Boy Racers/Car modifiers....Why????

Boy Racers/Car modifiers....Why????

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Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
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EXHAUST - Often complementing the boy racer's already impressive bass power is his exhaust system. These can range from the bog-standard "exhaust pipe" (an overpriced bit of metal to attach over the exhaust to make the car sound like an angry bee in a tin can rather than just an angry bee) to the top-of-the-range "sports exhaust" (an overpriced bit of metal to replace their car's existing exhaust and make the car sound like a HGV and give the boy racer endless opportunities to claim his car is a racing car).

SUNSTRIP - If you are a fan of rally driving you will notice that many professional rally cars have these "sun strips" to protect the racer from the sun and advertise the racing team name / sponsor on the car. Boy racers, keen to emulate their far more talented idols, also stick these "sun strips" on their cars. Typically just plastic strips these are the ideal first mod for the aspiring boy racer as they are not difficult to fit (well, not difficult to fit badly) and very very cheap. Unlike most of the other mods...

ALLOY WHEELS - These are purely to make the car "look better". Most boy racer cars need all the help they can get in this department, so boy racers are willing to spend amazing amounts of cash on their alloy wheels. Models range from the cheap plastic (incidently, not technically "alloys") "fake and untrendy" ones (which will no doubt cause the aspiring boy racer to get laughed at) at around £30 each to the hyper expensive "£1000+ a set" proper alloy-metal models (which will no doubt cause the aspiring boy racer to be the victim of an easy theft). Purchasers must be careful to buy the right types of alloys however, because the three spoke ones are untrendy (for reasons unknown) and generally the more of your brake disc you can see (i.e. the smaller the actual alloy) the more fashionable the alloy wheel is.

UPRATED BRAKES - The reason that smaller alloys are more fashionable is because they show off more of the boy racer's braking system. These may be expensive "performance" parts designed for more powerful cars, but it will not be that rare a sight to see the alloy merely revealing the boy racer's bog standard drum brakes. Most people agree that better brakes are a Good Thing for boy racers to have.

LOWERED CARS - "Lowering" your car is when you take out the existing suspension springs and replace them for shorter suspension springs, meaning your car is lower off the ground and (in theory) more manoeuvrable (for those idiotic high speed car chases most boy racers indulge in). However one major flaw overlooked by boy racers, who often lower their cars until they are mere inches off the ground, is that the average speed bump, hill or unevenly surfaced road can result in the bottom of their car scraping the ground and can cause considerable damage to the exhaust.

BODY KIT - Some boy racers also spend a fortune on plastic moulded panels to stick to the side of their car in an attempt to make it look better, or often to make it look like a better car than it is (for example a Ford Cosworth, rather than a standard Ford Escort XR3). These "body kits" contain front and rear bumpers, "side skirts" and occasionaly other things distinctive of the car the boy racer is attempting to emulate. The major part of the body kit is the bumpers, which are described in greater detail next;

BUMPERS - Boy racers love having large, garish bumpers on their cars, which make the car look lower than it is. This, they feel, is a good thing. So you will often see boy racers with huge plastic front bumpers like snowploughs attached to their cars. Some boy racers even attempt to make these things themselves, resulting in the boy racer's car looking like it barely survived a collision with half a plastic bathtub (which is what the offending bumper probably started life as). Boy racers also tend to forget that bumpers are primarily designed to protect the car from minor impacts and so the bumper designs are more for show than for safety, cracking under the slightest pressure, and causing the boy racer to find it even more difficult to negotiate speed bumps.

DEBADGING - It is not much good to the boy racer if their car looks like a Cossie but still has the telltale XR3 badges on the back. To make sure everyone knows the boy racer's car is "pukka" many will remove all of the badges from the rear of the car, or replace them with badges for the car they wished they had.

CLEAR INDICATORS - Boy racers are renowned for their complete failure to appreciate the finer points (and often even the essential points) of design, and clear indicators are one such example. No doubt inspired by one person modding his white car with clear indicators, most boy racers have followed suit (in the traditional manner of boy racers to follow trends rather than actually think about their designs) and replaced their traditional yellow-tinted indicators with clear ones.

