Home » If You Care About Car Culture Don’t Be A Jerk All The Time

If You Care About Car Culture Don’t Be A Jerk All The Time

Dont Be A Jerk Ts
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Cars are still a necessity for many Americans and, therefore, the culture of cars is likely to survive for a while. The long-term health of our culture is at risk for various external reasons and one big one: People acting like jerks.

Cars are awesome. I love cars. I devote most of my day to writing about, driving, or thinking about cars. Some of my best memories are in cars. When people online or in person explain their dissatisfaction with cars I am quick to defend vehicles not only as a form of transportation but also as a focal point for community building amongst often diverse groups.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Car culture is good for democracy. It is good for society. I interface with people I might otherwise not because of cars and, in doing so, have the kind of interactions that are necessary for a functioning polity.

Unfortunately, there’s a group of folks, best represented by the r/fuckcars subreddit, that see cars only as a societal evil. To them, cars are a historical mistake caused by greedy 20th-century capitalism that led to us remaking our cities for cars and, by doing, so clogged our air with noxious fumes and sent everyone out to the suburbs.

It would be easier to laugh off the group if there weren’t constant reminders that our hobby is at risk of being outlawed in different ways. And being a jackass really hurts all of us.

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This has come up recently because of this gentleman, Miles Hudson, aka SRT.Miles, aka aka the “Belltown Hellcat.” He has a Hellcat Dodge Charger with a modified exhaust and his joy seems to be in driving as loudly as possible late at night in Seattle.

In watching a lot of these videos it’s not clear if Hudson’s goal is to represent car culture or just be an annoying influencer, but to the average resident nearby it’s a “car thing” and nothing else.

You can really get the sense of how this is about cars from a recent write up in Fox 13 Seattle:

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Hudson’s Hellcat — a Dodge Charger modified with racing-grade software and an ensemble of aftermarket parts — wears a price tag close to $100,000. While some automotive mod companies linked to Hudson on his Instagram page relish his patronage, others are slamming the brakes on any association with the reckless driver’s exploits.

The city’s patience wore thin last week as Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison took legal action, demanding a default judgment against the daredevil driver. Hudson could be on the hook for not only his towering fines but also the taxpayer dollars squandered as a result of his failure to answer the city’s pleas.

Residents have lodged numerous complaints and police have issued warnings, tickets and reports to no avail. Hudson’s mother emailed the city in mid-May, insisting that steps were being taken to bring the car into compliance and under new ownership. Yet, a recent video on Hudson’s Instagram page contradicts these claims, showcasing masked antics that only fan the flames of local frustration.

The “racing grade” software bit is kinda hilarious and this is an extreme example, but it’s certainly not the only one. If it’s not Hellcats in Seattle it’s people in trucks “rolling coal” on electric cars:

If you’re not aware, rolling coal is using a (usually modified) diesel truck to spew as much particulate matter into the air. This is typically done by tweaking the engine to dump as much diesel into the cylinders as possible and, without enough air for proper combustion, the exhaust releases a big smokey plume that’s terrible for everyone. A kid in Texas tried to do it to a bunch of cyclists, accidentally collided with them, and sent two of them to the hospital.

Imb Tvnnku

The Hardigree Principle

Not to get too Andy Rooney on your ass, but when someone acts like a dummy in a Nissan Altima that’s easy to write off as a person being a dummy in a Nissan Altima, but when someone acts foolish in a modified car or a sports car it’s suddenly more ammo for those trying to declare all cars evil.

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Now, Matt Hardigree is only human, don’t think I haven’t been through the same predicament. I get the appeal of being dumb in a car and I have, of course, been dumb in a car. But I’ve very specifically tried to do dumb shit in a way where, if I really screw up, I’m only annoying/hurting/inconveniencing myself. I’ve also tried to do it stealthily. If I’m in a bright orange Veyron I’m not going to go bombing down Broadway.

Weirdly, this seems to be the exact opposite of how people act. The more conspicuous the car the more conscious the activity.

