Fast Cars, Cool Rides : The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars

Bass booms from custom speakers, pick-up trucks boast lowered suspensions, chrome rims reflect stoplights, and bare arms dangle from open windows. Welcome to Santa Clara Street in San Jose, California, where every weekend kids come to cruise late at night, riding their cars slow and low. On the surrounding, less-traveled streets you can also find young men racing customized cars to see who has the "go," not just the "show." And, in the daylight hours, in a nearby suburb, you might find a brand new SUV parked in the driveway, a parents' Sweet 16 present. In Fast Cars, Cool Rides Amy Best provides a fascinating account of kids and car culture. Encompassing everything from learning to drive to getting one’s license, from cruising to customizing, from racing to buying one's first car, Best shows that never before have cars played such an important role in the lives of America's youth as they do today. Drawing on interviews with over 100 young men and women, aged 15-24, and five years of research—cruising hot spots, sitting in on auto shop class, attending car shows—Best explores the fast-paced world of kids and their cars. She reveals a world where cars have incredible significance for kids today, as a means of transportation and thereby freedom to come and go, as status symbols and as a means to express their identities. But while having a fast car or a cool ride can carry tremendous importance for these kids, Best shows that the price, especially when it can cost $30,000, can be steep as working-class kids work jobs to make car payments and as college kids forgo moving out of Mom and Dad's house because they can't pay for rent, car payments, and car insurance. Fast Cars, Cool Rides offers a rare and rich portrait of the complex and surprising roles cars can play in the lives of young Americans. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a cool ride. In Fast Cars, Cool Rides Amy Best provides a fascinating account of kids and car culture. Encompassing everything from learning to drive to getting one's license, from cruising to customizing, from racing to buying one's first car, Best shows that never before have cars played such an important role in the lives of America's youth as they do today. Drawing on interviews with over 100 young men and women, aged 15-24, and five years of research-cruising hot spots, sitting in on auto shop class, attending car shows-Best explores the fast-paced world of kids and their cars. She reveals a world where cars have incredible significance for kids today, as a means of transportation and thereby freedom to come and go, as status symbols and as a means to express their identities. But while having a fast car or a cool ride can carry tremendous importance for these kids, Best shows that the price, especially when it can cost $30,000, can be steep as working-class kids work jobs to make car payments and as college kids forgo moving out of Mom and Dad's house because they can't pay for rent, car payments, and car insurance. -- from publisher description Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction: Fasten Your Seatbelts......Page 12 I Cool Rides......Page 36 1 Cruising Slow and Low: Young Chicanos/as Ride the Streets......Page 38 2 Sex-in’ the Car: Girls and Car Cruising......Page 67 3 Race-ing Men: Boys, Risk, and the Politics of Race......Page 91 II Fast Times......Page 118 4 Car Privileges: Family Rules and Permission to Drive......Page 120 5 The Road to Nowhere: Consumer Culture and the Price of Freedom......Page 146 Conclusion: The Ride of Your Life......Page 170 Appendix......Page 184 Notes......Page 202 References......Page 242 Index......Page 258 About the Author......Page 268 Introduction : Fasten Your Seatbelts -- Cruising Slow And Low : Young Chicano/as Ride The Streets -- Sex-in' The Car : Girls And Car Cruising -- Race-ing Men : Boys, Risk And The Politics Of Race -- Car Privileges : Family Rules And Permission To Drive -- The Road To Nowhere : Consumer Culture And The Price Of Freedom -- Conclusion : The Ride Of Your Life. Amy L. Best. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 231-245) And Index. Drawing on interviews with over 100 young men and women, and five years of research, the author explores the fast-paced world of kids and their cars. She reveals a world where cars have incredible significance for kids, as a means of transportation and thereby freedom to come and go, as status symbols and as a means to express their identities.