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It's late night along a desolate stretch of Route 140 near New Bedford. But two young men have the sound of 600-horsepower engines and a flood of adrenalin to keep them alert.

With no cops in sight the two drivers, side-by-side in a late model Ford Mustang and a Chevrolet Camaro, roll toward the start of a high stakes drag race. Highly dangerous and totally illegal, what they are about to do will put both their lives at risk and subject them to prosecution should they be unlucky enough to attract police attention.

But for Eugene, a 22-year-old retail worker and part-time mechanic, the roar of a V8 engine and the acceleration as a mixture of nitrous oxide and gasoline ignites is a heady cocktail.

"There's something about it," said Eugene, not his real name, who added he's participated in at least 200 street races around New England. "It's a lot of fun."

It wasn't fun for Eduardo Dias, 25, of Hyde Park, who died March 22 riding in the front seat of an Infinity G35 that crashed into trees off Interstate 495 in Norton, along with another vehicle. Officials suspect racing may have been involved in the crash. The vehicles reportedly were traveling side-by-side at speeds of 100 mph, or more. The accident remains under investigation.

Three days later, Richard A. Falzone, 22, of Easton, was killed when his Nissan 300zx was involved in a fiery crash in Brockton. Police reports said Falzone and another driver had been driving side-by-side at high speed eastbound on Torrey Street just before the accident.

Falzone's car, which was in the wrong lane, and the vehicle next to it struck two autos driving in the opposite direction, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office. Three people in the westbound cars were injured, two seriously.

The driver of the second car involved in the alleged Brockton race, Thomas Burke, 20, of Brockton, was cited for speeding and driving to endanger.

Police in Southeastern Massachusetts say they're taking what steps they can to crack down on street racing. But they say racers have the advantage of secrecy, unpredictability and vehicles that are fast enough to outrun police cars.

Street racing, which is defined as a separate criminal offense under Massachusetts law, carries an automatic 30-day license suspension for a first offense, imprisonment for up to 2 1/2 years and a fine of up to $1,000.

Nevertheless, sources, including racers and others familiar with the high-performance car scene, told The Sun Chronicle that races occur frequently in New Bedford and elsewhere in Southeastern Massachusetts.

But they can also pop up anywhere, from a stretch of Interstate highway to a street in a thickly settled urban neighborhood.

Brockton police, who conducted a successful crackdown two years ago, say they consider street racing intolerable not only because of the risks it poses to participants, but the dangers it represents to others.

"This is something that's extremely hazardous to the public," Brockton police Lt. John Crowley said. Vehicles can, and do, collide with uninvolved motorists or pedestrians, as in the Torrey Street crash, or cause other accidents.

Spectators drawn to sights and sounds of racing are equally at risk.

In February 2008, a teenage driver who was not a racer struck a crowd gathered for an illegal street race in Prince George's County, Md. Eight people died.

A couple of years ago, Crowley said, racers routinely gathered at a Brockton fast food restaurant before Sunday night races on Belmont Street. Police drove most of the activity out of town with increased patrols and by putting the heat on violators.

"We made things pretty uncomfortable for them," Crowley said.

A local street racer confirmed Crowley's account, but said racing continues elsewhere in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Racing remains a problem in New Bedford, police spokesman Jeffrey Silva said. Although police are aware of racing activity, he said, it's difficult to catch drag racers who benefit from the police department's no-pursuit policy and whose vehicles can outrun most police cars they might encounter.

Street racing has been common since cars replaced horses and buggies. But observers say recent automotive technology has introduced higher speeds and made racing infinitely more dangerous and harder to police.

As portrayed in the Hollywood movie "The Fast and The Furious," modern street racing often pits cars with specially modified engines and bodies and suspensions that make them much faster than vehicles available in the showroom.

Many burn highly volatile nitrous oxide mixed with gasoline to make engines run faster and produce more torque than would be possible with pump fuel, alone.

Some cars, Eugene said, are capable of as much as 800 horsepower.

At a legal drag strip, designed for competition and equipped with up-to-date safety devices, cars with similar engines and chassis are capable of covering a quarter-mile in about 10 seconds and can travel as fast as 120 mph.

On the street, such high-octane competition can be a recipe for disaster.

"Yes, it's dangerous," Eugene said. "I've seen cars get out of control and go into the woods before."

Yet racers continue to line up against each other to settle bets, test whose car is better or simply play out a testosterone-driven fantasy.

The lack of sanctioned legal drag racing facilities - the nearest track to Southeastern Massachusetts is in New Hampshire - makes it inevitable that hot rodders will race on the streets, Eugene said.

