As car enthusiasts, we love having the occasional get together to celebrate nothing else but cars themselves. We don’t always need a reason to have these teh-tarik sessions (as they’re affectionately called), but when the word is put out you can be sure that some of the most eclectic people will show up. This makes for a wonderful variety of cars, and it allows for socialization and learning opportunities. We live in a wonderful age of social media- and that helps in getting the attention of a great number of car enthusiasts.
While these gatherings started out relatively small and intimate, they have progressively grown in size to make for quite the events- which is a wonderful thing. But with this growth, there also needs to be some measure of personal responsibility. We do not live in an isolated system, and with that in mind we need to respect those around us. As these gatherings run on late into the night, there’s also the issue of people who just want to get a little bit of shuteye.
It may be hard to understand where these people are coming from. Most of us would love to hear a rotary screaming down the highway, or the odd DSG-pop of a highly tuned Volkswagen as it blasts past your housing area. Unfortunately most people do not share that enthusiasm, and there’s a fine line between being a little noisy and becoming a public nuisance. There is a right time and place to showboat if you so desire, but doing so at a gathering simply gives the wrong impression.
A few weeks ago there was one such car gathering that was partly organized by our friends over at RaceNotRice, and to prevent these kinds of disturbances from happening there were a few simple ground rules. No revving, no burnouts, and no speeding- not particularly hard rules to follow, but entirely necessary because of the scale of the event. The organizers cannot be responsible for everything that happens, so as mentioned before there needs to be some degree of personal responsibility.
And yet, there were a few individuals who decided to break these simple rules. They fired up a car and let loose, bouncing off the limiter and shredding rubber. It makes for some nice photos and videos, but at what cost? Did it matter at all that there was an apartment block just a stone’s throw from the gathering? Did it ever occur to these people that some of these residents may have (heaven forbid) been trying to sleep at midnight?
No, it’s unlikely that these individuals gave it a second thought. Why it happened was irrelevant, but the damage is done. And it also pays to remember that the actions of these individuals reflect on the gathering as a whole- even though the vast majority of owners were well behaved and conducted themselves properly. If you’ve ever wondered why the public has this distaste for modified cars, then look no further: it’s things like this that tarnish the image of car enthusiasts and lump us in the same group as mat rempits.
If you’re reading this and you honestly believe that a little bit of showboating is all in good fun, then let’s look at the world-renowned Cars and Coffee gathering in the United States. These gatherings happen in various locations across the country, but one such location in Irvine, California no longer allows such meetings. The reason was simple: noise complaints from nearby residential areas. And sure, the gathering moved to another spot and re-invented itself, but how many times do you think you can change locations before you’re banned outright?
So it’s simple. If you want to show off, by all means go ahead. But do it somewhere else, on your own time, and be accountable for your own actions. We all love cars and we love seeing what they can do- but pissing off the general public is an extremely quick and efficient way to get these kinds of gatherings banned. And if that comes about, we hope you ask yourself whether it was really worth that 15-seconds-of-fame on Instagram.
