National Geographic filmmakers have produced a program examining the street racing phenomenon. Originally broadcast on the NatGeo channel and now also posted on YouTube, the documentary focused on a group of Los Angeles street racers in an attempt to understand what motivates them to continue to participate in this highly dangerous behavior despite its inherent risks and negative consequences.

There is no disputing that street racing is an extremely dangerous practice that can inflict enormous harm upon participants and innocent bystanders alike. Penalties for participating and promoting these illicit races can include lengthy jail sentences as well as costly fines, loss of driving privileges and even having your beloved car scrapped! Yet  street racing devotees continue to pursue their passion despite all these pitfalls. 

Street racing it is also not without some redeeming social qualities. As the video documentary shows, many of the people involved have had previous contact or connection with street gangs. It also communicates that street racing has kept many young people from the violent and drug-infested gang world and has helped to foster an atmosphere where people who under other circumstances would be mortal enemies, find a way to associate and establish friendships. It has also provided the opportunity for many street racing enthusiasts to learn mechanical and other skills that enable them to enter occupations related to the automotive and high-performance industries. Certainly there are silver linings associated to street racing’s dark clouds.

The work also shows a dichotomy between the established racers at the legal racing facilities and the street racers as they make an attempt to ‘go legit.’ The street racers find that their boulevard reputations garner them little respect from the drag strip veterans and soon learn that success at the race track is much more difficult to achieve than ‘street cred.’ However, the learning curve of competing at sanctioned race tracks is something that all racers must accomplish no matter when or where the education begins. So really there is no sustained disadvantage for inexperience. We all started somewhere!

Credit should be given to the NatGeo producers for neither glorifying nor condemning the cultural segment that they sought to examine. What they presented was an unvarnished and accurate view of the lives, behaviors and activities of some Los Angeles street racers in their native habitat. It is up to the individual viewer to take in the information provided and from there make informed opinions of the activity and decisions on how the community should react, or not, to the situations at hand.

Even the best street pilots will make rookie mistakes when they first encounter the racing facilities. But lest we forget, we were all green as grass when we began our racing experiences and didn't get proficient overnight!

But there stands the question…should street racing be accepted in the automotive culture at all? Are there enough beneficial circumstances created by street racing activities that would allow something less than a zero tolerance policy towards them? Can illicit street races be completely eliminated from the public roads? Where do you stand?

People used to have to pay big money to get videos like that. It meant mounting an expensive camera to a roll bar, or making a heavy mount to bolt to the side of the car holding an equally heavy camera. But we’ve come a long way with technology when it comes to video, and our camera choice has been Replay XD for getting the action shots that we post on YouTube.

The Replay XD was designed by a group of racing professionals who saw the need for lightweight cameras for the motorsports world. They realized that in order to capture video from the mildest to the wildest of automotive racing, they needed something that was going to be just as rugged as the vehicle that it gets mounted to.

You can mount it almost anywhere, there are several types of mounts to get just the right camera view. But what you won’t get is a video that looks like it was taken from inside a glass bowl. The image that you see is the image that the camera sees.

And don’t let it’s small size fool you, because the video playback will make you think you shot your video with a larger, more expensive camera. Its easy to use functions aren’t based on selection menus, you can see your selection as you make it. It takes a microSDHC memory card for up to 32 GB, and 30 minutes of video per GB. When you choose a function, or power it on, it has vibration feedback so you know that you’ve made a selection.

If you want to get creative, you can mount the camera using the available mounts and see what your suspension is doing. You can mount it to your helmet, or the roof of your car with the available suction cup mount.

Easily upload, edit and share videos with others after a day at the track. And you don’t have to worry about accidentally hitting the wrong setting switch, the end cover protects the buttons so you won’t get back and wonder what happened. There’s even an omnidirectional internal mic that helps to reduce wind noise.

If you’re looking for a camera that is light, affordable and easy to use, the Replay XD is one that will make recording your track time a lot easier than it used to be. We use it here at Power TV because when we’re racing, we don’t have time to go through numerous settings – we want to race. Check out some of our other videos, and then check out the Replay XD.

