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MAX POWER!Mercdan68
@forddan68
Club Retro Rides Member 68
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Tbh it’s a bit of a two edged sword for me I’ve been playing with cars since I was 15 My parents bought my first mk1 escort for me in 1985 I don’t throw thousands at any car, but I modify within a budget and to my tastes , I appreciate all car builds but thousands of pounds thrown at a car your never going to own for years seems pointless to me
And trends/styles change I still enjoy the chase of a cheap tidy car for sensible money and tinkering with it great fun But throwing thousands at it, nah not for me But you have to sit back and admire some of the work some people put in, whatever there tastes
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Last Edit: Jun 3, 2022 14:28:53 GMT by Mercdan68
Fraud owners club member 2003 W211 Mercedes E class 1989 Sierra sapphire 1998 ex bt fiesta van
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Have a neighbour in his retirement years who as pursued max power from its start to this day. He is well known simply because the style is just not there anymore in any big amounts. He attends show n shines where many people simply walk past without even looking but he goes on regardless. As he got older the max power came alive as with mapping and exhaust upgrades he as a good turn of speed to match the max power theme. Local garage said every part fitted away from standard devalues the car more. This chap is estimated ten grand into in essence a 900 pound car but with such dedication to one era i suppose when it goes full circle he will be at the starting gate waiting for everyone to catch up
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Started out with nothing and have most of it left.
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andy88
Part of things
Posts: 69
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I did like Max Power (and FAST Car and Revs) when it was about cars like 205 GTIs and Fiesta RS Turbos but I seem to recall it later had a lot of massive HP J cars and it wasn't quite the same for me after that.
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,614
Club RR Member Number: 11
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MAX POWER!skinnylew
@skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member 11
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I went this route with my first car, a mk3 Fiesta back in 2000. I was working in Halfords at the time and Fast Car Magazine was down the road so they would often pop in for bits and pieces or with cover cars. I started out innocently enough with 15" Fox 5 wheels. Then it all went a bit mad with aluminium boot spoilers, 4" stainless back box, lexus rear lights, cut out front bumper and mesh, red neon kit. Then stepped up another level with 17" alloys, grooved discs, painted calipers and an Animal bodykit with RS2000 skirts, K&N filter, Cobra bucket seats and ICE install including DVD player. Amazingly I still have it!!! Currently requiring welding it still has the Animal front bumper, XR2i rear, 4" can, some ICE and a 4dr Fiesta Si interior. It might get back on the road one day but in what guise......well i did buy a load of XR2i suspension and badboy bonnet with Evo vent......even missed out on a flushed tailgate the other day lol This is how I wanted it too look (except radiant red, 5 dr and rolling on 17"s )
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I was 11 or 12 when it was a thing I guess, but most I saw in person were always permanent WIP... like 1.1 205s with an R5 GTT body kit woodscrewed to it in perpetual primer, or hugely wide body kits with 13' steels hiding deep in the wells. Do miss seeing them now, just a sea of financed Audi/Vw/BMWs now with a pop and bang map, and the odd DSG fart.
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skinnylew Halfords in St Mary Cray? I worked in the Comet across the road at around the same time, had the Fast Car lads in now and again before their office moved. No Max Power stuff for me, I had a VX220 and then a S1RST Escort at that time
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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MAX POWER!Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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The reason I wasnt into the maxypants scene at the time was it came with a whole bunch of fairly awful laddish tribalism, which was impossible to separate from the cars, especially in that just pre-internet time it all occurred in where everything was based on a image or stereotype. It was basically modified cars for people who’s ‘persona’ was based on the whole ‘lads mag’ thing that grew out of britpop. (Ironic given the roots of britpop as a haven for misfits, freaks and weirdos) They wore Ben Sherman and drank alchopops and had gelled hair and encouraged their ‘birds’ to get their norks out for the mag, and if you didn’t fit into that then you weren’t welcome.
I seem to remember the whole ‘max power’ scene not being very popular even with other car scenes at the time. Plenty of other scenes such as minis, aircooled VWs, and even the fledgling retro scene spent a lot of time taking the curse word out of it all in print, whilst also being more accepting of people who didn’t fit within max power.
I don’t look back on it fondly at all, and that’s before we even get to most of the cars being utterly gopping and made out of filler.
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Oh god yeah the "attitude" was abysmal. And yeah, arranging events and "no Max Power cars" or "No FWD" was common. But I'm an old (ex-ish) Goth. Spent most of the 80s telling folks we weren't metallers and most of the 90s saying we weren't Emos. And now the remaining Emos and metallers live happily with the remaining Goths. I'd have said the Max Power cruise culture owed less to Brit Pop and more to the dance music scene. The fashions, music and so on were far more in line. Ladism was a curse word child of Brit Pop I guess, and I think the 2 were parallels on a shift in society in general.
I remember picking up a Max Power to read on a train. There was quite a cool Focus build but the article was just 3 pages of BS on how bikers were obviously gay because they wear leather and nothing about the car. AndthenI recall when "CJ" used to write for Custom Car in the 80s, you may have a neat red '32 roadster with 3 pages of blather about discos and traffic wardens.
