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Not sure how what this says about your overall thesis, but the "live fast, die young" car-guy/street-racing scene is still around in the Southwest at least, speaking from somewhat recent experience. They just have a basically non-existent online presence (outside of the occasional Instagram post), and are primarily made up of 14-25 year-old mostly Hispanic and black men. Heavy criminal elements, but what do you expect from a subculture whose "thing" is literally illegal. It also maintains a decent but smaller presence in some rural areas, mostly among Hispanics and Amerindians. Cars varied heavily, but each cultural group seems to have their favorite styles, whether that be speedy ricers or bouncing Caddilacs.
Just because all of us here are too internet-rotted to find them doesn't mean they aren't out there doing their thing. They don't usually show up at the car shows (even the ones that have no restrictions on the cars) because those are lame and don't tolerate the sort of insanity that the streets do. If you can't have a bunch of hot drunk women ride on top of your car while you burn donuts in a lot while 20 others do the same, is it even a car meet? If your car never leaves the ground, are you even racing?
The fact that it's mostly non-whites doing the real car-stuff is interesting to me though. The general draining of independence/gumption/wherewithal/determination/spirit inflicted by post-modernity really seems to have hit white people the worst (I mean just look at suicide rates.) At this point it's almost exclusively non-whites that I see out there doing the ballsy stuff, outside of a few old-timers that haven't lost the spark.
P.S. For anyone who gets the chance, flying down the road at 120+ MPH in the middle of the night in a shitbox knowing that you WILL die if you do the slightest thing wrong (or get unlucky) is an incredible experience and I 10/10 would recommend. This also goes for having your brakes go out on a steep downhill slope and knowing that you just have to ride your way down a mountain gradually gaining speed until you reach the bottom.
They are very much online. The unofficial meetups late night in parking lots don't happen through word of mouth. The number of weird project cars that have dedicated instas. Hoon culture spreads through videos of doing stupid shit. It's much like the old days but instead of VHS tapes passed around, zines and knowing a guy, the newer online variant of tiktok microuniverses, instas and group chats.
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Yes! That's exactly my thesis! If the old timers were willing to incorporate that modern street racing culture into their existing club structure, then they have a shot at continuing the existence of the club. Some of those guys might even come to appreciate each other's cars, over time, and see them as similar expressions of the same spirit and both worthy of celebration. Today's old timers were once yesterday's wild kids, the survivors of today's wild kids will be tomorrow's old timers.
But that would represent such a change from their existing choices that it seems like an unbridgeable gap. Which sentences the old timers to watch their subculture be extinguished.
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