Police Race At Dragway To Fight Illegal Street Racing

For $25, anyone over the age of 18 can race a police officer at the monthly "Beat the Heat" night in Miami, Florida. The races are held at County Line Drag Way and are designed to redirect people from racing on the streets to the dragstrip. "You could bring your mother's minivan. You can bring a pure racing car. It doesn't matter," said Officer Jose Ayala with the Medley Police Department.

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[Hmmm2000]

As someone who street raced in a previous life and has been drag racing for 25 years, why is this interesting?

Maybe to fulfill someone's childhood dream of "beating the fuzz".

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[roc97007]

Why is it even news? There were programs like this as far back as the seventies. The tv series Adam 12 did a "public service" episode on this topic back when we didn't have anything else to watch on TV.

that's not a bad idea

[ILuvRamen]

If you take all the seats out of most minivans, they can really giddeyup lol. Seriously, our old van had the same if not better acceleration when totally stripped down as my V6 Mercury cougar and that's 170HP and 2800 pounds.

Been Done: Caravan & Nitrus!

[StCredZero]

Some mainstream news mag did a profile of CA street dragsters, and there was one kid who's job was going around in his mom's Dodge Caravan taking $5 bets. Little did they know, he had it hooked up to Nitrus Oxide!

My coworker's uncle did something like that in the 60's with a VW bug with a Porsche Boxer engine. (Had to move the rear firewall forward to fit it!) He used to be famous in the Houston area. The nickname was the [something] killer, where [something] was the car favored for hot-rodders.

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[BizzyM]

My coworker's uncle did something like that in the 60's with a VW bug with a Porsche Boxer engine.

I'm pretty sure the Boxter was a 90's car, not 60's...

Oh good

[FiveDozenWhales]

Hey, this is my chance to test if my car can outrun a cop. Then I'll know whether or not to pull over next time they flash their lights at me.

the old saying

[zogger]

You may be able to outrun the cops old ford, but you'll never be able to beat his motorola. ..at least that's what we used to say back in ye olden days in detroit during the height of the muscle and pony car years.

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[JWSmythe]

I always loved that saying.

But, it doesn't help with "Suspect driving gray sports car, last seen heading South on State Road 100", when you actually turned onto SR100, and then made a couple more turns, and are heading off to the East on another road at the speed limit.

I'm in a car that's fast enough now, where I would need a LOT of road to see it. At 170mph, I'd be doing 2.8 miles per minute, and need at least 30 seconds to stop. "Safe" roads to do that on are rare at best

[e-mail]

[GayMarie]

Wow. My lifetime fantasy has been to be in a Demolition Derby but I've never had a car crappy enough to enter. I'd get my hands on something sturdy if the police were to offer this service to fulfill my dreams.