What happened to Modified cars?

[twoblacklines]

Why did they die out? The recession or the police?

Used to be tons of magazines out every week/month, tons of badly modified cars driving around, and some nice ones too! Now they are very rare to see except for certain carparks on weekend nights but even then half of them are standard. What changed and why? At one point there was even a modified car shop in the Trafford Centre!

[Poopipe]

The internet killed magazines and shops

Insurance prices/enforcement killed mods for youngsters

Old people tend to go for less obvious mods so you cant tell if somethings been fiddled with by looking at it

[TheEnd]

Younger people tend to buy newer cars with loans rather than cheaper fixer-uppers

[Riley Blue]

We grew older and bought motability cars.

[FussyFez]

I still see plenty of modified cars about. I think most are more subtle than the body kits of the 90's.

I still modify. Drifting is bigger than ever and pretty much any skidder is modified to some extent.


Heck I was following a slammed lupo just 10minutes ago.


Go to the car shows in the summer. Still a huge modifying scene out there.

[sicasey]

"At one point there was even a modified car shop in the Trafford Centre!"

Haha yes it was Dimma, queues of young lads buying metal effect stick on fuel filler caps, didn't last very long.

[TurboBlue]

There is a magazine called retro cars.that features lots of modified cars.

I own three cars, none are standard

I think the owner profile has changed; more likely to be older drivers these days, partly insurance but possibly the lure of the new on PCP for the youth.

[Crafty_]

The manufacturers started doing it instead. 18, 19 and 20" wheels, harder sprung cars with less body roll, more powerful engines etc.

Also in the old days engine swaps were common, 16v in to a Nova ? bit of welding, 5 different wires and the thing ran. Engine swaps are pretty much dead in modern cars, its too complicated and anyway you may as well mod the engine thats in it.

For example Nova GTE was 110hp I think. Stick a 16v in and you got 150hp. You took the skinny 14" alloys (or even steels) off, threw on some springs and used astra 16v hubs to give rear disc brakes and a set of 16" speedline alessios. Nick cavalier gsi 256mm discs and calipers for the front and then did your best not to kill yourself in the thing.

Now you saunter in to a dealer, buy a 200bhp 1.6 Corsa VXR thats got 18" wheels, brembo brakes, bilstein suspension, an LSD, ABS and ESP for those "oh st" moments you had as a lad and a vocal exhaust. When you get bored a remap gives you a jump in power and you can start replacing the turbo etc, go far enough and it'll make over 300hp. Coilovers kits if you need something more track based.

[Codswallop]

Most car modding was done by young lads. These days, young lads tend to not have the money for high insurance costs (or much interest in driving generally) because they spend all their money on overpriced tech.

[Driver101]

The VAG scene took over.

[Tickle]

I seen a golf the other day with 4 tail pipes!

[bobbo89]

Driver101 said:

The VAG scene took over.

The VAG scene isn't all air ride and BBS! I'm into the whole vag scene and my daily is low but not ridiculous 92 Corrado G60 running north of 210bhp and I also own a 65 beetle, again its lowered but not silly! Both cars have sensible tyres with the wheels very much within the arches!

[anonymous-user]

People prefer these days to get a 118d with an M Sport kit on a lease because it's new init.

[Drive Blind]

nobody buys an older car anymore. They head down to arnold clark and get something new on the never-never.

and nobody does any servicing or spanner work themselves.

[lbc]

Insurance will be the key factor.

Lots of cheap 2nd hand cars now that can go fast without needing stripes or other bolt on extras.

The downside is that the cheap fast cars are not being serviced properly due to cost, and lots of poorly looked after cars on used car market.

[Crafty_]

Just to add the modified car scene started with dry lakes racing in the states around the same time as brooklands was getting going here.

The hot rod scene is strong as ever. We had a good thread going last year: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[LordHaveMurci]

Plenty of bell ends around here in ruined VW's, 90's Vectras & plenty of Scoobies around, very few of which are standard. Also get the occasional 'slammed' MINI

[Shaoxter]

Bit of a shame really, yes it might have been a bit chavvy and not everyone's cup of tea but at least people were being creative and unique.

Nowadays youngsters aspire to ownlease boring "M-Sport/S-Line" German diesels.

[Riley Blue]

Crafty_ said:

Just to add the modified car scene started with dry lakes racing in the states around the same time as brooklands was getting going here.

1907?

[Pit Pony]

Shaoxter said:

Bit of a shame really, yes it might have been a bit chavvy and not everyone's cup of tea but at least people were being creative and unique.

Nowadays youngsters aspire to ownlease boring "M-Sport/S-Line" German diesels.

My kids aspire to nothing of the sort.