CAR CULTURE: IT’S STILL TRUE, NOBODY WALKS IN L.A

CAR CULTURE

2021 SPRING-SUMMER

IT’S STILL TRUE? NOBODYWALKS INL.A.

Flash: Rapper and TV personality Xzibit’s immaculate 1957 Chevy Bel Air sits on display at Mels Diner Drive-in. It is part of the Rider Gang Lifestyle car meet.

BY LOUIS WHITE

PHOTOS BY LOUIS WHITE

Perhaps it is the weather, which is virtually some variant of clear summer days all year long. City blocks, lined by almost 100-yearold palm trees. To the north, majestic mountains and to the west, the call of the Pacific Ocean.

Postcards and movies make highlights of the endless summer lifestyle of Pacific Coast Highway, which includes the canyons of Topanga and Laurel. The breezy charm of Mulholland Drive.

Unlike Detroit, “the Motor City,” there are no salt, snow or major rust problems. As the rapper Ice Cube says, it’s a good day when you can drive a drop-top just about any time of year.

“Ventura Boulevard!” Randy Newman sings in a refrain from his iconic song “I Love L.A.” Newman also refers to Imperial Highway, and let’s not forget Whittier and Crenshaw Boulevards.

There’s not much to sing about on the flipside of that tune. Los Angeles is an over-populated mess of freeway arteries clogged with drivers trapped in their cars, morning, noon and night, like LACC sociology major Johanna Avalos. She avoids traffic early mornings on her way to work in the comfort of her 2018 Kia Sorrento. But when it’s time to come home, there’s gridlock. So, she can sit behind the wheel and dream of missing the traffic in her favorite muscle car – the Bumble Bee – the yellow Chevy Camaro made famous in the “Transformers” film franchise. Or she could think about her dream of escape to Bora Bora one day. “There’s nothing you can really do about it, but just sit there and deal with it, and it does get frustrating, especially if you’re tired coming off of work and then having to look for parking which is also a nightmare,” Avalos said.

2021 SPRING-SUMMER

Classic 911 Porsches and Corvettes gather for a Cars and Coffee event organized by the online automobile culture and lifestyle blog Autoconduct. com 2021 SPRING-SUMMER

She lives in Korea Town where it can take two hours to find a parking space.

The pandemic gave rise to the urban speedster. Stay-at-home orders drove traffic down, but some drivers put the pedal to the metal. It caused officials at Caltrans to team up with the California Highway Patrol and urge motorists to slow down.

Speeding tickets for driving over 100 mph increased 87% between March and April 2020. Freeway “parking lots” disappeared at the onset of the pandemic. But traffic increased to 90% by the summer of 2020, according to data from Metro.net. Not even COVID-19 could suppress L.A. gridlock for long.

Change is Gonna Come – to L.A.

Los Angeles has a plan to banish traffic. Metro’s “Vision 2028” solution includes efforts to solve traffic congestion by providing more high-quality transportation options and plans to implement congestion pricing where motorists would pay more to drive at peak hours. It’s a simple supply and demand problem according to Metro. When demand exceeds supply, everyone slows down.

City leaders plan to overhaul streets and create safer transportation policies at a time when motor vehicle violence that involves pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists is up.

L.A. adopted a plan called “Vision Zero,” based on a European model. It began in Sweden in 1997. It is designed to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025.

Chic Pursuits for the Well-Heeled

California is home to the prestigious and premier Concours d’Elegance, which unfolds on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links. Many consider this the world’s premier car show alongside the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance, and these are best of show from the quixotic cars of the wealthy, like Jay Leno, Ralph Lauren and Jerry Seinfeld.

Then, for the go-real-fast drivers, but legally, Monterey is home to the famed Laguna Seca Raceway. The track hosts sanctioned professional races and days where “weekend warriors” drive their cars in competitive races. It’s all for fun, and there’s no fear of a hefty speeding ticket.

Dropping down into Southern California to AAA Auto Club Speedway, formerly California Speedway, drivers congregate for autocross (solo obstacle course with cones), drag racing, NASCAR events and club events throughout the year.

Cars Provide Escape to ‘No-man’s-land’

A boring hour’s drive from Los Angeles will lead to the Mojave Desert and the Willow Springs Raceway. It offers driving clinics and club races. It also offers sanctioned races, which may include trophies and prize money. It’s a different world from the Ralph Lauren set at Pebble Beach. The crowd that flocks to Willow Springs includes family guys, moms, lawyers, dentists, students and even gardeners on any given weekend. Some people “trailer” their race car to the desert. They might drive a Toyota Camry in the city but transport their Mazda Miata or Porsche GT to Willow Springs. Others may drive their daily driver to the track for a day of racing.

Antonio Ramirez works as a warehouse foreman. He is a racing enthusiast who purchased a Mitsubishi EVO MR 8 back in 2005. He says he wanted a four-door family sedan that he could drive reliably to work and race on the weekends. He has found religion. This father of two finds his church as he screams down the back straights in the Mojave Desert at over 100 mph.

Antonio says after his first run on a real track, he could never even conceive of street racing for any reason.

Urban Speedster Takeover

There are others of lesser skill who often decide to race on city streets. This illegal practice does not always end in tragedy. Still, more urban speedsters are part of the daily reality of driving and surviving on Los Angeles roads and highways.

The scourge of street racers terrorizes other drivers on the bumpy, pothole-laden, mostly awful streets and roads on and off the Los Angeles traffic grid. It happens from the San Fernando Valley to the beaches of the South Bay.

Motorists witness a rise in car collisions, speeding and negligent driving. Some blame the popularity and return of the American muscle car. Phone related distracted driving is also a cause.

