Editor’s comment

26 January 2015  

I’m from Essex, not exactly the attention-grabbing first three words you may have expected from this comment. I live with the stereotypes of being from this part of the world, which for the men is that we all spend Saturdays at McDonalds doing donuts in white Escorts.

OK, maybe that particular stereotype has moved on, however almost every day my local newspaper carries a story about ‘boy-racers’ causing trouble. Some are particularly dangerous, street racing for example. In contrast, the meets I used to frequent were on industrial estates, away from built-up areas, where the police turned up to talk to us about our cars. Then someone would take it too far and it was headline news the following day.

I am of the Max Power generation, like a fair few of my friends. I’ve grown up a bit since then, however I still go to the modified car shows around the country. Rather than ‘boy-racers’ I use the term car enthusiast. We may have different tastes of style, performance or audio, yet under whatever modifications are made (legal of course), it is still a car, with an engine and four wheels.

It has also led to career choices. One of my friends, heavily into car audio, owns his own installation business. Another couple work in garages; one is the manager of an accessory store and of course, I’m an automotive journalist. Our enthusiasm in our early days has led to this and defined us, and our knowledge has been born from real world work, slaving over body kits and engine upgrades on our weekends off. If you want proof of that effort, the car above was my own, born of a 1987 Ford Escort 1.3L. By the time it was finished it had a 1.6-litre engine and gearbox with automatic choke from a Ford Orion.

So we may rant about the youth of today but for every one troublemaker that is sensationalised in the media there are hundreds of dedicated enthusiasts, many of whom could be your next apprentice or full-time employee. These enthusiasts also look after their vehicles, so they will buy good parts and if they are not mechanically savvy, will look to a tuning company or garage for a service. These are the types of car that won’t go back to a franchised dealership either. I know a few garages that used to run their own events, rolling road days, mini-shows with servicing included. It is always good to remove a stereotype and embrace the reality of the people involved.

phil@aftermarket.co.uk