Car mods no one seems to do any more
Discussion
I'm 34 and feel ancient thanks to this thread.
Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
Stickyfinger said:
eldar said:
Malachimon said:
What? No pink?
My next door neighbour had a big pink one....
I would not ever own one but boy do I appreciate those that do.
I remember those, and also the 'performance' HT leads that we'd all fit to our wheezy old engines 
AVV EM said:
Stickyfinger said:
eldar said:
Malachimon said:
What? No pink?
My next door neighbour had a big pink one....I would not ever own one but boy do I appreciate those that do.
Gunk said:
I remember having my brand new car being pulled apart to fit one of these bad boys
I used to fit the first car phones as a lad. The control box was the size of a small briefcase and you would have to try and hide it somewhere and then route the huge cable through the car somehow. You couldn't ring directly either. Every call had to go via an operator. Ah, the good old days ... daveofedinburgh said:
I'm 34 and feel ancient thanks to this thread.
Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
You forgot the mother of all Max Power era mods. The aerospace style alloy fuel filler cap! Even the OEMs now have these on their options list but I could never for the life of me understand why anyone wanted to put one of these things on their car, zero connection to either aerospace or racing but became so ubiquitous its become an accepted piece of styling.Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
Grahamdub said:
I used to fit the first car phones as a lad. The control box was the size of a small briefcase and you would have to try and hide it somewhere and then route the huge cable through the car somehow. You couldn't ring directly either. Every call had to go via an operator. Ah, the good old days ...
late 1970s/ ealry 80s pre - cellular ? effectively trunked PMR with an interconnect to the PSTN ?Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff