TTAC Goes Way Back: The Dawn Of Import Drag Racing
Before Fast and Furious was even a glimmer in the eye of a Hollywood producer, import car enthusiasts were paying nearly twenty-five hundred dollars for a lousy intake manifold – hard to believe, right?
Well, if you lived in Toronto in the mid-1990’s, not really. The Canadian dollar was in the toilet, internet shopping did not exist, and buying from a local vendor at inflated prices was your only option. This documentary, which debuted on A&E sometime in that era, was the talk of the town when it came out. I remember getting a “taped” copy (back when you could record things on VHS, not TiVo or DVR) and being amazed that somebody went out and purchased a laptop computer just to tune their car.
My, how things have changed. Still, it’s nice to take a look back to the days when a B-Series Honda EG hatch running 12 second times was a huge deal. And how about the Miata and FD RX-7, two cars that we may not normally think of as street drag contenders, being abused mercilessly in pursuit of bragging rights?
Less than a decade after this documentary, Ontario imposed draconian anti-speeding laws, whereby getting caught at 31 mph over the limit meant an instant impounding of your vehicle, a 10 day driving ban and a fine of up to $10,000. While these laws killed off the street racing scene, they also made Ontario one of the worst places to drive.
More by Derek Kreindler
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I saw this documentary when it came out. The guy blowing up the RX-7 on the dyno was pretty good.
The MTO handing out licenses to everyone with a pulse and six months of frost heave are what really make Ontario terrible to drive in, the "street racing" law is just one footnote on a massive list of problems.
Boy that takes me back to my college days where everywhere I looked in Lowell MA was another fart can civic with a body kit decal covered rice boy. Only 1% of them had real performance modifications. 99% of them it was all cosmetic. Once I ate one with my 85 Reliant 2.6. We used to make fun of them mercilessly.
This is the street racing stuff up at Woodbridge that I keep hearing stories about from older folks at work who had American muscle cars in the 80's, and from people at car meets that had imports in the 90's.