Little boy racers

fishdog

So what does the nct crowd do here? Fail a 65k car for having an exhaust that was fitted from the factory but is not made by the manufacturer???

Very simple, fail any car that is louder than a certain amount.


Many of us are bewildered/saddened/amused watching boyracers driving around in:

1 Generally low powered cars, with a loud badly fitted exhaust (that often makes the car even less powerful) and makes the car sound rather sick.

2 A tail of some sort on the boot that resembles a picnic table that is of little use for anything else (down force seems to be of little advantage on a Micra at 20mph!)

3 Stickers peeling off that say sad things like "No Fear" (no fear of being able to drive properly!).

4 A cheap body kit that is in bits and falling off due to the speed bumps!

layke

From my perspective ::

Many of us are bewildered/saddened/amused watching normal drivers driving around in:

1) Generally low powered cars, with crappy reliability, power and handeling.

2) any sort of individuality or style.

3) Stickers of 98FM or teddies in the back window. Or cardbord cutout of their fave football Jersey complete with suction cups. Or possibly a nodding dog on the back window, that's real entertaining like.

4) *Cough* Hyundai Accent *Cough*. "Yeah I bought it for the sporty look it has" shame that's all it delivers. Point being style ain't everything and anyone who has their kit hanging off their car from speed bumps has done something majorly wrong.

Marcus.Aurelius

Telltale signs are:

1. Tyres so wide they stick out 3 inches outside the wing of the car

2. A shelf on the back of the car instead of a spoiler. Presumably for all their self-esteem trophies or somesuch

3. An exhaust which robs the car of 30% of its bhp (yes, all 3 bhp of it )

4. Car seat lowered so that all you see are the slitty, uncomprehending eyes under the crappy baseball cap covering the shaven head underneath

5. The stupidity to drive at 80 kph in a 50 kph zone where they can kill children, and drive at the same speed in a 100 kph zone, lest they be caught

6. The ubiquotous neon light fad still confuses me. It looks sh*te, they would never be mistaken for a Garda car, what's the point????

Any boy-racer car stopped by the Gardaí with these mods should have its NCT torn up. The costs of it would be a useful deterrant, perhaps coupled with an ever increasing fine depending on the number of similar offences?

Hmmmm, such wonderful dreams.......wouldn't it be great?

furtzy

layke wrote:

From my perspective ::

Many of us are bewildered/saddened/amused watching normal drivers driving around in:

1) Generally low powered cars, with crappy reliability, power and handeling.

As opposed to the fire breathing micras and puntos beloved of the boy racer. Usually with stupidly over sized tyres which ruin handling.

layke wrote:

2) any sort of individuality or style.

As opposed to the "individuality" of the NOS, HKS etc stickers, the bonnet vent, silly rear spolier etc etc etc

layke wrote:

3) Stickers of 98FM or teddies in the back window. Or cardbord cutout of their fave football Jersey complete with suction cups. Or possibly a nodding dog on the back window, that's real entertaining like.

Compared to the shopping list of performance bits they've added on or indeed whatever free stickers came with max Power this month. Also the over sized sun strip with some cruise site url.

layke wrote:

4) *Cough* Hyundai Accent *Cough*. "Yeah I bought it for the sporty look it has" shame that's all it delivers. Point being style ain't everything and anyone who has their kit hanging off their car from speed bumps has done something majorly wrong.

What....thats all these tarted up **** heaps are is style over substance.

dak

maoleary wrote:

Telltale signs are:


5. The stupidity to drive at 80 kph in a 50 kph zone where they can kill children, and drive at the same speed in a 100 kph zone, lest they be caught


Hmmmm, such wonderful dreams.......wouldn't it be great?

I would sy its more like 160kph especially after 11 or 12pm judging by some of the idiots I hear going through our local area at night. Very often there are 2 or 3 together .........whacky races comes to mind.

layke

I will admit I am a big city gal so I can't speak for the entire countryside but what I see on a daily basis are NOT micra's they are in fact Supras, Vtec Civics, Integras, MR2's....etc In fact the last modded Micra i've seen was in Tallaght a few years back. As for stickers. Again, it depends on the person some might like to advertise what gear they have under the hood, personally I prefer not to. Still, the point I was making in my previous post was that BOTH modders and non modders put stickers on their cars.

Yes I agree that you will get some young lads who deck out their smaller cars with things that may not look the best. However majority wise these people are not the ones with big boom boom exhausts, these are usually the sort of person who is 17 and using mom's car.

ambro25

There's one thing which I really don't understand about young car enthusiasts: admittedly, they spend princely sums to either stand out from the crowd or improve the standard spec of their car (or worse, both - read on to understand why "worse").

So why not buy a better standard 'performance' car with the cash in the first place (on finance if required - same cashflow effect as adding bits & bobs over time).

E.g. (figures out of thin air, note) don't buy a 1,0L micra for €5k and spend another €5k on it, buy a slightly older (or newer, who knows) Impreza for €10k

That is, if it's all about the driving and the individuality, and not, as car enthusiasts claim, about the noise pollution, the speeding, or the insurance (all of which may well be comparable, between the souped-up 200bhp Glanza with everything declared to the insurers, and the standard 2L Impreza).

furtzy

layke wrote:

I will admit I am a big city gal so I can't speak for the entire countryside but what I see on a daily basis are NOT micra's they are in fact Supras, Vtec Civics, Integras, MR2's....etc In fact the last modded Micra i've seen was in Tallaght a few years back. As for stickers. Again, it depends on the person some might like to advertise what gear they have under the hood, personally I prefer not to. Still, the point I was making in my previous post was that BOTH modders and non modders put stickers on their cars.

