1990's Max Power shite

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I remember this being a thing!

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

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[Skut]

Its not the most extreme example of what was around at the time. But this thing amazed me its still going. Appears in the work car park at times. Id forgotten home made heat shields on bumpers were a thing.

[Pillock]

I remember a Sierra with fishnets on the lights!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Remember spinner alloys?

 

https://youtu.be/I_hDfj-QrfM

 

 

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[RoadworkUK]

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?

 

Yep, that was actually in Revs, and it was brilliant. Well written, too.

 

The guy with the Sylvia mentioned that "the engine sounded like an old washing machine that had washed nothing but trombones and bits of peanut brittle for the last fifty years".

 

The fourth car was an XR4i with TSW Evos (which were found to be severely egg-shaped and quickly swapped for some old 100+ cross-spokes), and had a Phillips tape deck and Goodmans rear shelf speakers.

 

Class.

[Shep Shepherd]

Cars repainted in that strange Vauxhall Corsa purple, or a variation of it.

 

Pine, Fury and Longmill ICE.

 

'ON A MISSION' rear window stickers.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

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.

There are people still driving around with blacked-out clusters.

[Shirley Knott]

There was a series 2 RS Turbo on my paper round that someone had payed to have painted in that weird (Nissan Primera?) colour that looked almost metalic purple but changed depending on which angle you looked at from...

 

Actually remember lusting after that car at the time. Next door to them there was a Nova SR that I also coveted.

[quicksilver]

Here's a typical Max Power motor. The difference is this one has not only survived but someone is proud enough to actually take it to a classic car show. Good thing too says I, that era needs to be remembered for its dubious mods. Kids these days don't know what they're missing.

 

1997 Vauxhall Corsa 1.2i Vegas by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

[HMC]

^ period piece IMO important bit of cultural history.

[J-T]

Yep, that was actually in Revs, and it was brilliant. Well written, too.

 

The guy with the Sylvia mentioned that "the engine sounded like an old washing machine that had washed nothing but trombones and bits of peanut brittle for the last fifty years".

 

The fourth car was an XR4i with TSW Evos (which were found to be severely egg-shaped and quickly swapped for some old 100+ cross-spokes), and had a Phillips tape deck and Goodmans rear shelf speakers.

 

Class.

That’s right, Revs did a few of these challenges, I remember a hot hatch one where they bought Mk1 Astra GTE, AE82 Corolla Twincam, 205 GTI, and Mk1 Golf GTI all as sheds for less than a grand each - imagine that now!

 

I especially liked that one as I ended up with a Corolla Twincam as my 1st car.

 

I remember another with an E30 325i, Saab 9000 turbo and summat else, but I forget what now. I like how I can’t even remember what day it was yesterday but I can remember mag articles from 20 years ago. Revs was really good around that time, it did it all with a bit of a knowing glance.

 

I think the whole scene turned around the turn of the millennium when it really seemed to stop being about any kind of performance modification at all and was literally all just about fitting truly truly gopping jap style body kits to corsas and saxos that bore no relation whatsoever to the original design of the car and spending masses on a flip paint job and 18s revealing the original tiny discs and rear drums (painted red or yellow) whilst the 1100cc powerhouse remained completely stock other than the Peco Big Bore 4.

[GrumpyCat]

Me in 1990...

 

 

Fortunately, I had grown out of this by 1993 when Max Power came along.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I can't for the life of me remember how it all ended?

 

One minute there were modified cars everywhere, cruises were massive and boy racer stories were never far from local news rags.

 

That whole scene disappeared overnight. What happened??

 

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[sierraman]

You did like colour coding then...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

... that weird (Nissan Primera?) colour that looked almost metalic purple but changed depending on which angle you looked at from....

Nissan Micras also came out in pearlescent paint, as did Alfa 156s.

[Pillock]

Insurance costs and ANPR happened.

 

Also Nuts magazine which was weekly and less than a quid had way way more tits and ass than Max Power and Revs but were socially acceptable to buy (where Razzle wasn't) so everyone who was only buying Max Power to see Sophie, 19 from Middlesbrough in a Littlewoods Catalogue bra could get more kicks for less money.

[Lord Sterling]

I can't for the life of me remember how it all ended?

One minute there were modified cars everywhere, cruises were massive and boy racer stories were never far from local news rags.

That whole scene disappeared overnight. What happened??

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Apart from the invention of the internet/social media/Nuts mags and basically the media becoming quickly disinterested in the whole scene etc... I think a lot of stuff started to happen in the car market. Finance options were made more readily available and manufactures I seem to remember cottoned onto the boy racer scene (towards the end) and started offering sporty/hot versions of thier smaller town cars like the Saxo, still very moddable but easy go your hands on a VTR/VTS for example with readily fitted body kits and go-faster engine mods, all from factory. From then on, the generation of Max Power started getting fancy company cars/financed-up ready made boy racer cars and the next generation were more interested in how new the car was rather than how mods you could fit into a £100 Fiesta Popular-Plus.

 

Car modding/meets have always been around and they'll always continue, but it's just changed over the years, from the custom jobs of the 60s/70s to the bodykits of the 80s and 90s to the Japanese modding scene through to the current "pineapple/roofrack" trend. Nowadays it just seems to be a boring line of financed-up cuurent model Fiesta STs in different colours with a couple of garage-Queen Sierra/Escort Cosworths dotted about.

