We wanted to give an update on an interesting story that first surfaced back in the Fall. This story starts in August 2013 when a Canadian born, commodities trader by the name of Adam Tang got behind the wheel of his Z4 BMW, and made history with a record-breaking drive around Manhattan.
Upon completing this crazy feat, Tang uploaded his video online and that’s when the trouble began. It wasn’t long before the video became an online sensation, but it also resulted in attention from NYC’s “boys in blue” who did not look kindly at his little stunt. Later on in 2014, the NYPD arrested Tang for reckless driving and reckless endangerment. The video he posted online does show some close calls on New York streets, as Tang swerves in an out of traffic but he claims he never went over 160 km/hr and ran only one red light. Having decided a conviction was a foregone conclusion, Tang says he packed a suitcase and hopped into his 2006 BMW Z4 that he had used to illegally lap the city. Only this time he drove it out-of-town and back to his native Canada. This was in early November and in spite of him leaving NYC things kept moving ahead with the court case and on Dec. 8, 2014 a jury convicted Tang in absentia of reckless endangerment and reckless driving. At his sentencing hearing, a punishment of one year behind bars was passed down. But not to worry since Tang is confident he won’t be extradited back to the States. “I did my research and I talked to Canadian lawyers, who literally laughed at me on the phone saying ‘It ain’t going to happen.”
Known online by the moniker of “Afroduck“, Tang wanted to become a Youtube sensation and driving was his ticket. From all accounts he obsessed about cars and driving was his outlet so it’s no surprise that as he grew older he became more interested in the underground stunt driving world. Growing up as an only child in an affluent Calgary suburb, Adam turned to video games and car culture during his teen years. And his car pedigree started off strong with an old model Range Rover as his first ride at the age of sixteen. While living in Manhattan as a trader, he became interested in making his mark and that’s when breaking a legendary Manhattan driving record became his focus.
There is a little more to this story which you can read all about at the various different outlets. And to be clear, we are not condoning Adam’s law breaking incident however, we do we wish Adam all the luck in playing his predicament into a lucrative book deal or documentary film.
Check out Adam’s drive to fame video here.
Source: The Dailybeast