Fast & The Furious: Chengdu Underground

After witnessing countless sports cars race down Chengdu’s streets, it’s official that the street racing global phenomenon, with it’s noisy exhaust pipes, colorful imagery and taste for danger, has finally broken into Chengdu.

When Did This Happen?

Seemingly overnight, this slightly-over-the-hill Western craze has hit Chengdu in full force and promises to grow at the same speed as China’s exploding economy.

At first, looking out of my office window, the noise of a fat exhaust surprised me a little. I thought that a Chinese motorist had failed to act on a gaping hole in his exhaust pipe — which wouldn’t surprise me since I’ve recently spent time with my girlfriend helping her learn to drive and I’ve noticed a few things. Her teacher can’t tell the radiator from the battery, and listening to the mechanical groans that some taxis exhibit reminds me that auto maintenance isn’t a high priority for a lot of drivers. But what I saw racing past by was an elaborately detailed black and white Auto. By Auto, I mean one of the ubiquitous Chinese racers with “Chang’an” written on the back and a Suzuki-copycat logo. Personally, I’d refrain from demanding everyone’s attention while behind the wheel of an Auto, but Chinese drivers relish and bask in the experience of attracting curious glances of onlookers.

The Fast and the Furious’ 3rd installment, entitled Tokyo Drift, might have caught the attention of youngish Chinese men with some cash to burn. So far I’ve noticed a few varieties of Fast & Furious type cars prowling the streets of Chengdu. Not only this, but it seems that some of them have a common bond with those in the UK — as if I were at home, I noticed one racer manage to to complete 3 laps around the block in the time I was waiting for a taxi. The “Chengdu Lifestyle” of filling idle time with simple pleasures, in combination with its ridiculous traffic problems, means Chengdu’s pedestrians might want to start watching their backs for dangerous drivers (before they start hitting people).

There's no doubt about it: you see more and more race cars blaring on the street in China these days

What Does It All Mean?

These are the effects of a splurging and rapidly growing wealthy elite in China, fast becoming too hot to handle. Flashing money and power like there’s no tomorrow.

The middle class of socialist China is really beginning to show its face publicly as China strides evenly towards developed international power. To prove this point, look out for the stretched white Hummer that cruises around in a stately fashion around Chengdu late at night. With Chengdu supposedly being among the fastest developing cities in China (and thus, the world), you can prepare yourselves for a lot more of the normalcy of back home implanting itself in your daily Chengdu lives. If you came to Chengdu to get away from the developed West, understand that it’s quickly transforming into a metropolis with many of the trappings of international cities.

Someone with an entrepreneurial mindset with a knack for performance cars stands to make a fortune off this new craze by opening a performance tuning shop in Chengdu, kickstarting a community of local mechanics and auto enthusiasts. On the other hand, maybe it’s all about blaring down the street bathed in pink neon glow, making as much of a scene as possible.

The one thing these racers haven’t caught onto yet? Playing their music so loud the guy three blocks back can hear when the song skips. But with the unabashed love of Chinese pop in this country, that’s probably a good thing.

What do you think of rice rockets or Lamborghini’s racing down the Ring Roads in Chengdu?

21 thoughts on “Fast & The Furious: Chengdu Underground”

  1. Good stuff Cal (although your bio needs to be double-checked). Recently I heard some English friends describing us Americans as entirely Nouveau Riche culture. Well China is taking that concept to an entirely new level. An SUV in Chengdu? What a waste. But hey, what’s better than earning serious face, because you drive an awesome car? yea! Anyways, could anyone imagine something like zipcar or rideshare catching on in China?

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  2. cheers dude. Charlie did a bit of editing to smooth it out which makes it a lot easier to read.

    zipcar/rideshare…not a chance. With owning your own car giving supposed face, sharing would be the complete opposite. I just can’t see it happening. Although carpooling kids to school might well happen a little bit.

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  3. Good post, the key is too back up what you observe with locally specific numbers and national/general facts. That way any jokes you make come off as witty instead of malicious. Nice pic of the black ride, who took that one?

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  4. Great first post!

    Sorry about the author info typo (thanks Rick), it’s been corrected.

    This immediately struck me as a great topic for a post because I’ve definitely noticed the same thing. They’ve recently renovated the road that I live on, expanding it to 4 lanes, and more than once I’ve heard (and then seen, through the window) a Porsche and a Benz SLK tear down the avenue at night when there’s no traffic.

    The Lambo pic is indeed beautiful – unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a good shot of the Lamborghini’s that I’ve seen in Chengdu. About 3 weeks ago I saw a white Lamborghini parked outside of Nanuna, though. There were like 20 customers inside! And seeing Evo’s and STi’s isn’t uncommon, either.

    Cars that are REALLY uncommon in China, though? American muscle. I see hundreds of A4’s and A6’s everyday but I don’t think that I’ve EVER seen a Mustang, Corvette, or Camaro in China before. Anyone who could get one of those would be seriously styling in China.

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    • I saw a chevy muscle car pull out of the Sichuan University West Gate, I chased dude down and tried to give him props, but he was scared and sped off.

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      • I probably would’ve done the same thing. Whoever goes through the trouble to import such a unique ride definitely has style.

        It’s not like that’d even be expensive to import an American car. In the US you can buy a bitchin’ Mustang for $10,000 and importing it here would cost you less than that. All together $20,000 for pure badassery. Obviously money isn’t an issue for a lot of people here, but everyone seems to get a Benz/BMW/Audi when they get successful.

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  5. Sasha, if I had a sweet car, was living in a foreign land and saw you (most specifically your beard) running at me, I’m pretty sure I’d take off too….

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  6. You see more and more supercars driving around in Chengdu, that’s for sure. Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Maserati’s, and lots of Porsches. It’s still crazy for me to be in traffic between strawberry vendors in straw hats and italian supercars. Only in China.

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  7. No sooner did you mention it Charlie and I saw what I think was a Corvette cruising off renminnanlu 4 duan outside the shamrock.

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    • A Corvette, really? That is a rare sight. I’ve seen many more Italian supercars in China than muscle cars. It’s a far departure from the US, where I’ll see 30 Mustangs a day and maybe a few Lamborghini’s a year in DC.

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  8. Yep, I’m not so hot on US cars but I googled Corvette and it looks exactly the same. Very unique back-end, more square than curved.

    I’m interested to know how many cars the Bentley dealership at the Shangri-la has sold since it opened. I’ve only seen 1 in Chengdu so far.

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  9. Wadup Guys,
    I’m a car enthusiast that has lived in Kunming, China for a long time. I’ve photographed many exotics out here! Was wondering if anyone knows any good places to spot exotic cars since I will be visiting Chengdu for a day on Monday August 2! Thanks

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  10. Bit late, but spotting nice cars in Chengdu has to be downtown or in the south.

    @川A-GTR001 – nice.

    I’m seeing more and more Maseratis around these days which is nice. I really like Maseratis. Italian, but not obvious. It’s a car apart from the Ferraris, Lambos and Bugattis, which all look the same. The Maserati shouts out more of a refined businessman with a taste for the exotic instead of a rich mofo with a lack of length…

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  11. Yeah i definitely agree on the whole cars thing. I lived in Chengdu from 2000 to 2008(I moved to the USA in summer 2008) and the city has seriously changed. I just visited my old house like a month ago(its down south on 桐梓琳东路)otherwise known as “European Street” and the area has become so nice. On the first day i saw like 3 Bently’s, 2 Mazerati’s and 2 Lamborghini’s(Murcielago and Gallardo). I saw more nice cars in one day in 1 square kilometer than all 3 years living in America. There is a ridiculous amount of wealth in China.

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