Law enforcement officials say that's no excuse.

Across the United States, street racing's popularity is on the increase. So are related deaths. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 150 people lost their lives in street races in 2006, up 30 percent from the year before. From 2001 to 2006, the death toll exceeded 800.

But for street racers, most of whom are young males, a fiery death seems a remote horror. Thrills and the opportunity to win cash are far more important.

Street races often involve money, Eugene said. Stakes can be a few hundred dollars or thousands.

One race he witnessed in Connecticut paid $5,000 to the winner. Money was put up by syndicates made up of friends and racing partisans on each side.

Electronic media, such as the Internet, make it easy for racers to communicate and schedule illegal races without tipping the police or the public in advance.

Eugene said contacts can easily be made through a local Internet site that offers street racing information and discussion groups.

Access to the Web site is guarded by a password system. The webmaster did not respond to a reporter's request to register.

The most frequent victims of drag racing tragedies are the racers themselves - young men who fall under the spell of speed but are unable to control the physics of a speeding, 3,000-pound vehicle.

"For the most part, they are people who aren't fully mature and are unable to handle their emotions behind the wheel, yet they have a heavy foot," said Michael Bender, a former California auto theft detective who has written a scathing expose of street racing called "The Fast, The Fraudulent and The Fatal."

"They think they're indestructible," he said.

According to a study performed by Evo Street Racers, a group which is seeks to divert illegal street racing onto legitimate tracks, 58 percent of those who die in street racing accidents are between the ages of 14 and 29. Eighty-three percent of all fatalities are of people 44 or younger.

Appallingly, many who die or are critically hurt aren't street racers, at all. Some, like those killed in the Virginia crash, are spectators, innocent bystanders or motorists who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Last month, a Jaguar collided with a BMW during a race on California's State Route 67 and side-swiped a third car that hurtled into a tree. The innocent driver of the third vehicle, the mother of a seven-week-old infant, was killed. The baby, who was in the car at the time, survived.

In Michigan, an innocent father and son were killed when two racing pickup trucks traveling at up to 90 mph collided with their car.

In Boston last year, a 65-year-old woman was struck and badly injured by a racing vehicle while crossing the street.

Besides the loss of innocent lives, Bender said street racing culture is closely associated with other crimes.

In California, he said, racing has fueled a booming trade in stolen cars parts used to supply speed-hungry racers. Insurance fraud is also a factor, he said, because racers have been known to submit claims for damage incurred in illegal racing.

State governments and private organizations are trying a variety of tactics to dampen street racing and convince speed enthusiasts to turn to legal drag strips. So far, there has been only limited success.

Evo Street Racers is working to promote legal alternatives to street racing on sanctioned tracks and to build bridges between enthusiasts and police through activities such as "Beat The Badge," which pits local hot rodders against trained police officers in specially prepared cruisers.

The National Hot Rod Association, the top sanctioning body in professional drag racing, is solidly opposed to illegal street racing, spokeswoman Hailie Schmidt said. As an alternative, many of the 140 association-affiliated tracks offer a program called Street Legal Drags that allows hobbyists and fans to compete against one another on the strip. For registration fees as low as $10, competitors can race their own cars virtually all night.

Locally, Seekonk Speedway hosts periodic "spectator drags" during which fans can race their own cars, two at a time, on the oval racetrack.

Increasingly, state governments are adopting laws that take a harder line against street racers.

Some counties in California, where street racing is rampant, not only prosecute street racing suspects but allow law enforcement to confiscate and crush competitors' vehicles.

Rhode Island's legislature enacted a 2007 law that defines street racing as a separate crime and provides stiff penalties and automatic license suspensions for violators. Multiple offenses can be treated as felonies. Massachusetts and New York state followed suit with similar laws in 2008.

So far, however, it's not clear that the laws are deterring street racers.

In April 2003, Rhode Island mother Lori Nunes was devastated when her 17-year-old son and another boy were killed in a street racing crash in Bristol. Justin Nunes and a friend had been passengers in a vehicle that raced another car through three different towns.

Brendan Lombardi, the driver of the car in which Nunes had been riding, and Michael Cabral, the second driver, both were sentenced to prison for crimes related to the crash.

Lombardi remains in prison, while Cabral, now 28, was released.

Following the 2003 tragedy, Lori Nunes took up the cause of eliminating street racing and eventually won passage of Rhode Island's anti-street racing law named in memory of her son.

Last month, Warren police filed the first case under the law following an alleged drag race in that town between two pickup trucks.

The accused turned out to be not just any reckless driver: The man charged with illegal racing was none other than Michael Cabral.