This is why I’m proposing The Hardigree Principle, which states that the louder and flashier your car the harder you need to try to not be a jackass in public.

If you’ve got a heavily modified Pontiac Aztek with a bright purple zebra wrap and a bangin’ sound system then it’s on you to not blast Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open” outside the Children’s Hospital at 4:00 AM. If you’re a Creed Festival then or a race track or whatever, sure, have at it.

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If your daily is a brand new 911 GT3 then, cool, good for you. Great car. Maybe try not to hoon it on city roads in the middle of a weekday, it’ll only end badly.

This isn’t to say that if you have a stock Dodge Neon you’re allowed to drive however you want. Always be safe, but the odd front-wheel-drive tire chirp from a spotlight isn’t going to grab the attention of the national news or doom car culture.

This Is What SLAB Culture Gets Right

Growing up in Houston I sort of grew up with SLAB cars. For those who don’t know, SLAB means Slow, Loud, and Bangin’ and refers to any car (though often older American cars) lowered and covered with bright candy paint, a huge subwoofer (with which to bang), and swangas (wheels with the giant elbows out).

Out of any context, they are about as obnoxious as any car could possibly be. But the “slow” in SLAB is important. While I regularly experienced SLAB cars in the wild and, on occasion, heard a few pop off with some Lil’ Keke in the middle of the HEB parking lot, I rarely had any issues.

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Part of the reason is that so much money is put into these cars that it would be risky to drive fast with these wheels. Unfortunately, as pointed out in the film above, clout chasing has resulted in some street racing and other less-ideal behavior for social media.

To get a little more Andy Rooney, I do think social media has made this behavior worse by making it possible to grab a huge audience and make money by being more obnoxious with your car.

Ultimately, I think car culture is a good thing and for every one jackass annoying their neighbors for lols there are dozens of other helpful, well-meaning people who just like cars. It’s on the rest of us to do better personally and also to discourage our friends from being chodes so we don’t wind up with more car shows that think they need to ban whole classes of cars to survive.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin: It’s a nice car culture, if we can keep it.

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Taargus Taargus
Taargus Taargus
3 months ago

“If you’ve got a heavily modified Pontiac Aztek with a bright purple zebra wrap and a bangin’ sound system-”

Hey, that sounds like what DT should be living in right now. What’s the deal?

“If you’re a Creed Festival…”

Thanks, now I’m going to have nightmares.

Last edited 3 months ago by Taargus Taargus
Rapgomi
Rapgomi
3 months ago

I had someone roll coal on my K-truck last week! I was in Tukwila (a Seattle suburb) on a 3 lane wide road when a lifted white GM pickup came up behind me at a light. When the light turned, he aggressively changed lanes and went racing through traffic. At the next light I was behind him… When it turned green he revved his engine way up and made a slow burnout across the intersection billowing so much black smoke out of his oversized exhaust pipe that it was hard to see or breathe! Traffic on my side of the road nearly came to a stop.

Last edited 3 months ago by Rapgomi
Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
3 months ago
Reply to  Rapgomi

There’s a few kei trucks where I work here in Central Ohio. Brodozers roll coal on them constantly, it’s so disgusting.

MegaVan
MegaVan
3 months ago

Folks have rolled coal on my Mini and Civic as well.

It seems anything perceived as efficient is the enemy.

Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
3 months ago
Reply to  MegaVan

It’s also anything they think they can get away with, which is smaller cars in general. They’re just the grown up school bully picking on the smaller kids

Andrea Petersen
Andrea Petersen
3 months ago

I find that my jerk side is kept in check by being uncomfortably well known as a person. I live in a smaller city, so obviously if I was in LA or something, I would be blissfully anonymous, but that is not the case here. Plenty of people are familiar with “that goth girl with the Fiats/MR2/from autocross/who works at *shop redacted.*” Add into the mix a lot of people also knowing my family as well, many of whom are also involved in the car community. I am not a saint, but I am kept pretty well in check by knowing I have to maintain a positive reputation. I feel like if there was more pressure on everyone to keep their reputation clean, it might cut down on the jackassery

AssMatt
AssMatt
3 months ago

The same media that keeps you in check rewards jackasses. Their reputation IS negativity.