"SPOTLIGHTS" (FOGLIGHTS) - Boy racers often take their inspirations from rally cars, and these often have several spotlights on the front which help the driver see the road better at night. However as usual many boy racers feel that modifications designed for rally driving would look good and be useful on a standard road car, and this is one of the more common modifications. Unfortunately for the boy racer the police have a dim view of these "spotlights" (which are better known to the law as "foglights", and have laws surrounding their use - even though many non-standard "spotlights" are not intended or wired as foglights at all) when they are used regardless of weather conditions. Also installation of these additional foglights often will ruin the boy racer's bumper.

WIDE TIRES - Designed primarily to give greater stability while cornering, these also have the unfortunate result of giving the boy racer's car the appearance of a badly modded 80's dragster due to the extra surface area of the tyres.

TIRE PAINT - Having noticed that some race car teams paint in the names of the manufacturers of their tyres, some boy racers did the same thing. The result is hilarious, especially if the boy racer has purchased a "budget" brand of tyre.

BIGGER WHEELS - Boy racers are obsessed with the size of their wheels (often noted by impartial observers to be suspiciously Freudian) and the bigger the wheel radius the more impressed fellow boy racers are with the car. Often drastic modifications need to be done to the wheel arches to accommodate the bigger wheels, so this mod is not recommended for novices. 18" wheels are an acceptably large size, especially on smaller cars where the extensive engineering work required to fit them is greatly admired. Aspiring boy racers must however be very careful to make sure that their modifications to their vehicle's wheel arches does not render the car illegal - it is easily done.

BETTER AIR FILTERS / CARBURETTORS - If the boy racer's engine uses a carburettor, improved air filters and carburettors can be fitted to "improve performance" of the car. Such improvements often cost a small fortune and result in a minimal performance gain of a few BHP, but the prestige of having an air filter manufactured by certain brands is very great for a boy racer and often worth every penny. It is also not unheard of for boy racers to fit parts from other, better, cars to make their car appear cooler - turbo intercoolers being the obvious choice.

SPOILERS - Boy racers often attach ridiculously large "spoilers" onto the back of their cars in the mistaken belief that a) it makes it look better and b) will actually make people believe their car can go fast enough that it will be in danger of taking off. Perhaps small understated spoilers would be okay but most boy racers believe in the concept of "the bigger the better" and so their spoilers invariably look like spare parts for Cessna jets.

TINTED WINDOWS - Boy racers like to pretend they are more important than they really are and so try to copy the star's limosines by tinting the windows. However since tinted front and rear windscreens are illegal in the UK most boy racers just tint the side ones, which seems rather pointless to me. On the plus side, tinted windows can protect the outside world from the boy racer's appearance and any antics the boy racer might be getting up to inside the car.

BIGGER ENGINE SIZES - It is a well known fact in boy racing circles that "the bigger the car the bigger the dick". The 1.2 litre engine in the standard car the boy racer plans to "improve" is invariably not powerful enough, despite being the only thing they'll get insured on for a reasonable premium, and so larger engines often with turbos are fitted sending the boy racer's insurance premium through the roof but making him the envy of his peers.

DUMP VALVES - I really had to include these. You know the whoosing noises lorries sometimes make when stopped at traffic lights due to their air brakes? Well some boy racer's fit devices that make similar noises onto their cars, little aware that it makes them the laughing stock of the general population. It is quite amusing seeing a whacked out car zoom by making a little whooshing sound as the driver changes gear - a bit like seeing a cat roar like a lion I guess Many of these noise-producing devices are proper dump valves for cars with turbos, designed to reduce pressure on the engine. However some are just basically speakers with a prerecorded whoosh noise. We kid you not.