[Rod/b]

I remember going to car shows in the max power era, where there always was a shonky trailer thing from alpine? speakers. You are listening to 20,000 watts of pure alpine sound or some such shite. They had two songs, Robert Miles - Children & Livin Joy - Dreamer.

 

For poor boy racers some clever* people had the idea of knocking out !!!pine brand speakers. They where shit but loud, I had some and used to annoy people with my huge choons.

 

What do they do at car shows for youths these days?

I think that !!PINE shite became Longmill

[Shirley Knott]

I think the whole scene turned around the turn of the millennium when it really seemed to stop being about any kind of performance modification at all and was literally all just about fitting truly truly gopping jap style body kits to corsas and saxos that bore no relation whatsoever to the original design of the car

 

^ 100% correct.

 

 

Me in 1990...

 

1.jpg2.jpg

 

Fortunately, I had grown out of this by 1993 when Max Power came along.

 

I actually approve of this. I'd be enthusiastic about driving that around even today, what happened to it?

 

RE the demise of that 'scene', as others have said, finance happened. If you have the opportunity to set your 17 year old treasure up with a modern/safe car for under £100 a month that's pretty appealing. It certainly wasn't something that was available to me (Or my parents) in the late 90's.

[iainrcz]

I must admit to spending a fair amount of money bazzing cars.

I had a 957 MK2 fez in galaxy blue with a gloss black xr2 kit, pepper pots and a supersprint exhaust (cut off a scrapper obviously) clear indicators and some big foggies on the front bumper.

Then I had a diesel saxo, lowered on 15" alloys with a noisy exhaust and too many speakers.

Then I had a rover 420 saloon.

Lowered with koni springs and dampers on 15" rover wheels, manifold back stainless exhaust.

 

 

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[Shirley Knott]

Then I had a diesel saxo, lowered on 15" alloys with a noisy exhaust and too many speakers.

 

 

 

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1.5 diesel Saxo, now you're talking...

[iainrcz]

1.5 diesel Saxo, now you're talking...

Yes. Epically slow.

Cheap as own brand chips to run though, ideal when women, beer and smokes are more important.

 

I "rolled" the rear arches with a broom handle.

 

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[Lord Sterling]

////ALPINE - I used to love that logo and wanted one so much to put my own car. Nowadays though, not so much.

 

I also remember (early in the Max Power era) the logo: The KENWOOD or ////ALPINE touch emblazoned on the rear of many screens.

 

I also remember loads of black Kenwood and Pioneer jackets being worn with Addidas Poppers (anyone remember them, I may still have a pair somewhere...)

 

Stereo names were a big thing then, I remember hearing about the kind of money I've never seen being spent on sound systems. £200 for a tape deck...

[jakebullet]

I suppose moderns kicked in yo! also helped kill it. I had a knackered mk1 fiesta base. An xr2 turned up at the local scrappy, and it was simple bolt on to stick in the dash, interior, bigger brakes etc. To get the instruments to work I just cut the donor's multiplug off and matched the wire colours, green wire left over to the coil and it all worked. You can't even swap bits from the same model now without reprogramming stuff.

[iainrcz]

Speaking of alpine, I had a 9855r in my rover about 2004 ish.

 

Cost *ahem* at the time.

 

Put it in my 406 as well. Via about 84 different adapter leads obviously.

 

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[fordperv]

I can't for the life of me remember how it all ended?

 

One minute there were modified cars everywhere, cruises were massive and boy racer stories were never far from local news rags.

 

That whole scene disappeared overnight. What happened??

 

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Car cruising bans up and down the country killed most of it

[sierraman]

I think its because cars suddenly got a lot better. They suddenly all had CD players and spoilers and would go like that clappers without resorting to some crap K&N kit.

[Bren]

I have five binders of fast car from 88 - 92. Lots of chod - sierras, SD1'S, capri, manta.

 

Propa shite.

[Shirley Knott]

Addidas Poppers indeed,

 

That whole thing/era also makes me think of the raves and the whole culture that went along with that too, particularly in the North. I remember the local warehouse/acid house nightspots carparks being lined with XR2/3/3i's. At that point the world seemed to rock a soundtrack a lot like this...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUJqLyq_wA

 

As said, even at the time it all seemed a bit naff, but these days I can look back on it all with a nostalgia and enjoy it for what it was. Everything available to 17/18 year olds these days is petty safe/sterile compared with the way things were coming of age back then in the lawless pre internet /social media  days.

[Doctormop]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already as its late and I CBA reading the entire thread but does anyone remember the Dole Money Cruiser; a red Chevette 3 door  bought from a scrapyard and Max'd out with Manta alloys for circa £300?

Even at the time; (I think it was 1993) I preferred the Chev as it was; before they buggered about with it*

 

*I was on the dole at the time and couldn't afford £300 so probably read the entire magazine in W H Smiths and felt it wasn't entirely relevant to my economic situation, plus I tried to read an article by Vikki Butler something or other that put me off the publication on the spot, Christ she was a silly cow trying SO HARD to be one of the blokes.