Marlin May
Marlin May
3 months ago
Reply to  AssMatt

Basically internet trolls on wheels.

EmotionalSupportBMW
EmotionalSupportBMW
3 months ago

I could write a novel about this, but I’m going to try and keep this short. I’ve spent years as an emergency room social worker, and in that capacity get to see the human experience a bit differently. Also fairly involved in Public Health. So with that. This isn’t exclusively a Car Culture thing, as Socially we’ve prompted Anti-Social/ Extreme Behavior as way of expressing our individuality and our place in society. There’s two factors I believe mainly at play, one, being social media, and two being the death of the Third Place and our lack of natural supports. Socially, we’ve rapidly been isolating ourselves due to a myriad of reason, such as and not limited too, our anxieties over the Other often fed to us by the media. For example, most adult men have very little to no interaction thats not work or family. These relationships can be positive, however there is still elements to these connections that aren’t featured in friendship and limit freedom of expression. The car too, is not without blame here, its an inherently often an isolated experience, as most people spend most of their time driving to work alone. Also it’s likely the most dangerous thing most people do, playing into our mass social anxiety. So, we’re all very often lonely. Making us ripe targets for social media. Social Media prompts difference. And with that shear amount of uploaders, naturally people seek to create that difference how they can. Skill based difference requires hours of work. However negative social behavior difference only requires a willingness to do so, which easier. So, people do negative things, and get rewarded for it with their own community in likes. Because we as social animals seek community which often does not exist IRL. We copy that behavior hoping to get what use to be filled by going really just going outside.

Which gets to my second thought. R/Fuckcars is extreme and clearly falls into the what is listed above. But they have a point, Cars and society built exclusively for only their use as transport is reasonably isolating and exclusionary. A car is often expensive, requires space, has multiple barriers to use. Also, persons 45 years and younger will likely not live as long as their parents for the first time in US history even though are medical system on case success and ability to treat is improved. Largely due to the limited about of exercise and outdoor espouse we get. We are natural an animal that thrives on extended cardio, we’re better than all those other land mammals. And we’ve largely removed that from our day to day lives. For a large segment of the population, they would prefer another option. However persons can be extremely hostile to this due to the inverse of the same situation that created R/Fuckcars. But R/Giveusotheroptionsoutsideofthecar doesn’t gather the clicks

TLDR: We’re lonely creatures and things aren’t going well as a whole.

Last edited 3 months ago by EmotionalSupportBMW
Jack Trade
Jack Trade
3 months ago

Very insightful – thanks! I think another big factor this is that for a lack of a better term, we’ve made our society very frictionless in many cases.

Whether consuming a entire days’ worth of calories with a single bag of chips, getting into fights on the internet with people you’ve never met, or jumping in your car and reaching triple digit speeds, it’s easy. Too easy perhaps.

And it now takes actual effort to reverse this, to add fiction back into our lives. And being what we are, it’s often unlikely that we do it.

I could add more about the deontological nature of our society devaluing the concept of virtue, but it’s the pragmatic I really find most interesting, (that’s why I appreciated your point about our increasingly sedentary ways).

