Car shows have been around almost as long as people have been customizing cars. And anytime you get a group of automotive enthusiasts around, chances are somewhere there will be burnouts and other juvenile activities. I know this for a fact, because I’m guilty of those childish acts. 😁

I have been driving (both responsibly AND childishly) since the late 80s, and have never once lost control of a car during a burnout, or ended up in a ditch. So why is it so common now? We have all seen videos of mustangs plowing into a group of spectators, is it because everyone has a cell phone with a camera now, or is it because people just can’t handle todays cars??

People like to blame the cars, saying it’s the traction and stability control trying to keep the driver out of trouble. I have always had the opinion that the issue boils down to “high performance car, low performance driver”. I’m also a firm believer in the motto “if you’re going to do something wrong, do it in the right way”. Meaning a crowd isn’t the place to try to perfect your fast and furious drifting skills. Find an empty parking lot away from anyone and anything. It safer, and far less embarrassing than smacking a curb or parked car.

The reason I bring this up: the factory I work at has held a large car show on the front lawn. The lawn faces a major highway. The car show is an annual event, and has been going on at least 30 years. And once again, as I mentioned earlier, when you get a few hundred gearheads together, you can count of some tire smoke.

This past year, a guy with far more hp than talent did a rather impressive smokey burnout, got out of control, went down into the ditch separating the lawn from the highway, back up the other side of the ditch, hit a car in the show, which in turn hit the owner of said car who was sitting in a lawn chair on the other side of the car. There were minor injuries, needless to say the cars faired far worse. As a result, there are rumors that future shows will be cancelled, or if not there will be police presence. I really wish I could say I’m surprised.

Why is this happening?? It would seem older cars with the lousy handling characteristics,suspension, tires, and brakes would fair far worse than modern cars with just as much (in most cases more) power than the old iron we love, and with the added benefit of modern safety equipment. So is it really happening more, or just more easily recorded??

Opinions??

 

More easily recorded. This not a new phenom.

 

It seems while watching these idiots, is that they don't let off of the gas when things get hairy. They also tend to hit the throttle when in the middle of a turn.

 

Simple answer it is the nut behind the wheel that is were the problem is
Car is not the issue
Alain 1970 platinum 442 4spd factory A/C

 

If you want to talk about quality of driving, think about those idiots doing stunts in street take overs. No respect for the cars or the laws.

 

It's not more prevalent now, just easier to record.

A few years ago an idiot at the OKC Coffee & Cars burned out onto May Ave. and hit a passing motorist. I don't think there were any serious injuries. I thought it was a newer Camaro. 🤔

 

It absolutely is more prevalent now for a few reasons. I'll list them in the order I think they matter.

First, cars have a lot more power than they used to have. A pumped up Mustang can easily have double what a heavier W-30 had 50 years ago.
Second, these cars have nanny systems, which means the owner actually doesn't know how to drive, he just knows how to operate the car with the devices on. If they don't keep up, he's hosed.
Third, if those devices keep him from doing a crowd pleasing burnout, he turns them off. He doesn't know how to drive, and runs out of talent.
Fourth, sometimes you turn off traction control, and think it is all off, but vehicle stability control is still on, and the car fights you, and you wreck because its help actually hurts.
Fifth, society is much trashier now than it was, and people drive obnoxiously to show off to others, instead of just doing it to have fun (hence Matt's comments on in front of an audience). Also, trashy people line the streets in front of a cars and coffee exit and expect to see a show.

So, while every departure from a Cars and Coffee is recorded, the prevalence of cheap muscle sold to a generation that can't drive stick along with the tribal urge to strut in front of your fellow ignoramuses, makes the wrecks much more common than they used to be.

The Evansville cars and coffee blew up and was reorganized. Some guy in one of the last ones before that reorg ran out of talent in a challenger and he wrecked. He was white and some black guys started heckling him with racist slurs, so there was a fight, and it turned into a brawl in the street.

 

My thoughts are it's 80% that there is more cameras, 10% a desire to show off online and 10% that all cars have good traction control. Meaning the traction control makes drivers think they are better at controlling the car then they are. So when traction control cant rescue them, they are really ducked at that point.

 

TLDR: People are idiots.

 

Hey now, I gave a numbered list!

 

It amazes me that the people lining the streets with phone in hand have that much faith in a guy they don't know going sideways up the road !

