PEOPLE drag-race on the main avenue in broad daylight while the police just stand by and watch. That is, until the commissioner steps up to hand trophies to the winners.
Gleaming BMW M3 sports cars mingle with souped-up speedsters incognito in the form of stubby Fiats – and everything in between. "Are you kidding me? Suzuki never made a blue engine," one of the organisers shouted after opening a car's bonnet during
the pre-race inspection.
A newly flush Poland has a new hobby: cars, and the faster, the better. Nowhere is that more clear than in the country's second most populous city, where council officials had struggled to deal with an explosion in the number of illegal races on public streets and a raft of complaints from residents nearly driven off the road by them.
"You have young people with powerful machines that until recently older people would have to work their entire lives to afford," said Jaroslaw Woloszynski, the police commissioner. Cracking down on the activity was difficult, because racers would just stop their cars when officers arrived; handing out a few tickets for violations was usually the best they could do.
As a result, the council leaders in Lodz (pronounced "Woodge") decided that if you can't beat them, organise them. They set up events in which proud car owners, overwhelmingly young and largely male, could challenge one another head to head over a quarter-mile of closed road downtown. The city government even spent close to £10,000 to buy timing equipment, with the local emergency services providing fire engines and ambulances free of charge.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, thousands turned out to watch the organised races, called Street Legal, with the earsplitting roars of tuned-up engines and the brimstone scent of hot tires.
The monthly events, which are open only to local residents, have made Lodz's racers the envy of others in Poland and earned the city the unofficial title of the country's street-racing capital.
"Because we were christened the capital of street racing, we decided to live up to the name," said Lech Ryszewski, 60, chairman of the Lodz Automobile Club and a former rally driver and stuntman.
"The Polish soul has always been drawn to horses," he said, citing the country's proud cavalry tradition, "and today it's horsepower."
Members of the Street Legal group said the public races were great for the drivers and the city, and said they appreciated the safety precautions.
"When we were racing illegally, we had people who could come out in front of the car," said Viper, one of the organisers, a 26-year-old whose real name is Lukas Wozniak.
Dressed all in black on a scorching afternoon, with spiky blond hair and a beard tracing his jaw line, Wozniak looked as if he had stepped out of the movie many of the racers claim as their inspiration, the 2001 US film The Fast And The Furious.
Unlike the flashy cars in the film, many of those in the Lodz competition are unassuming. But the VW Golfs or Honda Civics roar like lions at the starting line, overpowering the kittenish purr of brand new, factory-built sponsor cars in demo duels before the main event.
"You've got different types of people," said Pawel Zel, 21, a bartender watching cars whipping past at the races. "Some want the adrenaline rush of racing. Some want the rush of breaking the law. There's far fewer people who actually race illegally now."
Arkadiusz Kubiak, who was the winner in the highest of six categories of cars based on engine size, said he would not deny he had raced illegally in the past, but those days were over for him.
"When driving illegally, it's in the dark, it's dangerous and you can't measure the time," Kubiak said.
He said he had spent more than $10,000 fixing up his car, a Mitsubishi – more, he said, than he had paid to buy it – and had done all the work himself, except for the electrical system.
"Knowing you're the fastest driver in Lodz?" he said. "It feels great."
The full article contains 701 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
