- Joined
- Jun 2, 2004
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What a day yesterday was....
A good friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a car show / burn-out contest in Brooklyn yesterday. I said sure, why not. We hop in his Nova (his Dart was apart....again) and cruise into Brooklyn. The BUSWICK section of Brooklyn. For those of you who have no idea where/what the Bushwick area is, let me say it's what most people would consider "inner city" or "urban distressed" or just plain `ol " Da hood....". NOT the kind of place you'd want to break down in after dark. VERY run down and economically depressed. I don't scare easlily nor do I hold any racial prejudice, but this looked interesting....
We arrive at the intersection of Throop & Koscuskso and find super gas cars and SERIOUS pro street iron scattered all over the place. The streets are full of guys in yellow shirts directing traffic and giving parking directions. This is a block party like I've never seen. They have an entire street closed off to normal traffic, only Hot Rods are allowed to park there. Cars are rolling in a trailers. I'm pissed I didn't bring my digital or video camera. The group hosting this party are the Head Hunters car club. They have a store-front club house complete with a BBQ pit out back, where they are cooking everything from dogs & burgers to racks of ribs & chicken. They even had a deep fryer going for wings.... MOUNTAINS of food, all for visitors. Awesome!
As the day progresses the area is absolutely PACKED with cars from Long Island, New Jersey, and or course New York. They have a DJ booth set up and have 3 huge trophies for the winners. They planned on a car show winner, burn-out contest winner, and a childrens foot-race winner. At this point there must have been at least 85 cars cackling away with open headers, slicks, and no license plates on many.....and not a police car in sight. These guys had it all under control. The foot races go off without incident and the kids had a ball. They were all having a great time, with some of the parents placing friendly wagers and who's kid would beat who. Fun for all. Then the burn out contest....
Imagine if you will what the most grungy, depressed vision you can imagine of what a ghetto looks like. Now put a `69 Camaro super gas car on the corner doing a 6,000 RPM balls-out water soaked burn-out. AWESOME! The intersection had probably 250 people hanging out watching the festivities. When the cars would finally hook up they had traffic cones placed about 100 feet from the starting point. If you were still smokin `em past this point and driving wrecklessly, you were asked to park it and NOT continue with the fun. A few guys were show-off's, and they were forced to park it. And if you saw the SIZE of the gentlemen enforcing these requests, you didn't question their judgement. You parked it.... And still, not a police car in site.
At this point we were making trips back & forth for food and bathroom facilities at the club house and all day long the neighbors were bringing trays of food to contribute to the cook-out. Incredible display of support from the community. Me and my friends were so impressed. I finally asked one of the yellow shirts how this all goes on without any police curiosity or intervention. It seems that several police officers are club members and that the club had a verbal "keep it safe and don't MAKE us come" agreement with the local station house. Plus the club members hang out late and watch out for the neighbors. The last time someone was apprehended for a crime, the thug wished it was the police whom caught him. No details were given (not that I wanted to know...) but this is how they earned the respect they have. The streets were filled with tire smoke for a good solid 3 hours. Until.....
Unfortunately something kicked off a tire while doing a burn-out and struck a child in or near the eye and an ambulance was called. Party over. Everyone was asked ONCE to properly park their cars and load all non-registered vehicles onto their trailers. In a very orderly manner all complied. At this point several street races were set up for later in the evening and I decided I had enough. Home please...
All in all, I spent the entire day being one of maybe a dozen "white boys..." , as I was jokingly refered to, amongst a predominately African-American crowd. And know what? I never noticed....nor ONCE did I feel like I was out of place. I had probably one of the best days hanging out at a car related event in a L-O-N-G time! And believe me, at the moment we have some racial tensions brewing over a recent incident her in NYC and that topic was the furthest thing from anyone's minds yesterday.
Head Hunters car club of Brooklyn, congradulations. You guys are a class outfit. We all have much to learn from your love of cars and your appreciation of your fellow man's love of cars. I wish everyday can be this harmonious in the Big Apple.
