confiscated?

You never know about those Eastern NC boys!

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2001 Honda S2000 - SOLD
2012 Boss 302
2003 BMW 330i

Picture of the Vega they are talking about. This ain't no street car!

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

I went through this law in a discussion on another list several months ago. I read and re-read that passage (and another accompanying passage) several times and had to sit down and break it down in to little bits to understand it.

Basically, we (friend attending law school and I) think it was for the days of the "good 'ole boys" in Charlotte and their NASCAR vehicles being driven on the street. They would say that they weren't driving x car because it had a different engine in it or an engine from another car - this law countered their loophole defense so they could be nicked for speeding. There is another section that might not have been quoted earlier which would make my explanation clearer...I'd have to do serious digging to find it, though...

It's one of those old blue-laws that they will use to get you...given that someone would be operating THAT (looking at picture) on the street, I think they needed to be nicked based on that law. I'm sure they read them the riot act and have piled up other charges.

The funny thing is the officer's statement about people lined up beside the road. Uhm...officer friendly obvious has NOT seen some of rally videos I've seen.

Then again, I often wonder why people would get that close to a speeding car without safety barriers and even then, they aren't a safety guarantee for a bystander who is actually alert and aware of the possibility of a hazard (I'm thinking flagger at a track), let alone a bunch of joe-blows just standing 'round watching a race....

--Ashraf

I think you would have to modify a Vega just to get it to go the speed limit.

BTW Graham: This road is about 10 minutes from my house so I don't know about the one horse town thing.......oh wait......yeah, we do resemble that remark

They way I read that law is that is was designed to be used as a legal way to confiscate a vehicle they catch racing by eliminating the defense by the owner "but it wasn't me driving"... probably closing a loophole where the owner would put someone else in the driver's seat to keep his car from being confiscated. These guys were obviously serious outlaw drag racers running unlicensed fully prepped drag cars for money, not stoplight street racers looking for bragging rights. When I was in Buffalo the outlaws would gather at a local hangout while a suitable location was scouted. The location would be announced and everyone would take off for it. As many as 100 cars would show up the races all the way to rail dragsters. Betting between drivers were in $100 denominations up to pinks. These guys would sometimes test at the dragstrip with NT on the windshield (No Time, the times would not appear on the scoreboard or be announced, they didn't want anyone else to know how fast they could go).
Some dragstrips started running an outlaw or grudge race nite where there were no classes or scoreboard except win lights and racers were allowed to choose who they ran against in response to the crackdowns.
Some of the cars that came out to these nites were awesome!

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

almost sounds like a RICO style law where the owner of the moonshine ride could be implicated with the car and driver.

i don't know, but would guess transport did not carry the penalties that manufacturing would.

Damn, and I was dissatisfied with a 155mph speed limiter...

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

This is an incredible enactment, made I believe in 1953, By legislators who were trying to stop drag racing. But really knew nothing about racing, cars, gearing, engines, or the terminology of the mechanical devises they were trying to regulate. Unfortunately if this law is used against you. (Almost all of us exceed the posted speed limits at one time or another.) You will be judged by the same types of people, judges, juries or what ever. The term, which is bantered about in this legislation is Potential speed. How that is interpreted in court is the real problem, or potential problem. Some see acceleration as speed, others will look at top end, or terminal speeds, perhaps others will see cornering as potential speed. Case in point, I have a friend that has put a big block crate motor in a 1967 Camero, it develops 608 hp but with the gearing the car top ends at around 130 mph, that’s about five mph slower that it did with the old big block engine. Obviously the car accelerates faster but yet does not attain the original top end !!!!!! The answer to this enigma is a good lawyer, a jury trial with a few mechanics on it. And, oh yeah, try to stop speeding or racing on the streets!!

At 150HP compared to your 300HP..

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)