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I would just point out addressing the accessibility of performance and tuneability that there are very accessible 3s 0-60, 160mph+ factory vehicles for sub 20k USD. Super impractical as daily drivers if only because of things like snow and rain as well as nearly zero cargo space with very high injury and fatality rates from a complete lack of safety features, but they are still out there. Just not on four wheels. The smaller size and weight makes them more accessible for silly things like engine swaps (outside of dropping a performance motor in a clapped out old enduro/dirt it's a rarity though) and performance mods (though for various geometry and space reasons you can't exactly bolt on a turbo) but there is a bit less of that compared to car culture.
I don’t know where you guys all live, but there is a near constant stream of modded cars, side by sides, and crotch rockets going by my house all the time.
It’s actually very annoying.
(I live near a university)
Me too. Despite living in a boring suburb, people still feel determined to flaunt their small dicks by revving down the road at 11 PM. Oh wow, son, that stock Charger is so original!
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I live one block off a main street separating new development from an old neighbor with a history of poverty and crime so am also treated to nightly revving by people with more brake horsepower than brake performance. Modding a zero down 15% APY Charger with a fart can is not performance modding. Actual competitive performance is price prohibitive even with modern finance availability. And again, 600cc barely street legal modified track bikes are accessible, that was my main post.
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The reason people won't buy fast motorcycles is instructive as to why street racing is less common today: lack of balls.
I'll cop to it, that's why I don't own a motorcycle. I had a Kawasaki trail bike I was learning to ride when I was 17, 18 but then I got into a horrendous car accident. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me essentially that if I didn't notice any effects in a month I was probably fine, but that concussions were cumulative and that I would be more suceptible to concussions in the future and they would potentially be more harmful. Instantly sold the bike, quit boxing. The risk of an accident that killed me or physically maimed me I could handle, but one that left me retarded? Too grim, I didn't have the guts.
Street racing slow cars at low speeds feels safer. A street rod that does the quarter mile at 80mph feels like something you can handle; doing it in a Tesla at 130-140mph feels insane. The quality of equipment has outstripped the drivers' perception of their own skills. This even though the newer car is safer at 100+ than the old jalopy was at 60.
To add, in most places there is A. more traffic and with that B. more cops on the roads and insurers that are less forgiving than in the past. Even in rural areas (and most teenagers don't live in rural areas, but either in cities with heavy traffic or suburbs that are likely to have plenty of bored cops) you'll get caught eventually if you make a habit of having too much fun, and my teenage hooliganism reached a fairly quick end upon getting slapped in handcuffs for speeding.
"Slow car fast" at least means you can hit the redline in second or third without going fast enough to be in "reckless driving" ticket territory whereas pushing something mundane by performance car territory like a Mustang or Challenger will get you "license revoked" territory quickly along with really outstripping the skill of your average driver (as compilation videos of Mustangs spinning out and crashing into stuff can attest).
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