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Man arrested for breaking Manhattan street racing record on YouTube

It's a catch-22: Why break an illegal street racing record if you can't put it on YouTube?

 

Kevin Collier

Internet Culture

Posted on Sep 6, 2013   Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 7:09 am CDT

Police have arrested a Harlem man for posting what appears to be a record-setting drive around Manhattan.

Adam Christopher Tang, 30 was nabbed in his East Harlem apartment Thursday. He’s allegedly responsible for a YouTube video, posted August 28, that shows a dash cam’s perspective as a car bursts clockwise around Manhattan Island, finishing the loop in 24 minutes. The previous record, according to the upload, was 26 minutes. 

This is hardly the first instance of someone recording themselves trying to loop Manhattan in record time. YouTube is riddled with the attempts of underground racers to beat the record. It’s always an unofficial gambit: New York is never not crowded, and the southwestern portion of the loop is filled with traffic lights.

When asked about the video on Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said that he was unfamiliar with that video, but that police did periodically bust racers who upload their exploits.

“We’ve seen this before, people have put these videos up,” Kelly said at the time. “We’ve taken enforcement action as a result. I am not aware of this video, we’ll take a look at it.”

Police seized Tang’s BMW Z4 and charged him with reckless driving, though he at least has video proof he stopped for all the red lights on his route.

Screengrab via YouTube

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*First Published: Sep 6, 2013, 2:54 pm CDT