The premise here is simple: videos highlighting monster wheelstands performed on the Main Streets and the First Streets of America, where little to zero track prep exists (unless you consider road dust and road kill a form of traction compound). It’s certainly an impressive feat on an unprepped road, even if you’ve seen it a million times on the drag strip; but remember folks, don’t try this at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIorjkkzqms

So we cheated a little bit here, as this is clearly the very same Malibu wagon featured in another video in the first installment that hangs the hoops down the street with near-perfect form and finesse. This one, however, didn’t go quite as smoothly.

In the other video, the wagon seemingly keeps the lip of the bumper dangling just a fraction of an inch from the pavement, but here, he pretty well gets all of it before back-pedaling and crashing back to earth. An impressive wheelstand nonetheless, despite the presence of a layer of rubber and perhaps a little compound of some form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLwZgMkiIXw

Any time a video begins with a wad of bills being counted up, you can easily surmise what’s about to happen next.

The .Net Boyz from the Northeast are one of the more recognized groups of grudge and street racers in the nation, and you’ll find a slew of videos of their race cars engaging in high-stakes races against virtually anyone with a car and some cold, hard cash all over the web. In this particular race, Big Dre of the .Net crew takes on a ’79 Mustang LX with a small block Ford on the sauce with his all-motor small block Chevrolet-powered Pontiac Grand Prix.

After the burnouts are complete, the pair line up door-to-door, and the massive crowd encircles the two like Tiger Woods on the 18th tee box, what ensues is a disappointment of a drag race as Big Dre appears to jump the arm drop on his way to easily the most epic street wheelstand we’ve ever seen. Out of the gate without a flinch or a hiccup, the sharp Grand Prix just keeps going before lightly setting the nose down at what we’d guess to be around 200-250 feet off the “starting line”.

The wheelstand is certainly impressive, the but the spectators that feel the need to stand close enough to put a coat of wax on the car as it goes by is not. As drag racing photographers, we’ve seen the race from inches away and we’ve seen it from 50 feet away, and we can tell you the view really isn’t that different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu7zAfEnuEM

This is certainly one of the most popular street wheelstand videos of all time, with more than 1.5 million views on YouTube and counting.

The machine seen here is Oklahoma native Shawn Ellington’s supremely badass ’69 Nova, known as the “Murder Nova.” Out for what would appear to be a little show-off session for some buddies on a quiet industrial district road, Ellington puts the nose of the Nova in the breeze in impressive fashion.

We can’t confirm the exact combination under the hood of the Murder Nova at the time this video took place, but the car later featured a 598-inch big block with a monster F-3 ProCharger and ran well into the low eights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFNbhZu8yWc

In the darkness of the night, it’s hard to tell what exactly went down with the flag man at the start of this typical illegal street race on a city street, but nonetheless, the Fox body in the far lane gives his opponent a nice look at what he’s got to deal with while scoring some points with the style judges for a great wheels-up charge out of the gate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLSHFUbBJD4

That’s right GM fans, another stinkin’ Fox body.

This Notchback Mustang with “a few bolt-ons” doesn’t win the height or the distance awards for this solo wheelstand performed on this pitch-black stretch of road, but there’s just something exciting about a car trying its darnedest to twist the frame in half like the old doorslammers of yesteryear, and this Notch certainly has that going for it.

Making a car bite on a moderately-prepped dragstrip with hundreds or maybe thousands of runs worth of rubber laid down is one thing, but doing it on practically virgin asphalt is a whole other ballgame. However, a number of experienced street racers out there not only know how to get the power to the ground, but they also put the assembled crown in a frenzy with the hoops hanging high in the air. While it’s certainly a dangerous act on pubic streets no matter which way you slice it, there’s something intriguing about seeing a vehicle put the nose in the air in an environment where such a thing simply doesn’t and isn’t supposed to occur.