 

I saw the aftermath of one a week or so ago in Ellenton, FL - just outside a local car show I was pulling into.

owner of (what was) a really well restored '56 Ford was apparently coming out of the show onto the side road from the restaurant lot it was being held at. Story I could gather from overhearing conversations amongst others in the show seemed to be a guy in the late model Mustang that hit the '56, lost it going into his turn onto the same road and hit the '56 Ford essentially head on - '56 front totally wrecked back into the engine bay and likely totaled. Left on a flatbed after police at scene concluded their investigation.

Easy to pass judgment on something like that without knowing everything I guess, but yeah, could be similar to the other acts of stupidity noted herein...

 

The worst car show accident I have ever heard of was a few years ago a guy with a 55 Chevy was nearing the National Classic Chevy Show he was going to attend. Friends were following him. His tires were like 16 years old and one of them blew and the car rolled. He had no seatbelts and was thrown from the car and killed. Unfortunately it is a true story.

 

A year or so ago. There was an accident at the Ocean City cruise. Three cars were damaged. With the the cruise happening soon sure there will be more.

 

One Major Issue ... rookies over spinning the rear wheels - as the cars starts to kick sideways there is no recovery time - the tires are spinning 60 + mph while the car is going 20 mph and when they let off the gas the tires continue spinning & just take the car wherever the G-Force chooses ...

Modern cars have MUCH HP & have BOTH Traction Control & Stable Track - leaving stable track on will keep the car straight during a burnout - if your inexperienced & stupid enough to shut BOTH Off your screwed - see youtube

I watched a kid rev his 2003 Z06 to 4500 rpms and drop the clutch with both Traction & Stable OFF. The car barely went forward BUT went 270 degrees sideways just missing the light pole in the parking lot ...

 

Brings to my imperfect memory, a forum member, possibly on ROP, maybe here, had in his sig line something to the effect, -

Referring to his leaving the Olds dealer in his new W31 and the salesman telling him “make sure you aim that cannon before you fire it!”

 

++ to everything being discussed.... also has to do with maturity and giving in to peer pressure.
I've been to similar car shows with a gauntlet of phones exiting.... I simply drive off in a normal fashion with a series of fan boys jerring for burn outs and floor it!

Gotta believe the vast majority of hangers on with phones lining the streets are not participants in the show, just a bunch of mooks that are slaves to social media.

 

Agree. Good list and well stated.

I rarely hear anyone talk about your #2, that modern drivers have less skill because they lack experience driving cars without nanny systems--or with them turned off.

So, mooks, stand back from the curb when taking videos!

For example, back in the day you learned quickly that if your car has a lot of power and has anti-spin differential, you never give it sudden power in the middle of a sharp turn. Otherwise the back end acts like its on marbles.

And slides were common enough that you instinctively corrected a slide before it progressed--you didn't even have to think.

My best friend drove dirt track. And I'm married to a car girl from LA who drove on Minnesota ice for 30 seasons. Both have those same automatic reactions at the start of any trouble--so quick that it's all over before a passenger would even have a chance to get scared, or maybe even notice. It all comes from lots of experience BN (Before Nannies).

 

That's a good one. Can be used in other scenario's as well.

 

The Dodges are all stolen. Nobody uses their own car.

 

I think there’s another reason as well.
I see a lot of people add insane amounts of HP without adding appropriate tires.

That, and not starting your burn out straight is a recipe for disaster.

 

This takes me back to the end of the Muclepalooza shows Hemmings used to hold at Lebanon Dragway. It got to be a ritual where when leaving, people would leave a massive burnout on the way on the road out the exit. Unfortunately there was a more than decent percentage of these folks who lacked the skills to keep the car in a straight line after they started their burnout too soon and wound up fishtailing almost into the crowd on the other side of the street, onto the lawn across the street, etc. One case vividly comes to mind the year I brought my brand new 2014 Hemi Challenger to the show. When leaving the show, the guy in front of me in a late 70's Camaro started a burnout WAAAY too soon, almost at 90 degree angle with the street. The driver proceeded to almost lose the whole car and wipe out several spectators in the process. After giving him plenty of time to recover and get way the hell down the road, I turned to my wife and said to my wife that was not how to do a burnout, here's how. I proceeded to get fully on the road, stopped, aimed straight line down the road, flipped off the traction control and left a good one all the way. I fiiled my rear view mirror with smoke and people jumping up and down and pumping their fists in roaring approval. And, no lie, that was the only burnout I ever did with that car in the full one year I owned it.

“make sure you aim that cannon before you fire it!”. Yup.