Garage Culture | The Rise & Fall of The Boy Racers.

At it’s most popular Max Power sold 250’000 copies a month and hosted an annual car show that was attended by 50’000 people. However within just a few short years circulation would drop to 20’000 and heavy criticism would be placed on the magazine surrounding it’s influence on an impressionable youth subculture and the anti social behaviour associated with it. The Max Power Lads would quickly turn into the Boy Racers, a term which vilified the scene and deterred new recruits. So what happened to this cultural Phenomenon and what made it so great in the first place? This has been a short film I’ve wanted to make for ages. I was born in 1997 in Essex, so by no means can I claim to be at the forefront of a scene I was just about born into. However I did have older siblings and parents who absolutely loved cars so spent many hours attending cruises and meets in Essex and North-West London between 2005-2010... and if there’s just one thing I learnt from Max culture in those early years of my existence, it really was that vehicles are an extension of our personality, so choose wisely. The truth is the current modified car scene can seem a bit sterile and a bit fake - but years of social media exposure coupled with everyone filming everything has done that to pretty much every subculture. The pressure to conform has never been higher, and in that pressure we lose greatness. It’s almost impossible for the scene to ever return to it’s former glory, and in some ways that’s for the best. Scenes are of a time and place, they represent the culture of the period and their followers. The Max Power era has had a profound effect on recent popular culture, and for that we can only say thanks. Keep it Max, buy something old and get back out there! Max Power was a British magazine, based in Peterborough, focusing on the performance-tuning and car market. Launched in 1993 by EMAP, it was also published under licence in Greece, Denmark, Norway, South Africa, and in France under the name ADDX. After EMAP acquired Petersen in 2000, a United States edition was published based on its existing title Max Speed and featuring cars from America and the UK. This ceased publication in 2001 when EMAP sold its U.S. arm to Primedia, but is still in print as Euro Tuner. Former staff members include Fifth Gear presenters Jonny Smith and Vicki Butler-Henderson, who was one of the original staff in 1993. Max Power was criticised for its promotion of unauthorised cruise events. The magazine had a rating system that scored the events in several areas including the size of the police presence, the behaviour and attractiveness of the girls, the number of ’burnouts’ performed and the general level of ’Barry’ surrounding the event. The magazine also occasionally campaigned against speed cameras and elderly drivers, and despite disclaimers was often criticised for printing articles about dangerous driving on public roads, including drifting and exceeding 200 mph on the A1. Another criticism was related to the large number of half-naked women in the publication, often described as ’bottom-shelf porn’. Glamour models who appeared in Max Power included Katie Price, Jakki Degg, Lauren Pope, Lucy Pinder, Michelle Marsh, Amy Green, Chantelle Houghton and Marie Sarantakis. The 2007 relaunch was aimed at reversing this criticism, but glamour shoots were later reintroduced. The perceived laddishness of the magazine meant it was also seen as non-serious by car enthusiasts who wished to focus on the engine/handling modification side of car tuning. However, Max Power was for a long time the biggest-selling motoring magazine in Europe, and was therefore courted by motor manufacturers and auto industry PR teams, who provided them with test cars, exposure to new products, and opportunities for the magazine to cover their brands. 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Context 01:19 Origins 02:53 Max Culture Spreads 04:15 Downfall 05:54 Death of a Scene