Modified Car Pages

In a Gatso-ridden World, Santa Pod Raceway in Northants are doing their bit to provide high-octane thrills at low-octane prices.

The internationally recognised drag-racing venue has just announced its 2009 ‘Run What You Brung’ (RWYB) programme, where mere mortals can turn up with their road car or bike, with a valid UK licence and enjoy a day’s racing under full competition conditions for a mere £35 for the entire day! No competition licence is required.

As the ultimate test of car and driver, or bike and rider, RWYB offers a real chance to settle the age-old pub debate over whose machine is quickest, or who has the greatest reaction times - and all in the total safety of an FIA approved venue. Compared to the average circuit track day at £150 - plus tyres, Santa Pod’s RWYB sessions offer petrol-heads the chance to enjoy their vehicle at the limit of its performance, without spending a fortune.

Santa Pod General Manager, David Lloyd-Jones helped to put things in perspective. ‘It’s a difficult financial climate for motorists at the moment.’ he said. ‘That’s why we will continue to drive down the cost for enthusiasts. For £35, you will get full computerised timing slips on each run, measuring your reactions, terminal speed and total quarter mile time. It’s the equivalent of having unlimited use of Silverstone, under race conditions - with all of the timing gear at your disposal, for less than the cost of half a tank of fuel, Come and enjoy yourselves in a totally safe - and legal environment’

In-keeping with the value for money theme, any additional spectators get in for just £10 and under 16s get in absolutely free. There’s even free grandstand seating for your fans to cheer you on and full shop and cafe facilities available all day. A fun, fast day out for the whole family.

Drivers with quick reactions – and an even quicker car, may want to pre-register for the RWYB Street Challenge. Here, street-legal cars battle the clock with the fastest recorded time all year taking home a cheque for £500 at the end of the season. All that fun – and they pay you too!

The first RWYB day is held on Sunday 18th January 2009. Visit www.rwyb.com for more details and the 2009 full diary.

My business partner and I are both heavily involved in the modified and performance car scene, even more so than most people. This is due to the levels of involvement we have with the different people and areas within the scene itself.

We deal with the trade end of the scene, and know that a lot of traders are having a hard time this year. Areas like window tinting, and bodykit sales are down - have those “fads” passed?

In addition to the trade end, we also deal with the show organisers and promoters on a regular basis too. We know that some shows have been cancelled this year as they felt there were too many, and we know that the attendance at the shows has been down too - so far this year anyway.

And finally, we deal with the user end of the scene, the consumers and the customers. The actual car owners themselves who keep the scene alive year after year. In the first few months of this year, we noticed the drop in the scene straight away and we initially thought that it was dying. We thought that new laws being passed, and new fashions springing up meant the end of the modified and performance car scene in the UK.

Then the show season started, and we noticed that there were still the regular hard core show-goers attending, a few new clubs and members too - and although attendance figures were nothing compared to the last few years, there was still a good selection of cars and people which meant the shows were still buzzing with enthusiasm.

So we sat down and started talking about what we had said about the scene, and that we were wrong. The scene isn’t dying, its just changing!

The times of sticking huge bodykits and wide arches onto your corsa seem to be coming to an end, and more and more people are leaving their cars standardish, and are getting more into the motorsport aspect of the scene.

Many of the people i know are now drifters, blagging local tyre places for any unwanted tyres so they can stock up for those days out at DWYB at pod. Most of them have highly tuned Japanese cars, some with exterior mods too, but most with subtle mods, and lots of power!

A fair few of my friends are now into the strip at Santa pod, and also the tracks at cadwell park and silverstone. Instead of taking part in a bit of traffic light grand prix, they save it for the pod and race their mates somewhere where it can be timed to perfection helping you get your 1/4 mile time lower.

Don’t get me wrong, the bodykit and styling aspect of the scene is still around, and probably always will be - but it is the one part of the scene that has changed big time!

So in conclusion, the modified car scene has lessened, and the performance car scene is rising.

I think that overall its a good thing for our world, as it means that the people left in it, are the people who are serious about it. The fact its probably not top of the fashion charts means that there is no longer spoilt rich kid’s driving standard fiestas into a bodyshop, and driving a front page cover car out.

Only the hardcore remain.