Last edited 3 months ago by Jack Trade
EmotionalSupportBMW
EmotionalSupportBMW
3 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Not to get too much into Hot New Psychology, but I’ve seen this called the Convivence Curse. We’re primarily evolved as persistence hunters. We’re adapted to more or less suffering. Like how we get a major dopamine response when running. Because we often live sedentary lives and over consume calories with limited effort, we’re working against conditions that we’re psychologically accustomed too. Theory is, without any sort of adversity in out lives we often start to look for danger in places that might not be dangerous. basically our fight or flight response goes into overdrive. Which could give a chemical reasoning to why anxiety is vastly more common in what is a less dangerous society. Some of the reasoning is increased social acceptance and understanding. But anxiety as a concept is far older then the diagnosis, so we have sources that pre-date dx to suggest that populations of the past were highly likely less Anxious over all.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
3 months ago

Fascinating. I’d read recently that ancient Greek warriors didn’t get PTSD; conflict was such a big part of their lives and societies that if anything, another way of living was what felt subconsciously off to them.

In my everyday life, I’ve always noticed that if I spend a day doing passive things (consumption of one sort of another), I often feel way more tired at the end than if I spent the day doing active things like wrestling with a car repair.

Slow Joe Crow
Slow Joe Crow
3 months ago

Yeah, chasing clout and establishing a brand are not healthy behaviors. Also building an identity around one thing is equally unhealthy, be it whistle tips or an incredibly niche political faction

Hondaimpbmw 12
Hondaimpbmw 12
3 months ago

Or: “Unplug the Internet”

Joke #119!
Joke #119!
3 months ago

Only “Car Culture” I’ll complain about is a bunch of douchebags from a “less liberal” town next door driving their white raised trucks with Trump flags and honking their horns to see who they can piss off.
This is SoCal, by the way. I simply let their (literal) freak flag fly.

Rabob Rabob
Rabob Rabob
3 months ago
Reply to  Joke #119!

I find that hard to believe. I live in Socal and that’s extremely rare, even in Orange County. Extremely loud exhausts are everywhere and every intersection has takeover tire shreds nowadays.

Marlin May
Marlin May
3 months ago
Reply to  Rabob Rabob

I find it easier to believe. Native Angeleno here & older than dirt. LA, Orange and San Diego counties are quite a bit different than the counties directly to the East: San Bernadino, Imperial and Riverside.

Space
Space
3 months ago

I don’t even think it’s just cars. It seems like it’s a influencer culture where people derive satisfaction in life from shock value and followers.
Expect it to get worse in the near future.

Hondaimpbmw 12
Hondaimpbmw 12
3 months ago
Reply to  Space

It’s “The Narcissism of Small Distinctions”. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. When a 7yo kid is pulling down 7 figures unboxing/playing with increasingly expensive/sophisticated toys or electrivia, everyone wants in on the action.

Cerberus
Cerberus
3 months ago

Would be nice if they actually did something to him. I’d crush his car with him in it, but I’ll allow we’re (cue George Costanza) living in a society, so I’d be fine with him having to watch. And a lot of community service, something fairly brutal and fitting. And revoked license with automatic jail time for non-compliance—none of this horseshit, “Now, if you do that one more time (fifth time), I pinky swear (again) that we’ll surely put you in jail.”

I don’t think he’s really a car enthusiast so much as one of an apparently endless cavalcade of pathetic, mass-produced, entitled parasite “influencers” looking to be paid in attention and this is his chosen course, but whether or not I’m right (why not both?) doesn’t really matter as all people see is: asshole “gearhead” = gearheads are assholes.

Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
3 months ago
Reply to  Cerberus

I always shudder at a car getting crushed because the owner was an idiot. I say take it to a place where the entire car can be disassembled and sold as parts. The car parts get to live on to repair somebody else’s car and he has to pay all of his fines and for the disassembly. He’s out a couple of thousand plus his $100k car. That would be a fitting punishment.

Cerberus
Cerberus
3 months ago

Yeah, that’s a far more environmentally responsible and smart solution for the car part.

Taargus Taargus
Taargus Taargus
3 months ago
Reply to  Cerberus

I could settle for lifelong Yugo ownership.

Fuzzyweis
Fuzzyweis
3 months ago

I think rolling coal was attempted on me once in my Bolt, fairly congested traffic but my lane started moving quicker than theirs so by the time they could ‘gun it’ for the coal I was already past them, think they tagged some poor guy behind me, such a d!ck move.

