Becoming Your Own Worst Enemy: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

mustangcrashSometimes we really are our own worst enemies. We leave a car show or a meet, and there’s always going to be a group standing around just waiting for someone to do a burnout. Lots of times, those bystanders will egg you on, try to encourage you to do something that can potentially be completely stupid.

They try to antagonize you, right? “All show, no go,” yells one bystander. “Lay some rubber or you’re a $#%&!” screams another. And some of us can abstain from beating up on our car all for the sake of a few over-eager bystanders. But then there are a few that can’t, and they quickly become their own worst enemy.

chargercrash cobracrash

These are the people who, despite the fact that we already know they have a powerful car by the way it sounds, has to prove it. These are the people who will give up the sensibilities and race on a whim simply because, “he revved on me.”

For a while, we scolded the Mustang owners who seemed to fit into the mold of trying a burnout and ending with a crash, either into a crowd or into another car. But it’s not really Mustangs that cause these accidents and more than it’s a gun that shoots someone. There’s always a miscreant operator behind the trigger that guns into a crowd of people, and those are the people we need to stop.

camarocrash

As we see in this short video above, another over-zealous Cars and Coffee participant couldn’t resist trying to get a few cheers, and lost control of his Charger. This sent some people scurrying to get out of his way, and it was all caught on vertical (dammit) smartphone video. We have two problems here: when will people learn to hold their smartphone sideways, and when will these inexperienced drivers stop ruining things for the rest of us?

The driver was later apprehended, thanks to the video, and he is facing charges of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. How do you like them apples? You just can’t run from your own worst enemy, especially when you’re caught on video.

bbcamarocrash

Lots of us old-timers used to race, and we used to do burnouts all over the place. But we also didn’t (typically) have 400+ horsepower cars straight from the factory. So it’s difficult to lead the “do as we say, not as we did” brigade, but people today are destroying everything we find fun because they can’t refrain from trying to show off.

Maybe it’s about time the law started taking it seriously. Maybe it’s about time that people get arrested for doing a burnout that almost hit people in the crowd to teach them a lesson. Almost all of us are guilty of doing things a little bit excessively with our cars, but those who think they can handle the power and actually can’t, you’re the reason why we can’t have nice things.

pontiacburnout

There are some events that will encourage the burnout, like JBA Speed Shop in San Diego, California. They’ll make sure that you’re not going to end up dispersing a crowd with your front bumper. So if you feel the need to tear up your car just to get some positive reinforcement from a rowdy crowd, find that event, and do countless burnouts if you must.

But when it comes to public streets and Cars & Coffee events: knock it off, already. Some of us like the fact that we have someplace to take our cars, and to socialize with other gearheads. And we don’t care for those who are destroying our good things.

mustangburnout

About the author

Michael Harding

Michael is a Power Automedia contributor and automotive enthusiast who doesn’t discriminate. Although Mopar is in his blood, he loves any car that looks great and drives even faster.
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