1990's Max Power shite

[Guest Hooli]

Any one remember a red Renault 19 that won the big breakfast soundoff? it had about 8 15" subs in the back which made it a two seater. Twin chain driven alternators to power it all etc, was owned by a kid called Ray I went to college with.

[Sir Snipes]

I remember reading about a Sierra Cosworth that someone had chrome plated everything on. Also in vogue was fitting Jetta lights onto a Golf followed by one of those small strips if plastic at the top a bit like the aforementioned bad boy effect.

Yes! The Rallye look for those on a budget! Also Laguna splitters on EVERYTHING.

[fordperv]

Does anyone remember the orange bodytone Laguna with the tvr V8?

[fordperv]

Oh and talking about modified R5 GTT I know a chap who has his purple max power Modified R5 from back in the day tucked away in his garage its pristine, it's not seen the light of day for years, he spent around 30k on this car back then and he won't drive it now because he's scared of it getting wrecked

[Talbot]

As per the fauxrarri thread, I thought the whole pointless modification scene was a load of old tosh, hence being a memeber of Barryboys and ripping the piss out of all of them. It was right at the point that I *could* have been interested in it, as I passed my test at 17 in 1993, so I was "prime fodder" for glueing plastic shit over rotten sills/arches and installing twin 7" fart cannons onto a 1.1 'scrote.

 

I'm glad I did none of the above. I took one look at these so-called "cool" cars and bought a bog-standard SD1 V8 VP as my first car. "Your engine is how big? Oh, that's cute."

[HMC]

At the time the idea of shoehorning a 2.0 Vauxhall red top engine into a nova whilst keeping the appearance largely standard used to bring me out in a cold sweat. Alas I had neither money nor skills so had a pushbike until I was in my mid 20s.

[sierraman]

Azevs on a Golf if you were minted.

 

NACA ducts

 

Dimma caps, but not the proper ones, the skegness market stick on ones.

 

Ripping the piss out of has been folks with the grim RGA kits on Cortinas and Capri's.

[sierraman]

Fuck off you bunch of Has Beens. That was a 1990's insult.

[HMC]

Also those rear window graphics to advertise to would be thieves what stereo you'd installed.

 

But WTF was "Oakley thermonuclear protection" I had no idea and still have no idea. I wanted a rear screen sticker that said it though.

[Talbot]

But WTF was "Oakley thermonuclear protection" I had no idea and still have no idea. I wanted a rear screen sticker that said it though.

Don't know, but someone at my college had a piss take of one in the exact same style and font that read "Durex Thermonobular Protection".

[Faker]

I have still got... to my shame... boxes full of max power mags..

[Guest Hooli]

Also those rear window graphics to advertise to would be thieves what stereo you'd installed.

 

But WTF was "Oakley thermonuclear protection" I had no idea and still have no idea. I wanted a rear screen sticker that said it though.

 

Sunglasses & ski goggles

[Shirley Knott]

Aside from the usual exhausts/air filters/wheels and stuff I seem to remember 'Superchips' being quite a big thing then too?

[Bren]

Stick on Garfields. Fat willys stickers. Shit stripes in vivid colours.

[HMC]

Ford badges with a red rather than blue background.

[Shirley Knott]

'Burnouts' aided by intentionally spilled motor oil and all of your mates holding the front of your car down.

 

Dodgy vehicles getting away with road use due to ANPR not being invented yet.

 

Jo Guest.

[HillmanImp]

I don't think these were around in the 1990s but I am seriously thinking about getting one for the Visa.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Fake-Dump-Valve-Electronic-Turbo-Blow-Off-Valve-Analog-Sound-BOV-Switch-UK-/302413086387?clk_rvr_id=1600658897396&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=twenga&utm_campaign=twenga&utm_param=eyJlcyI6MCwicyI6OTcyMDIzNywiY2kiOiIwM2RmNmI1ZTA1OGFmNjlhZDY2NWUyYzE2N2Q2MjExYSIsImkiOiIzNjUyODg2NDMxNTI0ODU0MzYzIiwidHMiOjE1MzE4MzA1MjYsInYiOjMsInNvIjoxNTAwLCJjIjoxMDcwNjN9&rmvSB=true

 

 

 

 

Installation Instructions:
1. Wired red wire to positive battery terminal
2. Wired black wore to negative terminal
3. Fed switch wires (blue and green) through fire wall to accelerator pedal.
4. Attached micro switch to accelerator pedal
5. Connected switch to the normally closed terminal and earth terminal on micro switch
6. Push accelerator fully in, when releasing the speaker makes dump valve sound.

