Street Racing - Terminology

Terminology

An "official" lexicon of street racing terminology is difficult to establish as terminology differs by location.

An example of their dictionary is the words utilized to identify illegal street racers including Hoon: New Zealand or Australia:, Hashiriya: Japan, Boy-Racer Australia, and Mat Rempit: Malaysia.

Any or all of the below mentioned activities may be considered illegal, depending on location of the race.

In addition to the people racing, there are generally observers present at organized street races. A flagger starts the race; this is typically accomplished by standing in front of the vehicles and making an up-down motion with the arms indicating the race should begin, or waving a green flag (which was the case in the early drag races before the development of the Christmas Tree). There are variations on this theme, including the throwing/dropping of a handkerchief, ribbon, and so on. This act would be analogous to the Christmas Tree in a typical sanctioned drag race, and has been portrayed widely in popular culture, from ZZ Top music videos to American cinema.