Boy racer (subculture)

A boy racer is a motorist of any gender who drives an automobile that has been modified with aftermarket body kits, audio system and exhaust system, usually in an unlawful manner. It can also mean a compact sporty coupe that is heavily modified for racing. Wealthier motorists who drive sports cars, or those with costly modifications, often seek to distance themselves from the culture. Responses to the boy racer phenomenon range from laws prohibiting cosmetic modifications to vehicles such as decorative lighting and window tint, restrictions on recreational driving ("cruising"), to vandalism such as spraying expanding foam into cars with loud "big-bore" exhaust tips to stop such cars driving around emitting loud droning noises.

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 actual street racing. A typical boy racer is seen as a young man who sits very low in his seat and wears a beanie, baseball cap and/or hoodie.

Modifications typically associated with the stereotype include:

The term boy racer is used in New Zealand to describe a youth that drives any form of vehicle that is Japanese and/or has been modified in any way (including factory fitted parts). 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" (correctly, dismantle for salable parts and destroy the remainder) vehicles on the third offence within four years, 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.

...
Wikipedia