More than 100 "boy racer" vehicles converged on a commercial car park in Queenstown at the weekend, apparently part of a car enthusiasts club.
Senior Sergeant Paula Enoka, of Queenstown, said the "unusual" gathering was held in the Mitre 10 carpark, on the Frankton Flats, between about midnight on Saturday and 2am Sunday.
Participants had come from all over the south, including from Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.
"To a member of the public, it’s quite imposing.
"It’ like seeing 10 gang members on motorbikes cruising — you just want to get out of their way.
"I can’t say they were doing anything illegal, but a number [of vehicles] had modifications — some lawful, some not."
Snr Sgt Enoka said police were less concerned about the legality of the modifications as the safety implications.
"If it’s not done lawfully, they might be putting themselves at risk."
A "small number" of infringements were issued to drivers.
Sergeant Chris Brooks, who attended the gathering, said he was disappointed the group decided to use a private car park.
"Business owners and operators are already under enough pressure and this is just something they don’t need to deal with."
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Comments
Please don't keep confusing car enthusiasts with boy racers!
It's entirely the media's fault that people like me who own/have owned 'boy racer cars' are looked down on/labelled by 'non-car' people/members of the public as a boy racer.
I've owned such cars for nearly two decades and have never once been fined by the Police/courts for any driving incidents at all, haven't even had parking tickets.The Police know my cars and don't even bother pulling me over either.
Boy racers are the rowdy ones who do skids etc, wake people up by not driving considerately at night and generally aren't too bothered if they wreck/wear out their car, as they'll just go get another one.
Car enthusiasts don't usually meet up in the middle of the night, don't do skids/burnouts/donuts in public places, generally look after their cars and have legal and certified cars (most of them).
It's like comparing honey bees to german wasps, one is much worse than the other.
And they're only 5 foot 2.
I attended the meet and it was great people behaved no burnouts or racing we where there to have a good time show our car and appreciate other people cars, the police officers where there to make sure no one was drinking driving, the meet was held on mitre 10 and countdown car park after closure hours so there where no disturbance to general public, most us care about our cars and take pride on our hobby, being called a “boy racer” in such a way that demerit our passion and make us look stupid in a big news paper makes the general public have the wrong perception of us car enthusiasts.
We love driving and modifying cars witch is legal, and we won’t be doing anything illegal that can stop us from driving. I’ve been pull over numerous times just because my car has stickers in the windows, when I clearly see a lot of company cars where drivers are texting and driving or doing ilegal Maneuver and bad driving in the road and goes unnoticed.
Being compared as a bike gang members was a poor choice of words as we weren’t doing anything ilegal, we just gathered together to have a good time.