A good friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a car show / burn-out contest in Brooklyn yesterday. I said sure, why not. We hop in his Nova (his Dart was apart....again) and cruise into Brooklyn. The BUSWICK section of Brooklyn. For those of you who have no idea where/what the Bushwick area is, let me say it's what most people would consider "inner city" or "urban distressed" or just plain `ol " Da hood....". NOT the kind of place you'd want to break down in after dark. VERY run down and economically depressed. I don't scare easlily nor do I hold any racial prejudice, but this looked interesting....
We arrive at the intersection of Throop & Koscuskso and find super gas cars and SERIOUS pro street iron scattered all over the place. The streets are full of guys in yellow shirts directing traffic and giving parking directions. This is a block party like I've never seen. They have an entire street closed off to normal traffic, only Hot Rods are allowed to park there. Cars are rolling in a trailers. I'm pissed I didn't bring my digital or video camera. The group hosting this party are the Head Hunters car club. They have a store-front club house complete with a BBQ pit out back, where they are cooking everything from dogs & burgers to racks of ribs & chicken. They even had a deep fryer going for wings.... MOUNTAINS of food, all for visitors. Awesome!
As the day progresses the area is absolutely PACKED with cars from Long Island, New Jersey, and or course New York. They have a DJ booth set up and have 3 huge trophies for the winners. They planned on a car show winner, burn-out contest winner, and a childrens foot-race winner. At this point there must have been at least 85 cars cackling away with open headers, slicks, and no license plates on many.....and not a police car in sight. These guys had it all under control. The foot races go off without incident and the kids had a ball. They were all having a great time, with some of the parents placing friendly wagers and who's kid would beat who. Fun for all. Then the burn out contest....
Imagine if you will what the most grungy, depressed vision you can imagine of what a ghetto looks like. Now put a `69 Camaro super gas car on the corner doing a 6,000 RPM balls-out water soaked burn-out. AWESOME! The intersection had probably 250 people hanging out watching the festivities. When the cars would finally hook up they had traffic cones placed about 100 feet from the starting point. If you were still smokin `em past this point and driving wrecklessly, you were asked to park it and NOT continue with the fun. A few guys were show-off's, and they were forced to park it. And if you saw the SIZE of the gentlemen enforcing these requests, you didn't question their judgement. You parked it.... And still, not a police car in site.
At this point we were making trips back & forth for food and bathroom facilities at the club house and all day long the neighbors were bringing trays of food to contribute to the cook-out. Incredible display of support from the community. Me and my friends were so impressed. I finally asked one of the yellow shirts how this all goes on without any police curiosity or intervention. It seems that several police officers are club members and that the club had a verbal "keep it safe and don't MAKE us come" agreement with the local station house. Plus the club members hang out late and watch out for the neighbors. The last time someone was apprehended for a crime, the thug wished it was the police whom caught him. No details were given (not that I wanted to know...) but this is how they earned the respect they have. The streets were filled with tire smoke for a good solid 3 hours. Until.....
Unfortunately something kicked off a tire while doing a burn-out and struck a child in or near the eye and an ambulance was called. Party over. Everyone was asked ONCE to properly park their cars and load all non-registered vehicles onto their trailers. In a very orderly manner all complied. At this point several street races were set up for later in the evening and I decided I had enough. Home please...
All in all, I spent the entire day being one of maybe a dozen "white boys..." , as I was jokingly refered to, amongst a predominately African-American crowd. And know what? I never noticed....nor ONCE did I feel like I was out of place. I had probably one of the best days hanging out at a car related event in a L-O-N-G time! And believe me, at the moment we have some racial tensions brewing over a recent incident her in NYC and that topic was the furthest thing from anyone's minds yesterday.
Head Hunters car club of Brooklyn, congradulations. You guys are a class outfit. We all have much to learn from your love of cars and your appreciation of your fellow man's love of cars. I wish everyday can be this harmonious in the Big Apple.