Yes I agree that you will get some young lads who deck out their smaller cars with things that may not look the best. However majority wise these people are not the ones with big boom boom exhausts, these are usually the sort of person who is 17 and using mom's car.

Not the case with me then. All I see whether its Dublin, Donegal or wherever is the same tarted up ****e heaps with the same little scrotes driving around and around with the loud exhausts trying to get noticed. They're pathetic

Theres nothing individual about them. The one I always find funny is the fake Civic Type R's. If they were real enthusiasts then surely they wouldn't try to pass off a fake.

layke

ambro25 wrote:

There's one thing which I really don't understand about young car enthusiasts: admittedly, they spend princely sums to either stand out from the crowd or improve the standard spec of their car (or worse, both - read on to understand why "worse").

So why not buy a better standard 'performance' car with the cash in the first place (on finance if required - same cashflow effect as adding bits & bobs over time).

Insurance (not saying it's legal but some do).
Looks
+ Modifying is FUN!
Buying a car that you haven't put your blood and sweat into isn't worth it.

That is, if it's all about the driving and the individuality, and not, as car enthusiasts claim, about the noise pollution, the speeding, or the insurance (all of which may well be comparable, between the souped-up 200bhp Glanza with everything declared to the insurers, and the standard 2L Impreza).

Take a modded 96 Integra to the track v's a standard 07 Scooby and watch the Scooby lose. Costs are far cheaper to mod Teg then buy a Scooby.

ambro25

Not interested in 'track comparisons', my appendages are satisfyingly large enough, thx

layke wrote:

Insurance (not saying it's legal but some do)

So what you are essentially saying, is:
[typical young modder]
i) I can't afford insurance on a performance car
ii) But I want a performance car
iii) So I'll buy a standard car and bring it up to performance car levels
iv) And I may or may not tell my insurer about it
[/typical young modder]

My point is that, presumably, when you tell your insurer about the mods (i.e. my Punto puts out 150bhp), the premium for the young driver should about mirror the premium on a standard unmodified performance car, no

oleras

furtzy wrote:

The one I always find funny is the fake Civic Type R's. If they were real enthusiasts then surely they wouldn't try to pass off a fake.

Have to giggle whn i see those black painted bonnets to look like carbon fibre from 300 yards away....:D

~~SKYHIGH~~

oleras wrote:

Have to giggle whn i see those black painted bonnets to look like carbon fibre from 300 yards away....:D

Ye it's so silly and incompetant I cant stand it. You paint your bonnit black because you cannot afford carbon fibre is ultimately the reason there.

As for the BIG ASS exhaust pipes, well Im glad they will outlaw them however due to the nature of some cars there will be exceptions made. Factory exhaust's from imprezas and lancers are not loud at all. My friend Dave has an evo with the factory exhaust and its as quite as a micra. You'd mistake the car for being a bloody basic 1.3 glx lancer it's so quiet.

lafors

@ layke, you are doing nothing to improve the perception of boy racers (or modified car enthusiasts) here from your posts.

Surely this should be on the modified forum anyway. There might be similar minded folk there.

Seth Brundle

They are not banning BIG ASS exhaust pipes. Thay are banning exhausts that emit too much sound - pedantic but they are not the same thing!

colm_mcm

layke wrote:

4) *Cough* Hyundai Accent *Cough*. "Yeah I bought it for the sporty look it has" shame that's all it delivers. Point being style ain't everything and anyone who has their kit hanging off their car from speed bumps has done something majorly wrong.

This is my understanding of what a Hyundai Accent is. What's yours?

agent_smith

I would never fit an after market exhaust on my car... however I'm also a biker and I would always fit an aftermarket exhaust that is as loud as possible to my bike to give myself every chance of being noticed and I mean thats strictly from the safety point of view. Double standards... maybe. When I last changed my bike I replaced the stock exhaust can with a professional grade can. I took the baffles out and immediately noticed that more cars 'noticed' me better. There is a definately a safety aspect to it from a biker point of view.
Like I said again... it might sound like double standard but as a cager too (car driver ) I would never mod my car.
That said, I do not mind those that modify their cars once they do not modify their driving habits dangerously. A tastefully and well modified car (which has been modified with manufacturer approved parts) can really increase the attractiveness of the car without altering its safety.
Like I said ,modifying cars isn't for me, but I would resent restricting people freedom of expression, be that modifying a car or anything else once it is not in the interest of the public. I think people are taking a dim view of modified cars since they are associated with dangerously modifed driving habits.

jackofalltrades

I have the misfortune of working in a retail park with a Halfords in it, one of the lads who works there has a Integra, with an exhaust thats so loud it sets of the alarms of other cars as he drivers off every evening.

The exhaust is also really badly fitted, making the car sound like a souped up tractor.

I'd say if "boy-racers" toned down the volumes of their exhausts they wouldn't attract half the negative publicity that they currently get.

Esel

agent_smith, why don't you just get a Hardly? Cagers (thanks for the explanation btw :rolleyes:) would certainly hear you - while they are overtaking you, of course!