YES, WE LOVE CARS... BUT DON’T CALL US BOY RACERS
Enthusiasts seek to shake off their anti-social image, starting with new TV show
THEY like nothing more than socialising, modifying their cars and holding back-road rallies, often at night.
Just don’t call them boy racers.
It’s a term that doesn’t sit well with members of Unit Thirteen (U13), a Bangor-based car group that attracts enthusiasts from across North Wales.
Although they accept the car scene is seen as laddish and anti-social by some, they insist their focus is more on the technical and artistic side of things.
Besides, not all of them are boys.
Anglesey U13 member Craig Gilmour, from Llangefni, said: “I don’t like the term boy racer.
“I’m enthusiastic about cars. But I don’t race people on my drive home from work.
“A lot of people tend to paint us all with the same brush as the people who make idiots of themselves.
“As a group, we are pretty mechanically minded. We have boys who paint, detail, paint correction, vinyl wrapping; we’ve got engineers and machine specialists.
“We meet so many different people who are into so many different cars.”
Not so long ago, in a salute to Bangor’s petrolheads, the city was named the UK’S “boy racer capital” by Euro Car Parts.
Yet while enthusiasts admire each others’ spoilers, exhausts and body kits, some residents have complained they are being kept awake by noisy social gatherings.
Lewis Rushton, another Anglesey U13 member, said the group has worked hard to dispel the boy racer tag.
“We’ve done so well as a group over the last 10 years not to gain a bad reputation,” said Lewis, from Llanddaniel Fab.
“We try not to have people doing wheelspins, donuts, revving and things like that.”
A new six-part TV series aims to show a different perspective of the lives of the men and women who meet up every weekend across the region to showcase their vehicles.
Pen Petrol, on S4C, will shed light on different aspects of the car scene in North Wales, from classic car events to drift cars.
It will bring action from “nighter” rallies on the Llŷn peninsula and take a look at an exclusive supercar meet on Anglesey.
In the first episode, the spotlight falls on another Bangorbased car group, Midnight Runners, which is behind some of the biggest social meets in North Wales.
Recent meets, in retail parks and supermarket car parks in Llandudno and Bangor, attracted hundreds of drivers and their cars.
Despite police attention and social media criticism, the group insist they discourage any behaviour which would be deemed as “anti-social driving”.
Midnight Runners member Sian Wyn, from Llanberis, said: “We’re out on most Friday and Saturday nights for meets or whatever events that have been organised.
“You get the odd one who will spoil it for everyone else by doing a burnout, lifting their handbrake or doing a donut, and that’s when the police turn up.”
Midnight Runners member Nathan Owen, from Llanerchymedd, added: “We’ve actually packed out Llandudno car park before and that has 400, 500 spaces.
“And when we’re there, you see people in their windows filming us on the way there and as we leave.
“They say on Facebook that we’ve been there all night, spending six hours revving loudly. “But it’s only a three-hour stay! We’re not above the law, we listen.”
Nathan accepts that the police are “not big fans of the scene, whatsoever”.
But he said car clubs try to organise events as professionally as possible.
“We actually wear high-vis in our meets,” he said. “When the police turn up, they actually thank us because they can see that we’re trying to keep it organised.
“But even with the police presence, there’s always someone doing a handbrake turn somewhere.”
Pen Petrol can be watched on S4C Clic and the Hansh Youtube page.