The Utter State of the Car Scene

I hate it when people continue to claim that 'the car scene is dead'.

Honestly, it has become such a lazy phrase, being thrown about in every debate, argument and opinion post of late. Recent events haven't helped, for sure, but I've seen people making this claim over and over again since I started getting into cars.

The thing that annoys me most, however, is quite a lot of the time it's the very people who are complaining about it that are doing their damnedest to bring about the downfall of the scene.

A few days ago, I was made aware of the absolute mess that a local Park and Ride car park had been left in by a certain group - a group that seem to just turn up where they please, cause great amounts of disturbance and then disappear off into the night, often heading straight to social media to brag about the goings on of the evening, almost praising themselves as heroes for managing to do about ten minutes of not-quite-good-enough-for-competition drifting, before scarpering at the presence of the police.

It's a very difficult time for car enthusiasts as we try and deal with the aftermath of Stevenage among other things, where we're now more than ever having to do our very best to convince people that, no, we're not all racing drivers who take to the streets with the pure aim of causing the maximum amount of noise, trouble and danger.

But things like the aforementioned make a difficult task near-impossible. How the hell are we meant to change public perception of the car scene when you've got people who see it as a great achievement to have now made a fantastic location, where we could once meet up with fellow enthusiasts and spend hours chatting away, impossible to hold any form of vehicular gathering at. The actual state of the place once everyone had fled was a disgrace.

So we come nicely full circle at this point. Every time someone mentions the car scene being dead, think a little more about why it's dead. It's not the quality of cars, the drama and the individuality (or lack of). It's the fact that the very people who make this claim are making it more and more difficult for the scene to coexist with the general public and the emergency services.

Something to think about the next time you want to 'send it' for your few seconds of your imaginary social media fame.