'Fast and Furious' Company

"It's just the rush," says Frannie Lew regular Rocky Khan, 22, who says he's been racing since he was 14. "Just to know that your car is faster. People put a lot of money up for these races—just like that, in 10 seconds you can lose $5,000."

Which is why Cohen, 52, took pains to keep the film real. "Everything, how the cars are built, how bets are made, how the streets are blocked, how they scammed the police—we took a mirror to that world and represented it fairly and accurately," says the director, who went as far as to have stars Paul Walker and Diesel watch street races in L.A. to get a sense of the action. In fact, while observing an illegal drag race in L.A., Walker ended up hightailing it on foot when police busted the scene. (Walker's ride took off when the cops showed up, leaving the star stranded.) "They were chasing me for a while, but I'm quick—so I ended up just running up on the freeway and leaving them behind," says Walker, 27. "I sat up there on the interchange for like a good 45 minutes waiting for someone to pick me up."

Real-life racers, for the most part, say Cohen's effort paid off. "The movie was mostly accurate," says Khan. "It got people to understand what we're about, because a lot of people misunderstood. All they see is a car with a loud muffler or cars flying down the road, but they didn't understand what it's about."

But not everyone is pleased with the Hollywood version of street racing. Javier Ortega, one of the racers interviewed in Vibe's 1998 story, thinks kids should be encouraged to find a legitimate outlet for their outlawed hobby. Now 33, he's import-racing director at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park near Englishtown, N.J., which offers a safe, legal venue for hot-rodders. "There's been street racing in this country for 50 years—it's something nobody can change, not me or the police or anybody," Ortega says. "We could try to help it get off the streets."

While acknowledging that some may think his film glorifies something illegal and dangerous, Cohen hopes the film creates a new dialogue between racers and police. It seems street racing will happen anywhere potholes are few, straightaways are plentiful, and hot-rodders looking for action lock eyes at a red light. "Why not give them the [industrial] streets in a controlled way so citizens don't get hurt and people aren't bugged by noise?" says Cohen. "The police aren't going to stop these kids from building and racing these cars on the street. When you try to crush something that's uncrushable, it's like pouring NOS on the fire."