Culture of macho mayhem

ALAN PERROTT delves into the sub-culture of street racing and burnouts.

Boy racers have evolved into a subculture of informal gangs running underground national competitions and with strict rules on drink-driving.

They operate by their own code with their own language, and drive expensive, high-performance cars that often leave the police in their dust.

Most are males aged under 25 and are still living with mum and dad.

"In most cases their car is their sole asset, the symbol of their manhood," said Liz Stewart, from West Auckland car club Westie Road Markers.

Drink-driving is a definite no-no, but racers think nothing of driving in "queues" hundreds of cars long, which roar bumper-to-bumper down motorways at up to 140km/h.

Each queue will head somewhere different, depending on the activity the drivers are into.

"Skidders" need only a small space where they can carry out noisy, tyre-shredding burnouts, while the racers require long stretches of straight road.

The cars are usually heavily modified, with high-tech gear from suppliers such as Mag & Turbo, a company which has grown from a small, single store to a nationwide chain on the back of the burgeoning car culture.

"Just look at the cars cruising Queen St and you'll see the effort they go to," said one store manager.

"The big V8s are unaffordable, but they can pick up a standard used Impreza Wagon for about $130 per week, then come to us to make it look different to everyone else's and spend anywhere from $50 to $8000."

The company also runs a website called Rate My Car where owners display their cars and modifications to be judged by their peers.

"If you want to see the people we deal with watch [the movie] The Fast and the Furious. About one in three of our customers would know it word-for-word."

The Herald has been told thousands of people - no one is sure how many - are part of the sub-culture. The police freely acknowledge they have been unable to stop the late-night street races and burnouts.

A crackdown in one area merely moves the cars somewhere else.

They are not helped by Valentine One detectors, available for about $1500, which can pick up radar and laser signals from any direction up to 1km away.

"We're probably fighting a losing battle," said Senior Sergeant Colin McPherson, from South Auckland police.

"We've tried everything from covert operations to huge police numbers. These aren't fun-loving, clean-cut Kiwis having a good time in the back blocks. Apart from the road deaths, there is a lot of nasty behaviour associated with these gatherings.

"The mood among these people is getting uglier, but, really, we're running out of answers."

Auckland Mayor John Banks supports proposed legislation allowing cars to be confiscated, but there are fears such a move will encourage racers to steal cars.

Mr Banks made a well-publicised visit to Quay St in downtown Auckland last October to see the situation for himself.

Whether he knew it or not, he had stumbled across the early hours of an underground four-cylinder national competition which later spread itself throughout the industrial areas of South Auckland.

Such events occur regularly; one of the more unusual will be run in the next few weeks.

Dozens of drivers will gather at a garage to run their engines up on a dynamometer, a rolling road, to see whose car can produce the most horse- power and the highest torque.

Keith Sharp is organiser of Skidfest, the monthly burnout competition at the Manukau Velodrome, which has become the acceptable face of boy racing. "The police are simply outgunned; these guys put a lot of effort and money into their cars," Mr Sharp said.

Over two years of running Skidfest, he has seen the emergence of gangs, usually based around a favoured car model, such as the BBKs (Bad Boy Killers), who drive Mitsubishi Lancers, and the Skyline Boys, who favour Nissan Skylines.

His burnouts attract thousands to watch 50 drivers spin perfectly good cars round and round until their tyres and/or engines blow up.

Each skid is rated out of 45, with points awarded for smoke consistency, style, crowd response and driving skill. There is a five-point bonus for bursting tyres.

"Last year, one guy blew his tyres and his engine at the same time," said Mr Sharp. "It must have cost him thousands, but he was a hero for days."