Check Out The Dirty Underbelly Of Swedish Street Racing

It’s a common misperception by Americans and others that the Swedes are all tame, obedient, and obsessed with safety. Maybe that comes from Volvo, the car company that says it wants to prevent all road fatalities in its vehicles, mixed a little bit with IKEA and who knows what else. Wherever that image comes from, thanks to a video which shows some pretty crazy and very organized illegal street racing in Stockholm, we have an excellent example to debunk that myth.

See how an AirTag helped police find a stolen car in minutes here.

Everyone meets at a gas station where things look pretty chaotic. It seriously reminds us of the street takeover gatherings in the US right before everyone swarms an intersection to do donuts. Why aren’t the police there? Good question. We’ve seen many reports that there are areas in Stockholm and other parts of Sweden where the police don’t go at all because crime is so out of control. Is this in one of those areas? We’re not sure, but it’s possible. Already, you can see things aren’t as orderly in Sweden as you’ve been told.

The 41 drivers participating in the illegal event draw playing cards to figure out the first round lineup. There’s quite the array of cars, ranging from German sports coupes to American muscle cars, all of them heavily modified. What’s really interesting is the vehicles can be trailered to the gas station where everyone gathers, but from there they have to drive to the different locations, not be towed to them.

For the Stockholm Open, which is what they call this illegal event, races are held all over. That helps keep the authorities from busting everyone, a smart move. A caravan of spectator cars block off the road for a fair distance behind the vehicles that are racing, stopping the police from easily pulling up and busting everyone. It’s a pretty devious method and one we’ve seen used in the US a little bit, but not on this level. The amount of organization it must take to pull something like this off is pretty unbelievable.

Provided by 1320video, an excellent YouTube channel, they blurred the faces of the drivers who appeared on camera for obvious reasons. We’re not sharing this video to endorse or glamorize street racing in any way but rather to educate about how if people aren’t given a healthy outlet to race cars at least some will find a way to do it right under the noses of law enforcement.