 

I reckon we chip in and get DW one for the Invacar.

[sierraman]

The pullout Jo Guest articles were a highlight. None of the magazine had any facts in it at all, not very technical. Once the novelty of Jo Guests tits being out on the bonnet of a Renault 9 turbo wore off I quickly went back to Car Mechanics.

[Pillock]

Can we keep it a genitalia free zone please thanks?

[dougiefourspeed]

I was just about to get 50 points and all..

[sierraman]

The pullout Jo Guest articles were a highlight. None of the magazine had any facts in it at all, not very technical. Once the novelty of the article on Jo Guests interests and hobbies wore off I quickly went back to Car Mechanics.

FTFY

[quicksilver]

Aside from the usual exhausts/air filters/wheels and stuff I seem to remember 'Superchips' being quite a big thing then too?

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about Superchips. They're based near me in Buckingham and are still going but you don't hear much of them now. I guess having your ECU remapped isn't something you need to shout about with a Superchips badge nowadays.

 

My memories of that era are Corsas and Saxos (usually 1-litre base models) with bad boy bonnets, stupid huge wheels, drainpipe exhausts and ICE installs that delivered nothing but ground-shaking bass. I could never see the point myself.

[Noel Tidybeard]

I remember buying a few issues. My fave article was where they tried to get the most power for a certain budget. One jouno bought a Nissan Silvia turbo, one a mk2 granny 2.8 and the other an XJS V12. I think there were a series of challenges and rolling road test etc. Anyone remember that?

 

The mod that sticks in my mind was a morette quad lamp conversion, or as my neighbour did on his xr3i a stick on headlight cover that made it look a bit like 2 headlamps but was shit and reduced the light output to dangerously low levels.

 

i actually pulled out in front of a ford onion because i didn't see him coming lights on- he was close enuff i could see the "twin light conversion"

[dozeydustman]

I particularly remember a mk2 fiesta that belonged to one of my classmates at school.

 

Signal red, ridiculous wheels, whale tail spoiler, blacked out windows and a vinyl over the rear window with a Pioneer emblem and 'Givin' it Large' emblazoned above it.

 

He forgot to remove the "popular plus" from the bootlid, revealing it was really either a 950 or 1.1....

[ProgRocker]

I bought Max Power mag in the mid 90s.

 

I remember a Nova GTE that was Barried to an inch of it's life and had a 2.0 engine. I thought that was the dog's...

 

There was even a segment they ran for a while dedicated to the most hated vehicles that were destroyed... might have been called 'Wheel of Death' . Think Jeremy Clarkson and the piano treatment of the Marina. One featured a Lada Riva that was then flattened by a tank. One of the photos was of a grimacing journo driving the lada doing the 'gesture' with the caption: "This car is a load of...well it rhymes with 'Tank' ".

[HMC]

What came before clear clusters? Smoked rear lights. The same xr3i chap with the fake quad lamps also smoked his own rear light clusters. This envolved spraying some black paint inside the light cluster, to the point where it was almost impossible to see the brake lights and indicators.

[Tamworthbay]

My mate had a lax power sticker on his sierra.

[timolloyd]

I was pretty confused as a teenager. I must be the only one who bought Max Power, Practical Classics and Cars & Car Conversions, concurrently.

 

Anyone remember Max Power featuring an E36 with a Rover V8? That’s a sort of symbolic transition between 80s and 90s modifying.

 

They also did a huge feature on Marcos, with the obligatory model draped over the bonnets. I learned a lot from that issue...

 

Even now when I see a Marcos I get a strange feeling of guilt and excitement.

[Pillock]

Tinting lights with paint? Real bodgers do it with a pair of tights.

[cobblers]

Tinting lights with paint? Real bodgers do it with a pair of tights.

 

 

Sadly I don't have a picture of them on, but this was my mates R5 in 2001 ish. He "tinted" the back lights with thick nora batty type tights. The colour of them 100% bang on matched the paint.