And yeah many of the cars were curse word. But lets not have on our rose tinted glasses, many of the customs of the 70s and 80s were badly built and full of filler. Many of the rat rides and stuff I'm still seeing I have to question the taste an the competance of the builders. Well, I would, but I'm polite. Even some of the high tech stuff of the 90s and 00s was often very shiny over questionable choices. And Mercedes E class headlights in every 30s build? As bad as Lexus lights in a Saxo, if not worse....
So I guess the scene at its time was awful. Really awful. But I guess the folks in it for the norks and the lolz and the alcopops have moved on and the worst of the cars have been scrapped.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,614
Club RR Member Number: 11
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MAX POWER!skinnylew
@skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member 11
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skinnylew Halfords in St Mary Cray? I worked in the Comet across the road at around the same time, had the Fast Car lads in now and again before their office moved. No Max Power stuff for me, I had a VX220 and then a S1RST Escort at that time Yup spot on! Was great to work in when Halfords actually contained knowledgeable staff and parts for cars behind the counter. and the warehouse was huge, big enough to park your car in the back end of it and work on it after hours without issue
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Last Edit: Jun 5, 2022 11:23:33 GMT by skinnylew
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skinnylew Halfords in St Mary Cray? I worked in the Comet across the road at around the same time, had the Fast Car lads in now and again before their office moved. No Max Power stuff for me, I had a VX220 and then a S1RST Escort at that time Yup spot on! Was great to work in when Halfords actually contained knowledgeable staff and parts for cars behind the counter. and the warehouse was huge, big enough to park your car in the back end of it and work on it after hours without issue Small world! One of my sales team at the time (graham) had a brother that worked in your Halfords, can't remember his name
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,614
Club RR Member Number: 11
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MAX POWER!skinnylew
@skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member 11
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Yup spot on! Was great to work in when Halfords actually contained knowledgeable staff and parts for cars behind the counter. and the warehouse was huge, big enough to park your car in the back end of it and work on it after hours without issue Small world! One of my sales team at the time (graham) had a brother that worked in your Halfords, can't remember his name Yeah that rings a bell, think it was Stuart, worked on the Audio section mainly, always driving something different and a lovely lad, would help anyone.
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I used to buy Max Power off the newsstand because it was considerably different from the stuff here in the US. Preferred Super Street and European Car for that sort of stuff since those were mostly driven cars rather than show cars.
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Small world! One of my sales team at the time (graham) had a brother that worked in your Halfords, can't remember his name Yeah that rings a bell, think it was Stuart, worked on the Audio section mainly, always driving something different and a lovely lad, would help anyone. Stuart rings a bell
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MAX POWER became a bit like Loaded all pictures , Questions on Loving - Pink or Brown. Turned into a CHAV mag with the Joe Bloggs and the Ben Shermans and some God Awful Sh1te boxes
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Not sure if anyone watches Car Trek / Tavarish but Jamie Shaw / Charisma TVR has been exported to the states and is owned by Ed Bolian.
For me the best max power car was project thunder, shame the youth who won it crashed it almost instantly.
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That E92 'rolla is the sex. So, much, want!
I'd maybe loose all the GTi 16 stickers.
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Last Edit: Jun 9, 2022 11:38:36 GMT by stonyray
Nissan Laurel SOLD BMW E34 Diesel SOLD Toyota Soarer 4.0 V8 SOLD Audi A4 1995 TDI SOLD Peugeot 205 1.9 TD SOLD Lexus IS300 SC
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,926
Club RR Member Number: 174
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MAX POWER!stealthstylz
@stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member 174
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That E92 'rolla is the sex. So, much, want! I'd maybe loose all the GTi 16 stickers. They're crazy money now. Very popular with Asian lads my age and they spend big money on mint ones, there's a group of mates pretty local to me who all own them.
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LowStandards
Club Retro Rides Member
Bigging Up The Sum Sum Man Since '99
Posts: 2,665
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I was one of those 'awful' people who 'ruined' a car and had it featured in Max Power Good times To be fair, it was ruined, top speed dropped by 20ish mph iirc
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I tend to flip-flop a bit around stuff like this. It was never really my thing, and I remember going to a car show at the time and thinking 'this is mostly populated by bellends isn't it?', but then I was probably more judgemental then than I am now. People tend to grow out of that stuff a little (both bellend-dom and judgementalism).
Really I'm just happy people are doing something with their cars, even if I don't particularly like it. It's better than chucking them into a government scrappage scheme and going to buy a new 2-ton sensory deprivation box.
I also try and challenge myself on my opinion of the 'low quality' builds. At the time I thought they were godawful, but they're probably the best someone could do with the skills and money they had at the time. Everyone's got to start somewhere, and if wood-screwing a Halfords body kit to your Astra is where that is then that's fine. That was one of the things I actually thought it did well. It was an accessible way into car modification for a whole bunch of people with not much money and not much skill. That's something that's getting increasingly hard to come by which is not a good thing at all.
Yes I do tend to have a bit more respect for people who can make really nice stuff, but I try not to be down on people who can't yet and certainly don't like the idea of using that to exclude people from participating in stuff or being part of a group. Besides, I've seen some cracking 'low quality' builds and some 'high quality' ones that have really rubbed me up the wrong way (all over car culture, not just in Max Power).
I vote yes retro, no I still don't like it much, but if someone else likes it then good on them.
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