Can you really blame them?
Despite some Americans trying to behave like they’re too sophisticated to enjoy muscle cars, many people around the world seem to love them, including enthusiasts in Russia. We already knew about the deep love affair many Scandinavians have with American muscle, a fact which would shock Americans who are afraid of some stigma. There’s even a growing scene for American muscle cars in Mumbai. With that in mind, we’re not surprised in the least to see the video we’ve included of dozens of American muscle cars drag racing at a track outside of Moscow.
Check out the celebrities who appreciate American muscle cars here.
Called the Russian Weekend Drags, these races are held twice a year. The group of enthusiasts who compete in these events call themselves “Mad Buckets.” There must be some additional meaning to that name in Russian, whatever it might be. These races don’t look nearly as big as a lot of street-legal drag racing events in the United States, but we don’t really see much drag racing in Russia, so for that reason alone it’s still pretty interesting to watch.
For a long time, Russians couldn’t really enjoy the feeling of raw power at their command since they were relegated to crappy communist-era cars. Seriously, if you want to see the dysfunction of the Soviet Union portrayed in a potent way, just look into the many awful cars produced during that reign of terror, like the Lada, Zil, Gaz, and Uaz. Some people might wax nostalgic about those rolling buckets of bolts just because they’re not a part of everyday life no, just like the bread lines and people being disappeared regularly, but they don’t hold a candle to something like a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS.
Before you watch the video and start picking it apart, we’re aware not everything at the track is American. There’s a Porsche 911 Cabriolet, for example. Also, not everything is technically a muscle car, like the Chevy Tri Five or the Tesla Model 3. There’s even a Chevy SSR at this event. Just the fact a group of cars like this was assembled and raced in Russia is pretty amazing.
Now enjoy the brief video.