The city is assaulted daily by the sounds of exhaust from muscle cars and screeching of expensive rubber being burned from impromptu vehicle shows of negligence, recklessness and rebellion.

2021 SPRING-SUMMER

Some of the weapons of choice under the spotlight are the vogue Dodge Chargers and Challengers, which range from the affordable average car price starting at $30,000 MSRP, up to $80,945, with 292 horsepower from the 3.6-liter V-6 at 19 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway.

The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat widebody with a 6.2L HEMI SRT V-8 engine rated at 707 horsepower and a top speed of 196 mph is also a favorite of some drivers.

These circular drifts of vehicular violence and prowess are called “donuts.” They happen in residential intersections as well as some of the busiest and most traveled intersections in the city.

Off the record, LAPD officers say their hands are tied because of policy regulations from higherups. Street racing and negligent driving, street takeovers and even illegally tinted windows are not a priority because of political pressure and the reallocating of funds. The street racing task force has been suspended. The LAPD is reluctant to discuss the matter. The Collegian Times contacted the media relations office more than a dozen times. They would not return calls or emails that requested clarification of their policies or enforcement.

The Collegian Times contacted two rankand-file patrol officers, both of whom expressed concern, but said there is nothing they can do officially. Like all things car in Los Angeles, this happens all over the city. Be it on Crenshaw Boulevard, or Sunset and Vine, the intersections are tattooed in rubber, like urban crop circles.

EV-Cars Cater to Elite Taste

No two vehicles of mass production are more opposites of culture, yet equally popular as the Dodge Hellcat and the Tesla Models right now. Similarly, however, both cars are marketed using speed as an attractor. Go figure.

Nevertheless, Los Angeles is filled with Camry’s and bespoke Mini Coopers. Menacing muscle cars like the Dodge Charger Hellcat and its sibling, the Dodge Challenger are common. They are everywhere. Along with Ford Mustangs and GM Camaros, and all with ridiculous affordable to semi-affordable horsepower, the kind formerly only found in nameplates like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Corvette.

Los Angeles has no shortage of the exotic class leading sports cars, and the now new segment, exotic sports utility vehicles from the likes of VW groups Lamborghini and Porsche. The venerable Porsche 911 variants and Bentleys are no less strangers to any part of Los Angeles County, which may be surprising to some. You would expect to see Porsches, Bentleys and Maybachs in Beverly

(Top) Horsepower: The return of American Muscle, ready to roar, a 2021 Dodge Charger with “Scatpack” 485 bhp performance option.

(Bottom) Burnt Rubber:

Donuts resemble urban crop circles where drivers took over an intersection.

Hills or Brentwood, and you will see plenty.

However, even in lower-income areas of the county, you will find the aforementioned cars alongside the equally exotic slow and low vintage, classic lowrider cars. Many of the latter can be just as expensive as the exotic sports and luxury vehicles. However, in these areas, there are far fewer Mini Coopers, Teslas, Miatas, Nissan Leafs and Subarus.

Los Angeles is an automobile enigma town. You cannot throw a rock without hitting a Toyota Prius or a Tesla Model 3 in most parts of the city.

The almost silent sleek battery-electric software cars manufactured by Tesla in Los Angeles are street wallpaper. They are as commonplace as street murals, vegan restaurants and graffiti. The futuristic Tesla Supercharger stations are scattered all around the city and in parking garages.

There is an allure to driving a Tesla or Polestar and soon Lucid Motors electric vehicles. Part of it is concern about the environment and overpriced gasoline, and part is exclusivity.

New Tesla Model 3 owner Kelly Brand is an L.A. transplant and a former Corvette daily driver by way of Georgia. One of the surprising things she learned about Tesla ownership: not so exclusive. At least not in Los Angeles. They are everywhere.

No matter. Brand loves her white-on-white, silent four-wheeled computerized and fast, nearly-a-robot car now. She does not mind the Tesla Supercharger charging stations that are sometimes full or the slow free charging spaces. She can play games or catch up on “Judge Judy” while she waits.

“It drives well, and it has so much torque that it feels faster than my Corvette,” Brand said. “I have free supercharging for a year, so that’s been amazing, paying zero money for fuel.” The fact that EV’s are so popular in Los Angeles also speaks to the city’s culture. The sexy new bold status machines are fit for celebrities and the granola set. Meanwhile, Brand looks forward to software updates. “It’s like Christmas waiting to see what new goodies ‘Santa Elon’ has dropped under the tree,” she said. “On one of the last updates, we got a boombox function that lets you play music and sound effects from the outside speaker. If I wanted to, I could ride around and sound like the ice cream truck ... It’s not useful, but it’s fun, and that’s what gives the car personality.” ( Even law enforcement is not immune to car culture. In Los Angeles, it seems to be a bit of a flex. The LAPD still employs the dependable Ford Crown Victoria, which is no longer in production by the way. The motorcycle officers ride both BMW and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Pretty prestigious bikes for municipal police duty. Police patrolling on beemers and hogs is very L.A. Like Los Angeles itself, L.A. car culture is full of contradictions. Fast cars and traffic! Everything is 20 minutes away, but in traffic it’s an hour. No place to park, or hanging out in a parking lot. The ‘80s band Missing Persons sang “Only a Nobody, Walks in L.A.” ∫ 2021 SPRING-SUMMER

(Top) Dual Motor: The popular Tesla Model 3 with darker-than-legal, window tint makes its way, traffic free and Southbound on La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles.

(Middle) No Waiting:

Tesla Supercharger station stands idle near SpaceX at 1 Rocket Road in Hawthorne, CA.

(Bottom) Gridlock:

Southern California traffic equalizes every car model, fast, slow, new or old.