“We just want somewhere where we can meet, park up and chat. This is really as exciting as it gets.”
Modified car enthusiasts who meet in Sainsbury’s car park say they are not the “boy racers” blamed for keeping Spalding residents awake by revving their engines in the early hours.
James Wyatt contacted the Lincolnshire Free Press following an article about a resident and her mother who were upset at being told by police they could only act on complaints about noise if they were given information such as registration numbers.
He said: “I am one of the people that tends to congregate in the Holland Market car park.
“We tend to meet the Argos side of the car park so residents have quite a distance between us on all sides.
“Depending on the people in there, it can be a quiet night and then you get a few others who want to show off a new exhaust or bigger turbo.
“Us so-called ‘boy racers’ may have loud cars. This doesn’t mean we speed or break the law in any way.”
The Free Press joined a group of young people who were parked in the Sainsbury’s car park on Friday night.
Aged from teens to thirties, they all had jobs or were at university, but shared one passion – their cars.
One said: “We just meet up and chat. This is as exciting as it gets. We are modified car enthusiasts – not boy racers.
“We could be out in town getting drunk and into trouble. But we couldn’t afford to do that even if we wanted to because we’ve spent all our money on our cars.
“The police come along and check them, but we’re not doing anything wrong. Our cars are road legal.
“We can make them loud, but we try to be respectful and keep the noise down.
“There are those who ride around town revving engines, but people shouldn’t tar us with the same brush.”
A 30-year-old local salesman parked up to join the group in his unmodified saloon.
He said: “My passion is in the garage. Back in the day the bus station was the place. We used to race up and down, doing handbrake turns and wheel-spinning.
“People seemed to be more tolerant then.”
According to the group, one solution to stopping complaints could be for the council or a business with a car park to make somewhere available for enthusiasts away from residential areas.
Police received no complaints about “boy racers” in Spalding over the weekend. However, a complaint about loud music coming from Boyes’ car park in Holbeach in the early hours on Monday morning is being investigated.