Mad About Cars

One of the biggest names linked with the UK modifying scene is Ripspeed. Since its acquisition by Halfords in 1999 the company has become one of the biggest names in UK car modifying.
The company originally started in 1973 as a performance tuning and accessories mail order company. Founded by 1970s Rallycross champion Keith Ripp, the company took his surname and from its base in Enfield, Middlesex, predominantly sold performance parts for Mini owners.
The company steadily grew before being sold in 1996, however in a bid to expand the new owners moved the company from its traditional Enfield base in a bid to expand to several stores nationwide, with more of an emphasis being placed on the sale of cosmetic modifications at the expense of performance tuning. However the ambitious plans were thwarted two years later when the business folded.
The Ripspeed name was bought by Halfords in 1999, who use the Ripspeed name as a sub-brand, representing the car-modifying arm of Halfords. One of the major changes to the Ripspeed name since 1999 is the virtual abandonment of performance tuning, with the brand now concentrating solely on cosmetic modifications.
Ripspeed is now one of the UK’s biggest car modifying companies, although since its Halfords takeover the brand is often heavily criticised by ‘serious’ car modifiers who claim that the company’s relatively cheap, low quality items and the focus on cosmetic modifications give it a cheap ‘boy racer’ image.
However, Ripspeed is now one of the few ‘mainstream’ car modification retailers in the UK with Ripspeed branches in Halfords stores across the UK.

One of the most famous names in the world of in-car entertainment is that of Kicker. The company was founded in 1973, under the name of Stillwater Designs, named after the town of Stillwater, Ohio where the company was originally based (and still remains to this day)

The company originally started by building specialist audio equipment for sites such as churches and auditoriums, moving into the world of car audio in 1980, where they made one of the world’s first high-performance specialist audio systems.

Today, the company is seen as one of the leading names in the world of car audio, with modifiers around the world choosing to equip their cars with Kicker equipment. Modified in-car entertainment systems featuring Kicker equipment have countless car audio competitions or ‘sound-offs’ over the years.

Kicker are well known for being one of the earliest producers of square subwoofers and loudspeakers, which are said to produce clearer sound quality, even from relatively small ten and twelve inch subwoofer systems. Although the company is famous for its subwoofer and large speaker systems, they produce a complete range of speakers, including high-range tweeters and general mid-range speakers.

Although the company is better known in America, in the last ten years the company has made real inroads into the UK market, against traditionally strong rivals like Alpine and Kenwood.

Max Power is one of the UK’s leading magazines covering the modified car scene, and is one of the first magazines to concentrate solely on modified cars. It has helped the scene grow since its launch in 1993, and has been the inspiration behind a number of rival magazines, all of which have their own loyal readership.
The name of the magazine helped introduced the word ‘maxed’ to define a heavily modified car, and this term was used for many years by many within the modified car scene to describe a heavily modified car. The magazine gained notoriety amongst the general public as one of the first magazines to openly feature illegal car ‘cruises’ across the country, with the magazine often rating cruises as better if a larger police presence turned up.
Initially the magazine concentrated on performance modifications, but over the years it displayed more of a prominence towards bodywork modifications, leading many performance car enthusiast to describe the magazine as a ‘boy racer’s’ magazine, concentrating more on cosmetic looks than power and performance.
In recent years, the magazine has looked to return to its performance and modifying roots, with many more features on car shows and cruises, and a variety of articles covering both car performance and styling and with the magazine a key part of many young drivers’ lives, it has also innovated advanced drivers schemes for newly qualified drivers, in exchange for discounts on car insurance.