Street Racing: The Need for Speed

When the sun goes down the racers come out. Young men prove their masculinity and earn respect by challenging each other to a quarter-mile drag race. Their cars are seemingly benign machines, such as Honda Civics, but these dragsters have been radically altered to reach upwards of 450 horsepower. The drivers race these machines at speeds of over 100 miles per hour, sometimes with deadly results. Police are trying to crack down on these races and have been successful in some areas. But the dragsters manage to stay one car length ahead of the police, and both participate in an elaborate cat-and-mouse chase.

Street Racing: The Need for Speed would be useful for classes on Gender Studies, Criminal Justice, and Canadian Culture. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

OBJECTIVES

Students will analyze the legal and moral implications of street racing. They will explore the cause and effects of the dangers inherent in an illegal and unsupervised sport.

• Abate
• Anemic
• Entrenched
• Nitrous oxide
• Ritual
• Task force

1. What is the elaborate cat and mouse chase between police and drag racers. Why does the metaphor of cat and mouse seem appropriate?

2. Drag racing is illegal and dangerous, yet so many young men are drawn to the sport. What is the appeal of drag racing? Why would boys risk theirs and others' lives to drag race?

3. What is a "suped-up" car? How and why do dragsters "supe-up" their automobiles?

4. Most drag racers are males. Why is there a gender division in this sport?

5. Discuss how illegal drag racing is a selfish act.

6. What are some of the techniques police use to hunt street racers?

7. How is an illegal race set up? How do racers challenge one another? What are the rules of the street?

8. What is a subculture? Discuss how street racing is a subculture. What other subcultures are there?

9. What is a ritual? What are the rituals of street racing?

10. Why is Rob so obsessed with challenging and beating Mike? Does he succeed?

11. How do law enforcement officers "hit the racers in the pocketbook."

1. Create a poster warning about the dangers of street racing.

2. Design a dragster for legal, organized drag racing.

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Air Dates

• December 08, 2000