The first automobile race, as the old yarn claims, occurred shortly after the second automobile was built. While the accuracy of this anecdote is, to put it gently, questionable, it wouldn’t at all be a reach to assume the first race took place on a public road. It would take a few years before someone would suggest racing cars on dirt ovals designed for horses, and the first racecourse designed specifically for motorcars – England’s Brooklands circuit – wasn’t constructed until 1907, a full 21 years after Karl Benz received a patent for his self-propelled tricycle that was steered with a tiller from the comfort of a park bench.

But even after the invention of permanent circuits, street racing has endured; sadly, there are far fewer legal street races (with roads closed to traffic and temporary barriers set up) staged than there are illegal ones. While we here at Sub5Zero unequivocally do not endorse illegal street racing (mainly because our legal department – which is comprised of a magic 8-ball and a law school textbook written around the time Ralph Nader started potty training – says we shouldn’t), we realize we can’t reach out of your monitor or phone and bitchslap you for deciding to do it anyway. If you truly insist on endangering the safety of yourselves and others and risking getting your ass thrown in the pokey (You do know why they call it that, right?), at least do so in something that has a decent chance of winning. Something like one of these fine rides.