The loud cars in our neighborhood have settled down the last couple years, but for a while definitely had some folks with their orange Chargers and blue WRXs that would take the left onto our street( .2 mile dead end cul-de-sac) and gun it to their house, and then of course leaving their house gun it to the stop sign to turn right. Our neighborhood is fairly chill and live and let live but thinking some folks might have eventually gave them a talking to.

What I don’t understand is how folks like srt.miles and the like with their super loud exhaust and racing in the middle of the night aren’t just pulled over and the cars impounded on whatever charges the cop feels like thinking up that night. But random people of a certain persuasion get profiled and stopped daily. It’s not like the loud guys are making it hard to find, and no matter how fast your hellcat you can’t outrun a radio.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
3 months ago

A Pontiac Aztek with bright purple zebra wrap and a sound system that only plays Creed?

So that’s what David will be buying and dailying, right?

Rabob Rabob
Rabob Rabob
3 months ago

I live in Los Angeles and cars with extreme exhaust volume go past every hour of the day, most of them with crackle tunes. Almost got killed on the 101 trying to go surf early AM by an out of control supercar going triple digit speeds and merging in and out of traffic for “Supercar Sunday”. Luckily he swung into the shoulder at the last second but kicked up a ton of rocks into my windshield. Used to enjoy riding my dual sport on twisty roads to hit some forest service roads but had too many close calls with cars going over the center line so I called it quits.

I still follow car blogs (this is basically the only one I visit at this point) but my real-life enthusiasm for cars is basically dead.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
3 months ago

So can I still be a jerk part of the time? Maybe just to the people who really, really deserve it?

Trust Doesn't Rust
Trust Doesn't Rust
3 months ago

From my observations, that’s the whole point of the internet. Go wild!

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
3 months ago

Hard agree. See what I did there?

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
3 months ago

They should take away that Hellcat and religate him to a Chinese made 50cc scooter. You can ride the balls off of that in a neighborhood, and nobody can even tell.

Rod Millington
Rod Millington
3 months ago
Reply to  Shop-Teacher

It would immediately have a straight pipe put on it and air horns.

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
3 months ago
Reply to  Rod Millington

Fair.

But being a Chinese scooter it would break down every 12 miles.

Last edited 3 months ago by Shop-Teacher
Aardvark775
Aardvark775
3 months ago

The only invention worse than the car is the car alarm. Literally no auto theft has ever been prevented by one. They only serve to piss off non-car driving city people.

Cerberus
Cerberus
3 months ago
Reply to  Aardvark775

I would always hope the there was a thief and that they were efficient enough to get the car the f out of earshot ASAP. Thankfully, I don’t hear them anymore.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
3 months ago
Reply to  Aardvark775

Many years ago some jerk who lived nearby had a car alarm that would go off at all hours. The alarm was the voice of a child screaming “AAAHHH!! HELP ME”!!

LTDScott
LTDScott
3 months ago

Yep. As a gearhead I’ve seen more and more shitty behavior by people, usually annoying influencers, giving the rest of us a bad name. I hesitate to call those people gearheads or car people. Instead they’re general hooligans using cars as their tool of choice to act irresponsibly and cause chaos. Half of the time said cars are stolen.

It would be easy to call me a hypocrite, because back in the day I used to frequent late night street races and may have engaged in some less than legal activities. But the group I was with made efforts to stay out of the way of the general public, compared to the idiots today performing “sideshows” in the middle of busy intersections. Nowadays it seems the goal of those people is to be as disruptive as possible. Fuck those people. 

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
3 months ago
Reply to  LTDScott

You nail one of the big differences – old school street racing was often about the racing, the activity, itself. What’s going on now is primarily about the attention; the cars are just the, well, vehicle to get it.

Just like how the outlaw biker gangs aren’t primarily into the motorcycles. The bikes are really just a way for them to give the middle finger to society, a collective way to create an identifiable opposition group.