As an ode to those that can hook anywhere, we’ve compiled a list of ten of the best wheelstand videos on the street, which we’ll present in two parts. These are shown in no particular ranking order, as we’ll simply leave it to our readers to decide which one they feel is most impressive. Before we get to the videos, however, the obligatory disclaimer:

DRAGZINE FEATURES VIDEOS FROM THE INTERNET AND IS INTENDED FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE. DRAGZINE DOES NOT CONDONE THE ACTIVITIES PERFORMED AND DISCOURAGES ANYONE FROM ATTEMPTING THEM. ENJOY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gg3wxS1LeU

This one is sure to get every red-blooded, obnoxious import-hating car guy (or gal) fired up. How the “Bowdown” Camaro did it was really irrelevant in this particular race. The only thing that truly mattered was that it drug the little Honda up and down Main street. That goal was accomplished, but just for some pure style points, the Camaro hikes the nose in the air with authority and disappears into the darkness, while his poor, deflated opponent pushes in the clutch, tucks his tail back between his legs, and calls it a night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwe5tt55cyw

With their high center of gravity and their relatively short wheelbase, decently powered Jeep’s are notorious for being able to hike the front wheels if you really know what you’re doing from a dig. Now, we’re not particularly sure what this Jeep is packing other than the obvious fact that its a V-8, but it certainly isn’t anything close to stock, and there’s no telling how quick it might be or how far those hoops might hang if the driver were giving it more than a half-hearted effort for his interested onlookers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpm-eiu-Pu8

Hey, we never said this was limited only to cars, and besides, a golf cart drives in traffic just fine. Don’t ask us how we know that.

Virtually any backwards hat-wearing twentysomething dressed like an Affliction model with a sport bike above 500cc’s can do a wheelie, and if we included every great motorcycle wheelstand on the internet, this would be a top 1,000 rather than a top 10. But let’s see them do it with a golf cart.

If there were ever a “sleeper” in the ranks of golf carts, this might be the one. No 20-inch rims, no lift kit, no flashy paint or chrome, and no annoying stereo system. Just a ratty old run-of-the-mill golf cart that just happens to have a Yamaha motorcycle motor where the wimpy electric motor used to be. According the video details, this peppy cart was built for the large sum of $0 using parts that “came from his barn.”

Despite the weight of not one but two adults onboard, this sweet beer…err golf bag carrying ride drags the bumper down the driveway like nobody’s business and the top speed on it probably just as impressive. This is one way to get in a quick 18 holes after work, we suppose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2fVg-I71-8

This epic matchup is between a pair of very stout cars that probably have no business being on the street: one a first-gen Camaro spraying the sauce and the other a supercharged Nova. right out of the gate, the Camaro heads toward the stars and comes crashing down onto the oil pan, bringing a premature end to what might’ve been a good race. The style points counts for something right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6-tOcu7c4M

Someone is in an awfully big hurry to get to the supermarket or pick the rugrats up from soccer, but groceries certainly aren’t the only thing this wagon is hauling!

We wish we knew more about this Malibu wagon and what it had for power, but nonetheless, it’s one bad ride and it makes us want to go find a wagon to murder out. Although clearly a popular racing spot judging by the parallel tracks of rubber, psuedo burnout boxes, and perhaps even a little homegrown “track” prep, the wagon was obviously showing off for the crowd and the camera, but if your street car could pack the wheels for a good 60-80 feet, you’d toot your own horn too.

Keep it here to DRAGZINE was we bring you part two of the greatest wheelstands on the street, and if you have a favorite wheelstand video that wasn’t included here, share it with us at feedback@dragzine.com.

These guys again applied the same resourcefulness when it came to completing their LS-swap into a Nissan S13 (aka the 240SX in the United States). LS swaps are taking over as the preferred power plant for drift cars, but this particular conversion is unique. Seeing exhaust stacks on a tractor, big rig or even Dodge pickup (at least in Texas) is normal, but an exhaust stack borrowed from a tractor and installed on Nissan takes the cake. Adding to the weirdness is the fact that the car sports a rear-mount turbo as well as an air-to-air intercooler where the back seats should be, looking more like a barbecue grill than an effective heat exchanger.

Despite the innovative approach to this car and their dyno, the overall effect is something that yearns for phrase “Hey y’all watch this,” if there is a Norwegian translation for it. Watching the car bounce up and down on the rollers is enough to give us pause, and we’re pretty sure that the “dyno” isn’t actually measuring anything – it’s probably just being used to load the engine for tuning purposes. But whatever the case, it seems to be pretty popular (as does the LS swap; every car we see has some variant of the the Chevy V8 between its fenders).

