Boy racer

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the legendary AJS 7R 350 cc "Boy Racer"

Renault Clio and "Boy Racer" culture.

Poser Mobile, a parody of common mods.

Originally Boy racer was the name of the AJS 7R, the 1951 to 1962 350-cc racing motorcycle produced by Associated Motorcycles. It was so called because of its perceived affordability in contrast to the contemporary 350 Manx Norton.

In that time the term was only used for the motorcycle. Since then the term has taken on a very different meaning.

Boy racer is a New Zealand and British colloquial term for a person, usually a male in his late teens or early twenties, who drives his car in an intimidating or dangerous way for fun. Their cars are most often regular models customised with spoilers, wide tires, flared fenders and go-faster stripes. Cars driven by boy racers are often small, and it's not uncommon that they are "all show and no go", in that the cars are not the highest performance model in the range or would not be considered competitive against "genuine" sports cars. Limited funds, young age and inexperience at driving are reasons why a person might prefer to buy a base level, 1-litre Peugeot 106 and equip it with a bodykit and sports exhaust rather than simply buying a harder to find and much more expensive to insure 106 GTi.

An example of a boy racer car of the old generation is the Ford Escort (both the early rear wheel drive versions such as the RS2000 and the later XR3i variants) due to their low cost and easily tuned engine, while modern boy racers generally use hot hatchbacks such as the Honda Civic, Renault Clio and the Nova SR.

According to the stereotype the new generation doesn't know much about tuning the engine, though there is little evidence to prove that this is true of the majority of people who would be categorised as "boy racers". Not everyone who owns modified cars are willing to spend thousands of pounds/dollars on the engine.

Movies like The Fast and the Furious and MTV's Pimp My Ride have caused additional interest in boy racing. Boy racers tend to be dictated by trends from popular racer medias like Max Power and Fast Car, spending lots of money to keep up with the trends. Recently they can been seen moving away from The Fast and The Furious influenced Jap Style into the drifting bandwagon largely hyped by magazines, despite some owning unsuitable FWD cars, causing a lot of displeasure amongst genuine drifting enthusiasts.

Americans often use the somewhat derogatory term "rice burner", "rice rocket", or ricer to describe the same concept. In Australia, the term hoon means the same thing. In Canada, the term "rice" is commonly substituted with the term "French", especially in eastern Ontario near the border of the French-speaking province of Quebec, except in Quebec, where they use the US term Ricer.

In some parts of the United Kingdom, where car culture is sometimes seen as being inextricably linked to chav culture, the term Barry Boy can sometimes be used. It is interesting to note that because of the obvious links between chav culture and car culture the word chav may be used in reference to boy racers. During the height of the XR3's popularities in the eighties and early nineties as they were a choice of boy racers, they and owners were referred to as XR3 Moron.

The stereotypical boy racers in the UK can be easily identified. They tend to prefer small cars like Novas, Corsas, Saxos, Clios and Golfs with small engines usually ranging between 1.0 litre and 1.4 litres. (Engines with higher capacity are usually sold in the UK as slightly sportier in character and due to increased insurance permiums, might be beyond the financial reach of the stereotypical boy racer.)

Typical upgrades for a boy racer include large stereos (which often take up the whole boot and can be heard playing dance music or happy hardcore from down the road); extravagant paint jobs; oversized exhaust pipes; large spoilers; hood scoops on non-turbocharged cars and neon lights underneath the chassis. Lowering a car is an extremely common modification.

Such modifications are also favoured by genuine enthusiasts. Boy racers would be distinguished from these enthusiasts by the overall performance and quality of the cars they drive and the modifications the make in relation to the overall performance of their car. For example, a stereotypical boy racer might own a Vauxhall Nova 1.1 with oversized wheels and exhaust, and they might use it to drive round town centres at night showing off to the crowds of people heading for pubs and clubs, while the enthusiast might own a modified Toyota Supra which they drive only at weekends.

Boy racers might also flout most motoring laws, such as running their foglights during the day, speeding, weaving through traffic, cornering too hard etc. Challenging superior sports cars is another dangerous pastime which seems extremely common; it is almost an occupational hazard for a sports car driver in the UK to be challenged at the lights by someone in a small hatcback.

Boy racers in New Zealand are similarly identified. They generally drive later model Skylines, Subaru Legacy's and Honda Civics, as well as late model BMW's. Often these cars are overloaded (more passengers than legally allowed, heavy modifications such as poor quality spoilers, and heavy, inefficiently installed sound systems) and have been lowered without care. The norm is the same general pattern of larger wheels, thinner tyres, larger exhausts and seemingly arbitrary carbon fibre parts and hood/roof scoops that have no use as is seen in other countries. Due to the all-show no-go nature of these vehicles coupled with the aformentioned overloading of cars and relative inexperience of the drivers results in most hastily arranged drag races from the stop lights being won easily by a low powered 250cc motorcycle, ridden by an inexperienced rider. New Zealand car modifiers, in contrast, are notifiable by often having a single occupant, occasionally two, expertly lowered suspension that allows the vehicle to traverse entrances to driveways and speed bumps without crushing the muffler, a noticable degree of taste and consistancy with any cosmetic modifications and a properly modified and tuned engine.

It should be noted that not all young drivers with modified cars fall into this bracket, with many driving their cars in a sensible manner. Car modifiers and cruisers who take a pride in their vehicles are generally well behaved and often have respect for other road users. There is often no distinction in the mainsteam media between the boy racer and modified car enthusiast which can lead to the latter being tarred with the same brush. In essence the boy racer is to the car scene what hooligans are to football; however, it seems that many young male drivers are regarded as boy racers regardless of circumstance.

[edit] In popular culture

In Germany, the typical boy-racer cars are the Golf GTI and the Opel Manta. Such popularity for the latter car led to a 1991 film parodysing its drivers, titled Manta, Manta[1].

Tonight with Trevor McDonald devoted an entire episode to Boy Racers on the 13th of October 2006.

Queen mentions boy racers in their song "I'm in Love With My Car" on their 1975 album A Night at the Opera.

Morrissey had a 1995 hit with "The Boy Racer".

Sacha Baron Cohen's 2002 movie Ali G Indahouse features many boy racer-style autos.