UnseenCat
UnseenCat
3 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

This is so much the real point here. These people aren’t in car culture for anything other than making the biggest splash in social media and Internet attention-grabbing. They aren’t cool, they’re just big wankers.

I really don’t have a problem with a bit of automotive hooliganism where the participants are genuinely into cars, driving skill, and having a bit of fun on the edge but knowing when to tone it down because there are lines that aren’t safe or socially good to cross. These people don’t get it at all.

Any “cool” factor isn’t earned by excessive showboating. I may or may not have “schooled” some local boy-racers in the 90s with a car that shouldn’t have been capable of dusting them like I could — but that comes down to knowing the car inside and out, and how to get the most out of its potential. That may or may not have earned me a certain “cool” factor with a certain segment at the time. But the point is that none of it was done in any flashy, attention-getting way. Street cred is earned, not made by making an outsized scene.

How hard is it for people to understand the basic rule, “Don’t Be a D*ck”?

Daniel MacDonald
Daniel MacDonald
3 months ago

So crazy about Hellcat dude, I’ve heard an insanely loud car driving past where I live in Seattle random nights this past year, gotta be him. Hope they knab him and confiscate his car and suspend his license and make him do roadside community service, he’ll be alright Seattle has decent enough transit these days. That kinda dumb shit makes me embarrassed to be a gear head.

ESO
ESO
3 months ago

He’ll look real good wrapped around a pole, won’t he? If nobody else gets him first, he will eventually get himself, hopefully involving no one else…

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
3 months ago

Except “Rolling Coal” isn’t part of car culture At All.

Firstly – Those aren’t cars.
They’re not really making a statement about how capable, fast or fun their mini-Semis are – because their modifications actually take away from their speed, capability and utility.

They’re making a political statement that’s Pro-Big Oil/Foreign War/OrangeTubeTan Faux-Billionaire/Authoritarian/Racism – and Anti-Liberal/Environment/Immigrant/LGBT/Democracy/non-White/non-Xtian.

They’re also making the statement “My small penis does not define who I am because I have a big truck.”

Rolling Coal is just a facet of MAGA/Douchebag/Toxic Masculinity culture.

Last edited 3 months ago by Urban Runabout
V10omous
V10omous
3 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

I don’t defend rolling coal, but your blanket statements about truck owners, your perception of their politics, and tired genitalia jokes are all part of the problem as well.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

Show me just one guy Rolling Coal in a jacked up/Carolina Squat SuperDuty who has a Biden bumpersticker/sign on his lawn.

I’ll wait.

V10omous
V10omous
3 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

I’ve owned HD trucks for the last 15 years and while I don’t have a bumper sticker or yard sign, I voted for Biden and plan to again.

So again, kindly fuck off with your stereotypes.

Col Lingus
Col Lingus
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

Not to be shitty here. But most stereotypes began because they had a factual basis to them. Easy to ID the MAGA Shits, Biden folks, not so much.

Shit happens.

V10omous
V10omous
3 months ago
Reply to  Col Lingus

But most stereotypes began because they had a factual basis to them.

That’s a dangerous path to start going down….

Col Lingus
Col Lingus
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

The operative word is most here. And almost every College level Intro to Sociology or Psychology text will make this same statement.

A lot of this is also based on what are honest assumptions based on cultural norms.

It’s a historical thing. And real.

The offense here is the assumption that they are by nature all a negative thing…Seriously.

I choose my own path. No offense, but don’t need to be admonished by you.

Last edited 3 months ago by Col Lingus
Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

I believe you overlooked the part about rolling coal, carolina squat, etc.

I’m guessing you use your HD for it’s actual purpose – not as an antisocial political statement.

I get the stereotype thing – believe me.

Mark E. Post
Mark E. Post
3 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

If he had a Biden bumper sticker, he’d be a MAJOR supporter of funding and arming multiple foreign wars, right?

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

He’s not making a statement about truck owners. He’s making a statement about coal rollers.