This product of long winter nights, boredom, and a near-total disregard for personal safety might not be pretty – in this last video they’ve gone to the trouble of propping up a piece of rusty sheetmetal to conceal the truck tires from view – but sometimes you just have to make your own fun…

So what’s better than a car that comes with over 400 horsepower from the factory?  How about one that you can convert to over 600 horsepower in about four hours?  No smoke and mirrors here folks, these are real numbers that anyone is able to achieve.  I will stop speaking in tongues and get to the point.  We just finished installing ProCharger’s brand new 2011 Mustang GT 5-liter kit and we picked up an astonishing 164 rear wheel horsepower with the aforementioned seven pounds of boost.  Best part of all, you don’t have to cut a single thing to get the kit to fit properly.  Read on and we will give you the full scoop.

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, you have seen that the 2011 Mustang GT 5-liter has galloped to the front of the muscle car pack.  It is the fastest 0-60 mph, quickest to the quarter mile, and best handling muscle car out of the big three… and it’s even the least expensive.  At 412 horsepower stock, it is pound-for-pound the best Mustang ever produced.

“ProCharger and Mustang go hand-in-hand,” Jeff Lacina of ProCharger remarked. “We started in late 1993 during the height of the 5.0 craze.  A key to modern supercharging is fuel injection.  The Mustang was the modern performance vehicle at the time, the compression ratio was ideal for forced induction, and the rest was history from a ProCharger standpoint.”

An Overview of the ProCharger 2011 5-liter High Output Mustang Kit

One of the biggest worries for new car owners is having to hack up their brand new car to make a lot of power.  ProCharger has gone to great lengths with their new 5 liter kit to unsure you don’t have to do any of that…and that includes fitting the air-to-air intercooler. This kit is designed to fit perfectly under the stock hood without cutting anything, including the 5.0 engine cover.  The other great feature is the dedicated supercharger drive system that keeps the stock belt system untouched and the ProCharger crank pulley adapter is a direct bolt on affair.

The supercharger unit ProCharger selected is their patented and proven P-1SC-1, which is a self contained unit that does not require any external oiling. The version of the P-1SC-1 we went with is their helical gear set upgrade.  This option significantly reduces the supercharger’s noise level for a truly stealth install.  Though if you prefer the traditional centrifugal supercharger whine, ProCharger offers that as well. “This is the first entry of our 2011 Mustang lineup,” continued Lacina.  “This High Output system is simply the introduction for what we have planned.”

The air is delivered through a molded intake pipe, compressed and forced through ProCharger’s front mount intercooler.  The driving air cools the air charge through the front-mount intercooler as it makes its way into the throttle body.  Supplied fuel injectors and an SCT tuner ensures that the additional fuel is added into the mix for spot on air/fuel ratio numbers.  Though if you want to manage your own fuel system, ProCharger also offers a tuner kit.

This particular P-1SC-1 system we’re installing will deliver 7 pounds of boost with the current dedicated 8 rib drive pulley selection, though there’s also a D-1SC upgrade, or if you are looking for big power, the bracket system can support up to a F1-A supercharger with the ability to make over 1000 horsepower!

COMP Cams has introduced their own brand of motor oil.

When the guys at COMP Cams told us they were introducing their own brand of motor oil, visions of the COMP Cams logo on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico danced in our heads but rest assured, COMP Cams is not changing their operations to include drilling for oil.  However, they have formulated an oil and supervise the refining of their special blend of engine lubrication.

They are more than willing to tell us about the chemical makeup of the new lube, but it was completely beyond our chemistry 101 education.

COMP Cams with their own line of motor oil makes sense on so many different levels, primarily, who better than the guys that make engine parts to understand the lubrication requirements of high performance engines?  That’s good enough for us.

COMP Cams Motor Oil Key Features:

This is a serious high performance motor oil and is not intended for use in vehicles equipped with catalytic converters, but if you have a true street rod or real muscle car, you will want to run this protective motor oil to extend your engine’s life and help it reach it’s ultimate potential.

COMP's High Energy roller rocker arms are new to the market and tailor made for the do-it-yourself'er that wants more performance.

Die Cast Aluminum Roller Rocker Arms

In addition to branching out into high performance engine lubricants, COMP Cams has been at work designing new roller rocker arms for the DIY garage engine builders that want performance without breaking into the piggy bank.

Hearty enough for race use, these High Energy Die Cast Aluminum Roller Rockers are designed to be stiffer and more durable while providing added lift and less friction than stock factory pieces.

