A NSW government plan to wreck car hoons' prized vehicles and publish the video footage is aimed at deterring dangerous behaviour on the road, Police Minister David Campbell says.
But he conceded that, because the proposed laws would only affect people convicted of a second offence, only 10 cars at most were likely to be destroyed each year.
Under the plan, hoons' confiscated cars would be crashed in demonstration tests under controlled conditions.
Vision of the cars being destroyed would be publicly released, possibly via YouTube, although Mr Campbell said the government was still working on the details of the plan.
"This is sending the very strong message that this is a dangerous activity," Mr Campbell told reporters today.
"We know that people have died in Sydney as a result of it.
"To those fools who treat their car more seriously and with more respect than their own lives or the lives of others, there is potential your vehicle will end up being crashed as part of research into accidents."
The proposal comes after a weekend when police confiscated four cars whose drivers allegedly were racing on suburban Sydney streets.
In separate incidents on Saturday night, two 23-year-old men, one a provisional licence holder, a 19-year-old man and a 29-year-old man had their cars confiscated by police and were ordered to face court for street racing.
The new plan, which will be backed by new legislation soon to be tabled in parliament, will apply to drivers doing burnouts and doughnuts in car parks, as well as street racers.
"Car hoons engage in potentially lethal, property-destroying, anti-social behaviour," NSW Premier Morris Iemma said in a statement earlier today.
"We're turning the tables. We'll destroy their property - but do it for the right reasons."
Mr Iemma said the plan to destroy hoons' cars would provide valuable controlled crash statistics.
Mr Campbell said about 290 cars had been impounded this year for street racing, of which "approximately eight to 10" were for second offences.
The government would continue with the current policy of selling a proportion of those, he said.
The government was also "concerned" about recidivist drink-drivers and other habitually dangerous drivers, Mr Campbell said, but had no plans to destroy their vehicles.