V10omous
V10omous
3 months ago
Reply to  Rad Barchetta

When literally every lazy stereotype in the books is trotted out, you can forgive me for not drawing a distinction between the two.

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
3 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

Fair enough.

Trust Doesn't Rust
Trust Doesn't Rust
3 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

As much as I’d love to jump on this bandwagon with you, I have to push back a bit. Over the twenty years that I’ve known my very good friend, he’s had several F150’s, F250’s, a Raptor and a Bronco. Some have had various levels of minor modifications. He lives in rural Wisconsin and it would be very easy to make some assumptions about him. However, he is a very kind, thoughtful and reserved person. He leans center-right and has never voted for Trump. While we don’t agree on everything, he is a genuinely good individual and I’ve never seen him purposely antagonize someone. His brother….that’s another story.

Now, I am not saying that all people with large and/or modified trucks are lil’ angels that are just misunderstood. What I am saying is that I try not to jump to conclusions. Do I keep an eye on them while driving my Miata, especially with the top down? Absolutely. But as long as they leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone with the silent understanding that if we met in person, we probably wouldn’t have much to talk about. And that’s ok.

Bob Boxbody
Bob Boxbody
3 months ago

This is why I’m proposing The Hardigree Principle, which states that the louder and flashier your car the harder you need to try to not be a jackass in public.

I like your principle in principle, but when it comes to the extremely loud exhausts around my house, being extra loud on a residential street, it’s hard to think that annoying people isn’t exactly their point.

I love cars, but there are a couple around here that if I knew where they parked, I’d set them on fire.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
3 months ago
Reply to  Bob Boxbody

Try plugging up the exhaust first. Make sure to stuff it in deep so it doesn’t show.

Col Lingus
Col Lingus
3 months ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

I’ve been told both lemons (and limes,) as well as potatoes tend to be very effective items for this. Always use a broomstick or ram of some sort for stealth.

At least that’s what a friend may have told me once…

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
3 months ago
Reply to  Col Lingus

Are you sure your friend was talking about cars?

AlterId
AlterId
3 months ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Twas doubtless during that wondrous age best described by Jennifer Lee Pryor when she was confirming rumors about her late husband Richard’s relationship with Marlon Brando.

It was the 70s! Drugs were still good, especially Quaaludes. If you did enough cocaine, you’d fuck a radiator and send it flowers in the morning.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
3 months ago
Reply to  AlterId

No doubt.

Highland Green Miata
Highland Green Miata
3 months ago

If the good folks this website community can help the police track down a hit and run vehicle from grainy security footage, certainly we can devise a fitting way to appropriately chastise the douchebag with the hellcat. Sadly though, this is far from an isolated thing, there are plenty of hoonigans with loud exhausts that love driving at top speed though urban canyons everywhere. And usually past midnight.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
3 months ago

Oh, you should hear the antics of the Diplomatic Immunity douchebag scions racing their Ferraris/Lambos/etc down Santa Monica Blvd between Beverly Hills and the 405 between Midnight and 4am…

Hondaimpbmw 12
Hondaimpbmw 12
3 months ago

Cops have probably given up arresting the hooligan, the Soros sponsored DA just releases criminals on OR w/in hours, if not minutes of being booked.

Ronan McGrath
Ronan McGrath
3 months ago

Recording yourself breaking the law is not only obnoxious but it is also hugely stupid. We appear to be in a period when broadcasting the minutiae of your life to your “followers” is some kind of adrenalin rush, and you have to satisfy them with ever more outrageous stunts.

I have some quick cars and I have periodically been challenged at traffic lights.
I generally nod, blip the throttle, and as the challenger ( or Challenger often) disappears away in a tire shredding howl of acceleration I drive away at the speed of a Smart ForTwo.