Lower oil temps, better response and horsepower are the gains that these Rocker Arms bring to the table.

High Energy Die Cast Aluminum Roller Rocker Arm Features:

• Cost effective aluminum construction provides superior strength to weight ratio
• Needle bearing fulcrum and roller tip reduce friction and lower oil temperatures for improved response and horsepower
• Durable design increases valve lift while withstanding the rigors of moderate race use

Watch the Video on COMP Cams New Die Cast Roller Rocker Arms, Motor Oil and Black Wrinkle Powder Coated Valve Covers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFeTTbPJiRw

Not only does the Chassiwork kit replace the front subframe, but it also re-engineers the front suspension, replaces the upper and lower A-arms, front sway bar and the steering system with a modern rack-and-pinion. Undoubtedly, with this new front clip, out ‘66 Chevy deuce is gonna haul the mail and carve corners like a car 45 years younger. While we’re still a ways away from getting out on the tarmac and seeing how this fiery red Chevy II will do in the slalom and on the skidpad, we are certain that we’re properly equipped for whatever come our way.

Watch as we completely replace our 44-year-old factory front clip with Chris Alston’s Chevy II g-Machine Subframe System and see how it saved us some weight while drastically improving front end rigidity, suspension geometry and durability; transforming our stock unibody into a true street/strip machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNWTH96WFyQ

We showed you the basic how-to’s, and also took the Camaro for drive so you could witness the gear slamming goodness..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DScyP0BbKNE

For those of you that aren’t familar with MEFI – it’s a system that originally came from Delphi and it’s a race proven system that’s been thrashed in pretty radical conditions such as Bonneville and in off-road racing. The main difference between the Delphi system and the MSD is the InGenius software which makes tuning very simple. Their are even drop-down menus to pick different distributors, coils, and combinations..

Check out the video and let us know what you think.

Video 1 – What is an E-Rod Crate Engine?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9KpuBZLl7g

What better way to showcase this new program than by building a car for SEMA that has been a flagship classic car for longer than most of us have been building cars – the 1955 Chevy. This video introduces you to both the ’55 Chevy and the E-Rod engine line.

Video 2 – The concept behind the Clean Rod ’55 Build

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV6J4MwDEAs

We interview Dave Ross, the designer behind the E ROD ’55 Chevy on his design concepts. The idea behind the build was to incorporate as many genuine GM parts as they could while keeping the appearance clean and simple.

Video 3 – Building the ’55 and developing the E ROD Engine packages

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFAVfl1WdmI

Mike Copeland, the builder behind the 1955 Chevy Clean Rod, talks about the challenges to building the 50 state Emissions Legal LS3 project. Copeland also goes into detail about how easy it is to install an E ROD engine package, which includes about everything you need for the LS conversion.

Video 4 – The revolution begins as SoCal Speed Shop installs a E ROD crate engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iS41kvD8JE

Pete Chapouris of SoCal Speed Shop talks about using these new line of GM E ROD crate engines in his future builds. Even when putting an LS3 into a small deuce roadster, not much has to be done to get the engine to fit.

The rest as they say is history. His little shop in Midway, CA soon grew to a 48,000 square-foot operation in Prescott, AZ. Now almost 20 years later, Centerforce is still on the cutting edge of clutch design. They back that statement up with the fact that they have 9 separate U.S. patents for their products which translates to over 1,700 different clutch and pressure plate applications for automotive applications. Many of those are for popular late model American cars such as the Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Dodge Challenger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOfebfX266Q

To learn more about some of their processes and how they build their clutches, we took a trip to their Prescott, AZ facility. While we were there, we learned a lot about the different products that Centerforce makes, as well as what types of technology goes into their clutches. We saw everything from the manufacturing of the friction materials, to how things are packaged and shipped to speed shops and customers across the nation – plus everything in between. They even showed us some of their manufacturing process that had never been seen before!

Best of all, we shot a complete shop tour covering everything that we saw. (Plus a little fun they had with a Camaro in the parking lot.) That video is playing above for your enjoyment.

We decided to have a little fun with granny before the build begins, so we pulled the fluids out of her, started her up and took bets on how long she would last.

Check it out…!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xalPqyOFT0I