Burning rubber
| 16:38 UK time, Friday, 1 June 2007
Boy Racers get a bad press. We know because they told us; they're fed up with being sneered at by the middle and chattering classes just because they're passionate about their motors - in the same way others are passionate about, say, horses, gardening or rugby.
And yes, it's the media's fault, too. Many of our listeners love their customised cars and the impressive sales figures of the car mags proves this is no "underground" phenomenon.
So we spent a day with a group of lads who love their pimped up wheels at Shipley Gate in Derbyshire. Our reporter Debbie Randle sidled up to the burger van where they were hanging out... the Radio 1 microphone logo proved an attraction to most and a suspicion to some. Had we come to take the mick out of them? To blame them for irresponsible street racing or pedestrian deaths?
Actually, we'd come to reflect their hobby and their passion.
Debbie was struck by the loving care and attention - one guy explained to her he'd taken his pride and joy - an old Corsa - to show his mates and a few strangers: he'd gone for a striking glittery paint job that turned heads while she was there.
The girls were on hand too - a few racers but also some glamour girls getting their photos taken draped over the motors: they love their wheels and know a good performance ride from a cheap bodge job - they're big in the chatrooms and very much part of the scene.
Debbie browsed the boom boxes in the back (pictures here) - the HDTV's and the gas cylinder exhausts that make a visible flames when the car speeds off burning rubber. But it's not, they insisted, about speed or winning illegal street races - it's about looking cool, great gadgets, impressing mates and maybe pulling birds.
As one said while munching his food at the burger van: "it's the only place where I can look at nice cars, look at women with hardly any clothes on and eat a nice burger".
Comments
Its very true to say it isn't about performance. In fact thats the whole point of it.
For the most part they are young lads who can't afford to buy a really expensive fast car and certainly can't afford the insurance on a fast car ie: over £1000 for third party on a 1.8ltr.
So they jazz it up a bit with spoilers etc. Theres no harm in it i don't think, its a bit like a peacock showing off its plumage to attract a mate.
And we all do it as we get older etc but as we get older we can afford to buy cars that have that affect in the first place without the need for modification in fact as you get older modification looks very very tacky and cheap.
So in the end its just about showing off.
For the most part, customised cars are actually pretty impressive and is really, only at extension of classic and kit cars, but for a new generation.
I've been working with a few to set up as a way to show off these customised cars and to bring generations together.