Anyway, at least you get to be your own witness against yourself at trial, all on video.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
3 months ago

It’ll likely be okay, if only b/c of the law of large numbers – there’s enough of almost whatever car you can think of that’s NOT being driven anti-socially so that everyone automatically hates them/their drivers. Thankfully, as otherwise, I’d have a really hard time loving my Mustang so much.

Conversely, if you ride, you’re well aware that’s not something that’s on your side. Motorcycles are such a tiny proportion of traffic that yeah, the jackasses have mostly ruined everyone’s perceptions of them. Think about how you’re often completely surprised to see a rider calmly doing the speed limit, using their signals, etc.

Bruce Brown specifically created the epic doc On Any Sunday to try to show people that motorcyclists (in the words of one of many great scenes) are good people. And that was in the ’70s.

Last edited 3 months ago by Jack Trade
Frackle
Frackle
3 months ago

I’m not CSI, but looking at 1:20 of that offroad vw bug video, I’m a little suspicious that this wilkey character might just be taking the heat for Doug Demuro.

Mark E. Post
Mark E. Post
3 months ago

How long have you been waiting to use “polity” in a sentence?

(slow nod and golf clap either way 🙂 )

Dead Elvis, Inc.
Dead Elvis, Inc.
3 months ago

Miles Hudson, aka SRT.Miles, aka aka the “Belltown Hellcat”

Dude is an absolute first-class douche, someone who should be shunned by everyone, car enthusiasts first & foremost.

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
3 months ago

Also, he should move out of his mom’s house, ideally into a county prison for at least a brief period of time

Dead Elvis, Inc.
Dead Elvis, Inc.
3 months ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

Or to a tent in the median of I-5 downtown. Whichever will cost us less.

AssMatt
AssMatt
3 months ago

Since Noise Inspectors reply to calls and don’t go on stakeouts, and those disturbances need to be of a significant duration to qualify as a violation, even knowing where (Belltown/near mom’s place) and when (when decent folk are abed) doesn’t help. Maybe we can Capone his ass and get him for taxes.

Dead Elvis, Inc.
Dead Elvis, Inc.
3 months ago
Reply to  AssMatt

Hopefully this will cause him some pain:

https://komonews.com/news/local/belltown-hellcat-seattle-driver-instagram-dodge-charger-noise-complaints-lawsuit-loud-exhaust-court-order-charges-illegal-modifications

I am a bit surprised no one who shares parking garage space with him hasn’t perpetrated some repeated inconvenience.

Last edited 3 months ago by Dead Elvis, Inc.
Daniel MacDonald
Daniel MacDonald
3 months ago

I’ve heard this clown driving up and down Madison Ave multiple nights in the past year. Dude’s got video showing him driving over 4 times the legal speed limit, how do they have no legal ability to do something.

And yeah would love to see some parking lot justice this thing has got to wake the whole building when he pulls into the garage.

Last edited 3 months ago by Daniel MacDonald
Scoutdude
Scoutdude
3 months ago

Seems like the perfect canidate for the “old banana ithe the tailpipe trick” of course you’d need something larger than a banana for this particular application.

A. Barth
A. Barth
3 months ago
Reply to  Scoutdude

Purely hypothetically, expanding spray foam could probably be used for such a thing. Hypothetically.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
3 months ago
Reply to  A. Barth

Hmmmm

Scoutdude
Scoutdude
3 months ago
Reply to  A. Barth

I like the way you think, hypothetically. Get a nice long piece of hose to slip over the tube so you can make sure you get several feet filled but not be visible at the tip.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
3 months ago
Reply to  Scoutdude

Potato.

Hotdoughnutsnow
Hotdoughnutsnow
3 months ago
Reply to  Scoutdude

Do bologna slices damage wraps like they used to damage paint jobs? Would pouring juice from a can of tuna down the vents in his cowl be a nuisance? I’m just curious.

Scoutdude
Scoutdude
3 months ago

I’ve never heard that bologna damages the paint.

I do like the tuna or something stinky down the cowl.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
3 months ago

“Whoops, accidentally opened my door a bit too wide!”

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