Boy racers refer to teenage boys or young adult men who "cruise" around in vehicles modified with loud exhausts and stereos, or modified body kits. This behavior is frowned upon by members of the public irritated by the noise and the criminal behavior associated with it,[1] including violence by skinhead and neonazi "boy racers".[2] Many cars are cosmetically modified in an unlawful manner.[3] Car enthusiasts who drive sporty cars, or those modified to perform better, typically seek to distance themselves from the culture.[4] Responses to the boy racer problem range from laws prohibiting the antisocial activities they engage in to vigilante actions such as spraying expander foam, a common building supply, into boy racer cars with loud "big-bore" exhaust tips to stop such cars driving around emitting loud droning noises which is illegal and highly disrespectful to their property.[5]
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Publications for boy racers included Max Power, Fast Car, New Zealand Performance Car Magazine, MTV's Pimp My Ride and The Fast and the Furious as well as DVD publications and television shows.
Boy racers are typically known for speeding away from traffic lights, playing loud music, and revving their engines rather than street racing.[6][7] A typical boy racer is seen as a young man who sits very low in his seat and wears a beanie and/or hoodie.[8][9]
Modifications typically associated with the stereotype include:
Performance upgrades such as engine tuning adding turbochargers are rare amongst the boy racer subculture due to the high costs involved and the fact that most insurance companies charge extremely high premiums to young drivers with modified cars.
In Australia, the terms hoon and "revhead" are used for people who drive in an anti-social or dangerous manner. However, revhead (which derives from "revolutions per minute") may refer to any motor enthusiast, while hoon is always pejorative.
The term boy racer is used in New Zealand to describe a youth that partakes in dangerous activities involving an automobile. The Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Act 2003 is commonly known as the "Boy Racer Act". In 2009, a government led by the National Party augmented the Act with the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act and the Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Act, which allow police to confiscate and crush vehicles, issue infringements for "cruising" and prosecute street racing and "antisocial" behaviour, by creating temporary by-laws. The first car-crushing sentence was passed down in late 2011.[14]
While the slang word "bogan" generally has a broader meaning, it is often used in New Zealand in reference to owners of larger performance-oriented cars, like Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores.[15][16]
Most cheap vehicles in New Zealand are used Japanese imports and the culture follows modification of these cars.[17] During the late 1980s and 1990s tariffs were gradually removed on imported vehicles. This allowed many cheap second hand vehicles to enter New Zealand's car market and even caused new car prices to drop. In Japan, like New Zealand, cars drive on the left side of the road, and the Japanese car registration system discourages use of second-hand vehicles.
Boy racers in New Zealand have led to several cities putting "no cruising" bans in place around the major business districts. Christchurch was notorious for the "laps", or "aves". These were five avenues around the central business district which restricts cars from doing more than 3 consecutive laps of these streets between 10pm and 5am. This has led to boy racers and cruisers migrating to other areas which has angered locals.
In New Zealand the majority of boy racers cars are the rear-wheel drive Nissan Silvia's and Skyline variants, heavily modified in appearance with bodykits, two tone paint jobs, loud/large exhaust systems and extremely powerful sound systems using multiple amplifiers and subwoofers. Neon lighting is almost unheard of in New Zealand. Excessive window tinting is common as window tints can be self installed and there are no restrictions on the sale of window tints that are too dark for certain vehicle classes.
In the UK and Ireland boy racers are often synonymous with chav culture, although the average boy racer tends to be more affluent than the welfare-dependent majority of British chavs as they are able to purchase and insure a low-end car. Some could be described as 'middle-class dropouts'. The stereotypical boy racers in the UK and Ireland can be easily identified by their vehicle choice. They tend to prefer aged, small, three-door, front-wheel drive hatchback cars, such as the Vauxhall Corsa, Fiat Punto, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 106, Citroën Saxo, Volkswagen Polo and the Vauxhall Nova with small engines usually ranging between 1.0 litre and 1.6 litres; this "preference" is more based on financial restrictions rather than desire. (Engines with higher capacity are higher performance and carry increased insurance premiums, making them too expensive for many). These smaller cars are then often fitted with alloy wheels and large gauge or straight through exhausts to make them sound more powerful than they really are. Though not as common as the cars previously mentioned, mainly due to their price and insurance cost, Subaru Impreza WRX STIs and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions are favoured among Boy Racers because of their turbo charged engines and racing-intended designs. Criticisms are often raised regarding these loud exhausts as they do not actually sound like a performance car, just louder. Powerful stereos and speakers are installed, which can be felt more than heard (usually due to a sub woofer), people can normally hear these cars coming before they come into sight. Boy racers often neglect to tell their insurance provider about modifications as this would further inflate their premium, even though English law requires drivers to notify insurers of all material changes to the vehicle.[18] This creates a major problem, as many hundreds of young drivers may actually have invalid insurance (which is also illegal in the UK) as a result.
Americans often use the term "rice burner", "rice rocket", or ricer to describe the boy racer concept, since most of the vehicles are of Asian manufacture. If a car is "riced out", it has the import tuner look, and may or may not actually have performance parts under the hood. There's also the less popular term "wheat burner", "rice rocket", or ricer or "Domestic Rice," which is the same thing, but with a domestic American model such as a Ford Focus, or Chevrolet Cavalier. A "krauter" is a German model, usually a Volkswagen Jetta or Volkswagen Golf. The latter two categories are also sometimes referred to as "rice eaters," since their competition in the tuner scene is usually the more popular Asian models.
The Ford Grand Am Cup racing model of the Mustang, the FR500C was nicknamed "Boy Racer" by Ford executives.