The History and Evolution of Midwest Street Cars

If you have a tendency to watch a television show called Street Outlaws on the Discovery Channel, you might want to know more about Midwest Street Cars. This is a shop located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As far as many are concerned, it is without a doubt the quintessential home of street racing. With names like Murder Nova and Big Chief, street racing’s biggest stars are based there. If you want to know more about Midwest Street Cars, it’s important to realize that it all starts with these individuals.

Big Chief is definitely the one in charge at Midwest Street Cars. He wasn’t born in Oklahoma City but moved there and started getting interested in street racing at an early age. His dad owned an automotive shop, so it was only natural that he would become interested in cars and would one day open a shop of his own. However, it wasn’t enough for him to own a shop dealing with daily drivers. He was always interested in speed and he loved the idea of transforming an old, junked out car into something that was capable of becoming a legend. He started Midwest Street Cars in the early 1990s and from that point forward, he himself has become a legend. Today, he has a shop, a front store full of merchandise, and a television crew that follows him around practically everywhere he goes. For him, it’s both a blessing and a curse. He loves dealing with fast cars and he’s got no problem with the attention that the television show has brought, save for one thing. Street racing is actually illegal, so the additional attention the television show has caused can sometimes be a problem.

If you’re into street racing, you know all about the name Murder Nova. This is the name of the flat black 1966 Chevrolet Nova that is currently considered the fastest street racer in the entire country. This car is every bit as much at home on a drag racing track as it is during a street race and the man that drives it moved to Sayre, Oklahoma during the 1980s. A native of California, he grew up loving fast cars, much like Big Chief. As a matter of fact, he liked them so much that he used to make a habit out of riding his bicycle to watch street races in rural Oklahoma. That planted the seed, one that would eventually see him become the owner and driver of the most sought-after car of its type. After moving to Oklahoma City, he bought the car and built it from the ground up. Virtually everything about it had to be changed or upgraded. This is something that he continues to do to this day, pointing out the fact that he has to stay competitive. This requires him to make constant adjustments to the car in order to stave off the competition. For him, it is a labor of love but it’s also a unique lifestyle.

These individuals spend most of their time around cars in one capacity or another. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with loving fast cars, it can be somewhat stressful to deal with street racing because it is illegal. In addition, these individuals have reached something of a celebrity status, thanks to the show that airs on the Discovery Channel. People have learned to follow their careers as street racers and at the shop they have in Oklahoma City. As a matter of fact, it might surprise you to know that Oklahoma City is considered the primary hotbed for street racing in the first place. In what many people think of as a quaint area where there’s not a whole lot going on, this has been a popular pastime for decades. Therefore, it only makes sense that they would set up shop right there in the heart of Oklahoma City.

Since the early 1990s, this shop has been in existence and it’s been gaining in popularity ever since. Today, you can have your car customized at their shop or you can merely walk into the front office and buy all kinds of memorabilia. You might even be lucky enough to catch one of these guys in the shop itself and if they’re having a good day, you might be able to have a few words with them. Depending on the filming schedule, it’s not all that uncommon to walk into the shop and see cameras running. It’s no wonder that this has become such a mainstay, not only in Oklahoma, but throughout the country.