Car culture can be one of the great equalizers in this world. A really cool car, some wrenching, or some awesome driving skills can bring so many different people from various walks of life together. Sadly, not everything associated with car culture is positive. One of those negatives is the street takeover. Many folks consider street takeovers to be a darker part of car culture, but is it really a part of car culture?
David Tracy wrote about the aggravating mistake Dodge made by publishing a post on social media that appeared to support street takeovers. I agree with reader Dingus here:
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I don’t think it’s fair to qualify street takeovers as part of car culture.
It’s part of attention-starved-asshole culture. I’m not trying to start a young vs old battle on this one, but people that do car stuff because they like cars don’t need a camera out at every moment to do it. Once the camera is a necessity above all else, now you’re just talking about asshats who just happen to do car stuff, not the other way around.
Please separate these twatwaffles from those of us who like cars, learn how to drive them, fix them, take care of them and can operate them responsibly. Nothing wrong with going fast if you can handle it, the conditions are safe, and the location is appropriate. None of those apply to asshats who just want internet clout.
In 2023, there was a report detailing how street takeover participants absolutely destroyed a Toyota MR2 after its driver accidentally drove into an intersection. Real car enthusiasts don’t do stuff like this, sorry street takeover people. People have also gotten injured and killed in street takeovers. So yeah, I’m with you, Dingus. LTDScott also agrees:
I mean, Dodge (and Ram) have always leaned heavily into the tire smoking American badass “I do what I want” image, and is continuing to do so with the recent announcement they’re going to drop Hemis in everything again because they can, so this is just pandering to their target audience.
Frankly I’m surprised there has been so much pushback, but rightly so. Most real gearheads hate street takeovers. Yes, I used to be involved in street racing way back in the day but we made great pains to go to empty areas and avoid the general public, not intentionally inconvenience them.
Anyway, DialMforMiata:
I’m disappointed in Dodge. “Drive It Like You Stole It” was right there.
David Fetterman:
Looks like they weren’t able to dodge the negative reactions!
I’m sorry, I’ll see myself out.
V10omous points out something hilarious:
I find it even more interesting that the majority of the vehicles pictured in the ads are no longer sold by Dodge.
What better indictment of the Hornet and new Charger that they get a fraction of the attention of vehicles introduced nearly two decades ago and that have been off the market for almost 3 years? In Dodge’s own advertising!
This morning, Jason devoted Cold Start to detailing the car-thrashing effects of The Quickening in Highlander II. Sid Bridge:
It’s just a Highlander movie. Let’s not lose our heads over this.
Timbales:
It’s my favorite movie about a French Guy playing a Scottish Guy mentored by a Scottish Guy playing a Spanish Guy.
William Domer:
There can be only (citro)one.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Dodge
This one was hilarious too:
Number One Dad
1 day ago
They’re surrounded by a bunch of European cars and GMs from the 80’s and you’re surprised they’re all having electrical issues? The immortals might not even have had anything to do with it.
Street takeovers are to car culture what muggers threatening people with Louisville Sluggers are to baseball fans.
In many urban markets U-Haul no longer offers Pickup trucks as they’re frequently rented and then street raced of used in other such shenanigans. I learned this when I rented one in Denver that had a bullet hole in the drivers door.
I recently saw a video on IG of someone hooning a GM box van from UHaul, commenters were saying they had welded the diff first, but who knows.
It was doing some pretty impressive donuts, I tell you whut.
Back in my day, we had something called “100hp FWD econoboxes and a couple of fast food trays” and if you wanted it filmed, your buddy had to borrow his dad’s shoulder-mount VHS camcorder but that would be stupid because why would you want people seeing you identifiably commit crimes and destroy property?
Sorry I’m so out of touch 🙂
Dodge is like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, and each photocopy rolled 20% negative equity into the subsequent one.
Yeah given so many cars used in street takeovers are stolen I’d heartily agree that’s not something you can call car culture. It’s criminal culture driven by attention seeking social media culture.
You say that as a person in the culture but people outside it do not realize that and lump it all together.
You don’t want to be associated with it you have to put work into seperering from it and preventing it.
On the contrary, just “letting” street takeovers define and ruin car culture is unacceptable. Inaccurate perceptions should be corrected.