WASHER JET NEONS - These little things attach to the boy racer's washer jets, and are commonly available in any colour as long as it's a bright garish blue. Consequentially they are completely illegal in the UK resulting in boy racers often fitting switches to turn them on and off at will (much like any other illegal "mod"). They also look somewhat naff, merely serving the purpose of proving they have washer jets. Oooh, lucky them.

UNDER-CAR NEONS - Some boy racers go a step further than the "neons in the boot next to the sub" approach and fit neon lights underneath the car. Boy racers have the mistaken impression that this makes their car look cool, giving it a surreal "floaty" appearance, but in reality the only purpose of this mod would be to perhaps allow mechanics to look underneath the car easier at night when it's broken down on the hard shoulder of the M4.

DE-LOCKING - Some Boy Racers feel their cars should look "smoother" so remove all of the locks from their car doors. They also claim this makes their car more secure, as there are no locks for scally kids to remove with a screwdriver to get at the stereo. However its a bit of a blob if the batteries have run out on the Boy Racer's remote, and who's to say the kids won't just use the screwdriver on the window in combination with a brick?

FLAMER KITS - Don't ask us what the point of these are. They can be fitted to exhausts, and ignite excess fuel escaping through the exhaust, making a nice pretty flame. Very Mad Max. Our instincts tell us to be wary of these, in the same way that you would be wary of any scally with a can of petrol and a lighter.

"CUSTOM FONT" PLATES - These were introduced in the UK a while ago but became illegal soon afterwards as it was realised they're often harder to read than the standard ones. However some Boy Racers use them anyway, usually choosing the most illegible and naff fonts they can find. Some of the richer boy racers can also buy custom numberplates, although it only really serves to make the general public wonder why the boy racer bothered putting such a unique plate on such a cheap nasty car.

"BAD BOY" BONNETS - Some boy racers love modifying their bonnets. As well as the tacky, pointless bonnet vents that they adore, they can cut the front of their bonnets in such a way that the bonnet is slanted over the headlights - kinda like a frowning cartoon car in a children's TV programme - and this technique is known as "Bad Boying" the bonnet. Presumably these boy racers like their cars to look like a character from a children's TV series, although we really couldn't tell you why.

BONNET VENTS - Bonnet vents on rally cars are designed to increase air flow to the engine, to cool it. Naturally 99.9% of boy racer cars aren't rally cars and if driven properly shouldn't need additional cooling, but some boy racers add these vents into their bonnets anyway. This, as far as we can tell, is done either with the mistaken impression that it makes their car look good, to compensate for their inability to drive sensibly, or to cater for the stupid "performance" engine they've put in to help validate the insurance.

WIRE MESH RADIATOR GRILLS - As with bonnet vents, radiator grills are designed to increase air flow to the engine and cool it down. However boy racers tend to shun standard and perfectly functional radiator grills for "wire mesh" versions. The similarities of this mesh to chicken wire can often have the unfortunate effect of making this modification make the car look like a chicken hutch, especially if the boy racer uses too much wire.

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
^Slider^ said:
WASHER JET NEONS - These little things attach to the boy racer's washer jets, and are commonly available in any colour as long as it's a bright garish blue. Consequentially they are completely illegal in the UK resulting in boy racers often fitting switches to turn them on and off at will (much like any other illegal "mod"). They also look somewhat naff, merely serving the purpose of proving they have washer jets. Oooh, lucky them

Wasnt aware they were illigal. What offence?? Blue light to the front or energence warning beacon?


Case law pending really....

Some are prosecuted for 'optional lights not complying with regulations'...ie: white/amber to front.

Also 'obligatory lights not complying with regulations'...ie: position lights not white/amber.

If they flash of course it the misuse of emergency beacon..

Personally, i've stopped issuing tickets...as the law is too vague regarding them...so i've put it on the back burner...

Now as for front fog lights in clear conditions....ticket every time...
"Driving lights", "foggy yesterday", "must have knocked 'em on with my knee", "didn't know"....bollox...

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
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Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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wtd said:
guys he was having a laugh, why take it like a personal insult???


Thanks mate..

It does surprise me when people only want to have over serious debate on here....

