Toulouse, a Friday evening.
In the distance, we can already hear the tires squeaking on the roundabout, a hundred meters away upstream of the parking lot. It's summer, the sun goes down, it's always hot. It smells like tar, the dust is flying. Between the barriers of the parking lot where they settle, there are bushes, they are dry. There are kids at the entrance. They eat a tacos while watching the cars come in. They are little ones from the area. Their parents are behind.
As the evening progresses, the parking lot fills up. Almost all cars are modified. They like it, the owners as well as the visitors. Gatherings like this, there are almost every night. But the biggest ones remain on Friday and Saturday nights, in general, between 150 and 300 cars, it depends on the news. These gatherings are the most accessible. Proximity, in outdoor parking lots, a "static" as they say. It talks mechanically, car, it goes for a walk: families with strollers, young couples, gangs of friends and the elderly. It is light years away from the cliché of this environment, where we imagine "kéké tunnings" drinking and smoking. On the contrary.
From 11 p.m., it smells of gasoline, the dust sticks to the skin. The parking lot is empty. They leave by taking the ring road, the direction?: the south of Toulouse and its industrial areas. There, large straight lines, roundabouts, some parking on the edge. The "RUN", 2: 2 cars side by side on a 2-lane, 800 meters straight line. The objective?: to reach the end first. There is nothing to gain. Not even a bet, or at least, no bet; it doesn't interest anyone. They are not there for that. At the side of the road, on the sidewalk, some spectators are watching. Most are perched at the top of the roundabouts, for safety, but also to see better. It's late in the evening, only the regulars stay. All are there for the same reasons: admire the cars and drivers at work.
Adrenaline? There are, it's the motivation of barely 10% of people on the runs. Sometimes, depending on the orders, there are police operations and punch actions. Urban rodeos are illegal. Just like some of the cars and motorcycles that are driven there. Sometimes law enforcement seize vehicles and distribute tickets. They criticize the pilots for doing their runs on the public road, it is forbidden, speeding, endangering public space. The speech given by the authorities is always the same: "do this at home, in a private setting".
As a result, a few years ago, an association was created in Toulouse. A group of friends, led by the one who will become the president and spokesman for the rasso in Toulouse: A.C. The project of the TCM association (Toulouse Car Meet): to open a private place in an industrial wasteland in the suburbs of Toulouse to do what happens on the public road. The announcement of the project in May 2022 had made a lot of noise in the industry, until it reached the prefecture. After a few days of pressure and blackmail with the owner of the place, a Toulouse investor, the project is abandoned. The TCM association had decided to organize a car gathering on the outskirts of Toulouse, on a shopping center parking lot. That evening, nearly 1,500 cars and 2,000 visitors were counted by the organizers of the event. A way for TCM to prove to the public authorities that they have the ability to organize, secure a gathering on the public road, and therefore also to do so in a private setting. Later in August, they repeated the operation with this time a convoy in the streets of Toulouse, certainly under police escort, but smoothly. In this environment, everyone dreams of having a place to meet and live their passion.
They will continue, like the TCM association, to gather and make people talk about them, until the day they have a dedicated place.
