When I was fresh out of high school I became really active in the after dark car scene in my hometown of Austin, TX. Back then the biggest meet every week was at the parking lot on the corner of Wells Branch Parkway and the Mopac feeder road.
Every week for years car guys would come out to a parking lot next to a McDonald’s to park, pop the hood, and talk cars with their peers. Every kind of car was welcome from classic american muscle, JDM cars, all the way to high end exotics. It was cool to see each clique of car guys in their section of the lot, with people wandering from their corners to branch out and see what others had brought, and we all got to see some pretty cool stuff.
That all was ruined when people started to try and show off like the countless videos online of cars crashing leaving shows. Massive crowds of people gathering around to watch a line of cars doing burnouts, and sometimes the police presence was complacent even. This inaction made things even worse as it made people think they were untouchable and that littering and trashing a public lot was acceptable. Because of this APD and the local news media had a hay day when it came to attacking our little paradise turned sour.
A small number of people ruined a good thing for many more enthusiasts and even worse the behavior is often encouraged.
This turns the public perception of car enthusiasts negative and instead of thinking about all of the good car shows and meets can bring like the charity car show Cars & Coffee Austin, they’ll think of reckless drivers endangering their family’s on their commute home.
The new story linked above is a prime example of this. The Jagger lane meet was only on Mondays and the host chose that spot because of its less than ideal location for racing. This meet was very strict on its ” Respect the lot” policy. people that tried to do reckless things were at the least asked to leave, one guy got his door kicked in and dented after he kept trying to do burnouts after being asked not to. But due to public perception people called in saying they heard racing any time they heard a loud exhaust.
I’m upset to learn that even after a year trying to set up a peaceful meet that we cant be left alone. The #ParkedUp meet was another meet with great potential ruined by a small group.
The lot was trashed after the event with tire marks and trash left all over…
With the bad reputation it’ll get harder and harder to permission from property owners to host events and if this trend in behavior continues car meets will become a thing of the past. Even still, the good people in our community work to correct the mistakes of others . Hopefully we as a community can get our act together and #RespecttheLot.
Rotors & Pistons 