I would just like to point out that everything Jason talked about was from Highlander, not Highlander II, which is a movie that doesn’t exist. Regardless of your feelings on street takeovers, I think we can all agree on that. Same goes for any movie that has to do with a crystal skull.
It remains to be seen whether the remake with Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe will exist or not.
Highlander II? Never heard of it. The only sequel I’m aware of was a television series that ran for exactly three seasons. I don’t think any spin-off or sequels to that TV series were made.
Highlander II is the only movie I ever snuck into without paying, and I still feel like I got ripped off.
I remember me and my friends were SO EXCITED for that movie. How could it not be awesome? Hoo boy.
I agree with my fellow commenters that unfortunately, we can’t divorce takeovers from car culture just because we don’t support reckless behavior. Car culture isn’t just what we say it is, it is also determined by public perception.
What’s tough is it’s difficult (if not impossible) for good, responsible enthusiasts to police takeovers because we typically don’t run in the same social circles to begin with. I have personally never seen or been involved in a takeover IRL, and I’d wager most of my fellow readers haven’t either. That’s because we don’t have anything to do with those groups!
As citizens, I think the best we can do is continue lambasting reckless behavior online, and be very vocal in our criticisms IRL.
It’s crazy to think that were gonna grow up through the gassers the greasers, the muscle car era, enter hollywood with films like gone in 60 seconds and the entire fast and furious series, add in video game culture like need for speed and then sprinkle in social media and somehow try and say that street takeovers aren’t part of car culture.
You get the good you get the bad.
This is a pretty good article about the culture here in Minneapolis/St Paul https://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/mn-street-racing/
I wish kids didn’t die from gang violence, gun violence and car crashes that spawn at some of these events but they sure seem like they gatherings of kids centered around car culture to me.
The Woodward Dream Cruise is a massive event, spun out from celebrating a busy thoroughfare that was popular with street racing in the muscle car era. Things get sanitized over time, I’m not sure takeovers are wildly different from what came before.
I think social media is probably the worst offender of the things you listed. Movies and TV have been around forever now, and video games have been around the block a few times too.
I’m relatively young at 23, but I’m just old enough to remember the world pre-social media, before everyone was broadcasting their lives and trying to be the “main character.” Of course, there have always been bad apples, but without social media there wasn’t much to reward bad behavior.
Just because you do not like it does not make it part of the car culture.
Car culture is not defined just by the participants but also by the outside observers.
Street takeovers are not part of the car culture that *I* participate in, but it is a cultural event that involves cars. To the average person, this makes it part of ‘car culture.’
Enthusiast communities need to continuously police themselves and work against the worst actors on the fringes of their communities unless they want them to be the ones representing them.
Do not like takeovers? Work to make them less popular and provide alternatives.
I don’t think it’s that clean. Consider the Charlottesville car homicide – in the days following, many electrons were spent saying that, because the attack was perpetrated via car, this attack was somehow car culture involved, Dodge was the official car of Neo-Nazis, etc.
The truth is that the car was the weapon used in that attack, and that’s the end of any association with cars, car culture, Dodge, etc.
Street takeovers are somewhere inbetween.
Just because something is bad doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the overall culture of cars.
Rolling coal, banger racing (crashing old cars on purpose), illegal street racing, massive parking lots, traffic jams, tuned show cars, super expensive cars for showing off, whatever gets your goat – it’s all a part of car culture. It’s stuff people do in cars. It’s where cars intersect with our lives and it isn’t always positive.
We may not identify with people doing the above but that’s why sites like the Autopian exist, to promote and share as a community the good bits. The best of car culture.
I don’t consider catalytic converter theft, insurance fraud or road rage to be part of car culture.
Wizards of the Coast doesn’t consider exposed asscracks to be part of Magic: The Gathering culture, but take one trip to your local game shop during a tournament day and tell me what you see.
“take one trip to your local game shop during a tournament day and tell me what you see.”
I think I found my new favorite “cruel and unusual” punishment.
“take one trip to your local game shop during a tournament day and tell me what you see.”
let’s not forget the unique odor, as well.
That’s great.
But people outside the culture do be sue that’s what they see.
We aren’t just responsible for the car stuff we like and approve of…
Yes, but at some point it gets tied to something else.
If someone gets shot at a basketball court, people do not blame the game of basketball.