JUSTIN KEITH
opinion, that’s where a lot of this explosion of
street car people came from the last several years.
Combine a great platform like the LS with a bunch
of awesome aftermarket products and it’s pretty
impressive what you can come up with. And while
it isn’t always cheap, it doesn’t have to break the
bank. Not to mention you can pick up a used
Camaro or GTO or even Corvette for a good price
these days and have a car that’s only a few modi-
that come to our races and they’re on us about
track prep or whatever, and I don’t think they
realize that isn’t our deal. We are an event that
comes to town hoping to bring people out to the
drag strip that don’t normally come out. We want
to provide a fun, safe place to hang out and roll
or drag race. We try hard to make our events laid
back and enjoyable. It’s more about having fun
than competition or anything else.
IT’S UNBELIEVABLE THE LEVEL
OF PERFORMANCE YOU CAN
ACHIEVE WITHOUT SACRIFICING
RELIABILITY OR DRIVABILITY.
fications away from being pretty damn fast, yet
still daily drivable. It’s a really fun time that we’re
living in. If you look at the new Mustangs or new
Corvette Z06s, I mean, you can bolt a few parts
on those cars and a set of drag radials and run in
the nines.
It seems like we’re experiencing a bit of a street
car revolution right now and you have a front
row seat with Street Car Takeover.
I do, but I also don’t know that people completely
understand our events. We have hardcore racers
Guys like me who grew up racing on the street,
going to TX2K and things like that, we look at
something like a NMCA national event or a NHRA
national event and we just see a race. We don’t
look at it as something we can take our car to
and have fun. With Street Car Takeover, you don’t
have to worry about fitting a certain class or
running a certain time or whatever. It’s about
going to the drag strip and having fun. We attract
everyone from the young guy who LS-swapped
his Fox Body Mustang and has a total of $5,000
invested in it to the mid-life crisis guy who just
bought a brand-new Dodge Challenger Hellcat
that normally only goes to cruise nights.
Do you fear that you’re going to toe over the
line with your own car? Go from having a true
multi-purpose hot rod to a full-on race car?
Yeah, I mean, I’m aware that I’m trending that
direction, but I know what’s important to me and
that’s to have a car that is fun. I think that’s some
of what the hardcore drag racing industry has
lost over the last several years—it’s so expensive,
and it’s so much work and it’s so hard that it’s not
as much fun as it used to be.
I’ve been saying it a lot, especially now that we
meet so many people at Street Car Takeover
events, but you have to remember that there is
always going to be someone faster. So, why bother
trying to be the fastest guy in town? Why let that
be the goal? No matter what you do or how much
you spend, you’re never going to be the fastest,
and even if you are—it won’t last forever. So, I
think the focus has to be on enjoying your car.
You have to make sure whatever you’re doing
with your car or whatever the goal is that you
know it’s about having fun and being happy with it.
Going 200 miles per hour in the half mile will
probably be pretty fun.
I sure think so (laughs).
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