I mean...we're not getting paid for spending our time visiting this site, so we might as well have some 'fun' while we're here...

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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Hollywood Wheels said:

Streetcop your getting old! I have a different (stainless steel don't ya know) 'zorst, a K&N air filter, and 30mm lowered suspension....

Was your post not the light hearted piss-take i took it to be then? It appears you've upset some people...

>> Edited by Hollywood Wheels on Thursday 3rd March 02:03


It was light hearted...and if people had looked into the style of the text, they'd have realised that I had cut/pasted it from an anti-chav site...for a bit of a tongue in cheek discussion.

Too many people get upset on here......It's about time some lightened up a bit....like the way they want the police to be when they get stopped for an offence...

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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bumpkin said:
good job i drive it with a balaclava on


Don't worry...there are places you can go nowadays;

www.transforminglives.co.uk/

Let us know how you go on....

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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fishtek69 said:

Foglights ARE sometime switched or left on by accident SC, it does sometimes happen! It's not as if a driver is hugely distracted when faced with oncoming foglights, and if they are then they really need their sight checking! Obviously conditions and circumstancces need consideration, but I feel a warning is probably more appropriate more often than not.


If it's been necessary to display front fog lights (due to severely reduced visibility)..and these have been 'forgotten'...it's a bit strange that rear fog lights were not forgotten...

ie: 95% of fog light abusers are front fog light abusers....which is down to image and the extra beam available...much to the annoyance distraction of other road users...

How annoying is it when you have a fog light abuser behind you at night?......some cars are especially bad...Puntos and Subarus to name just two.

It's a selfish act...a kind of 'balls to everyone else'..i'm going to put them on...

As for 'warnings'? Just so the 'punter' can peese up your back when they've drove off and simply switch em back on.....or perhaps on their next journey...

Nah...cost 'em in the pocket....the memory is stimulated much better that way..

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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fishtek69 said:
I agree about the front/rear foglight issue. It would be interesting to note how many people, when pulled for having foglights on, turn them off before the police have actually reached the car.


Does happen often...

Also, when they see a police car...they switch 'em off...sometimes amazingly quickly......They must drive around with it at the back of their mind all the time...

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
quotequote all
fishtek69 said:
So if you noticed a car behind you with its fogs on unneccesarily, and pulled it over, would you walk to the back of the car first to check they also had rear fogs on, just in case they were? If the car did have rear fogs on - and argued that conditions were previously such as to warrant the use of these lights - would you let them be on their way or still fine them regardless?


I would walk to the rear of the car if the driver stated they had 'forgotten to switch the fogs off'...

I also like to point out the warning light on the dashboard...

As for letting them off......If a driver can't adapt and change the auxiliaries on his/her car in accordance with the conditions, they deserve no benefit of the doubt..

Just like if some one is driving with no lights at all during the night..and when stopped they say.."I drove yesterday lunchtime and didn't need them then!"

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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v8thunder said:
Hate to pee on SC's parade, but this stuff came from a site called www.boyracerguide.co.uk


not peed on my parade at all matey..

Like I posted earlier...explaining that i'd cut/pasted it from elsewhere....but people assumed I had wrote it all myself..

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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He meant me and Mrs Streetcop's car....


>> Edited by Streetcop on Thursday 3rd March 13:07

Streetcop

Original Poster:

5,907 posts

238 months

Friday 4th March 2005
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butzi said:

Regarding front fog lights, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the fog light the one at the bottom of the bunmper, not very bright anyway, and usually pointing more downward than the headlight? I rarely use mine anyway except in dark country unlit roads so I can see the side of the roads better. But why does it annoy so many of you?


Fog lights have a 'B' stamped on the lens cover and although point down, are much brighter than 'dipped lights'...on some vehicles...they are almost blinding...the worst I believe is the Fiat Punto.

As for dark unlit roads....what's the problem with your high beams????? Or do you find the action of taking your hands from the wheel to turn off your fogs when another car is oncoming...somehow attractive..?