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Car cruisers’ vow on meets
Monday 26th March 2007, 11:58AM BST.
A convoy of up to 30 modified cars cruised into a Staffordshire town to show off their speed machines, with members vowing that police would never stop them.The cruise leader admitted to taking part in street races for boy racers and large secret convoys of car enthusiasts.
But Maxine Cullis, who was at a McDonald’s in Cannock, said most people met just to show off their cars and the thousands of pounds of changes they had made.
Maxine, of Bushbury, Wolverhampton, and her husband Pete run a website, with 900 members, for fans of modified cars called midzcruizin.co.uk.
Three of its members died in car crashes after visiting the fast food restaurant at the Longford Retail Park, prompting South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh to call for action from McDonald’s to stop car enthusiasts meeting there.
Modifications yesterday included 15in TVs, DVD players, a smoke machine and boom boxes in the boot, with flash body kits and expensive alloy wheels.
Maxine said the boy racer problem was not widespread as most people did not want to risk an accident.
“They all park up and everybody will admire everybody’s cars and the systems in them,” she said.
“There is street racing that goes on, I’m not going to lie, because there are some cars that enjoy that activity so we do it even though it is illegal. But we will take it into an industrial estate that’s shut down for the weekend.”
Police have carried out operations at McDonald’s and the nearby retail park where cars have been seized.
But Maxine said: “It will never stop. The more they try and curb it the more it will go underground.”
The shift manager at McDonald’s declined to comment.
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Is fun really about what can only be described as disturbing the peace?
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The police should sieze the cars belonging to anyone who takes part in street racing & put them in the crusher, not only are they a public nuisance they are a danger to other road users further Maxine Cullis should be arrested & charged for causing a public nuisance.
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Typical attitude of Britain of Today …….. Me First Last and Aways …. These pitiful morons have too much money and a scarcity of Brains and no creativity ….. Why ape the Americans of the 40′s and 50′s?.
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Now I love your comments but our hobby is only like you with your stamps. We love our cars, we mod our cars and want to show them off – we have the money to do it. We spend more money on our cars than we do food, housing and drinking – and we are probably some of the safest drivers going on advance driving courses, track days and what not. Now what do you do? Learn to drive with one company, pass and half of them crash the car. Yet some of our hundreds of members (not MidzCruizin) have no crashes and have been driving since 17. We have members of ALL ages, from 17 to 56 driving all sorts of vehicles. At the end of the day MOST of us drive sensible because of the value of our cars, yet you always get the odd few who dont give a damn what you think and drive nuts – which we dont encourage. Our convoys are strictly watched and anyone messing about gets thrown out. All we ask for is a car park or area where we can go, sit and meet together without the hassle of police. It is right what maxine said, it will go further underground the more you TRY and stop it. Half, if not all of your kids driving are in one club or another. Call us what you like, but at the end of the day you get ENTHUSIATS which are us and IDIOTS who are promoting illegal racing in newspapers – how stupid!!
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I dont think journalists know the truth from lies these days.
“Three of its members died in car crashes” complete and utter lies, these three boys were not members of this ‘boy racing’ group.
Why can’t you print a story thats wholly true for a change? But then again that would involve researching the issue at hand here and actually doing your jobs!
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As a local taxi driver the roads at weekends around the town are filled by these morons racing around without any due care to others, you have to have eyes in the back of your head or most of the time you can hear just a roar as some prat screams by in his corsa,saxo,skyine,pratmobile whatever you want to call it.
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Ok Steve but arent taxi drivers the same on any day? Taxi drivers are the worst drivers around. If they arent speeding they ar weaving in and out of traffic all day so I dont think you have a leg to stand on.
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What a pity the express&star reporter did not consider residents with whom have little sleep from friday through to monday because of the thoughlessness of these idiots. It has now been gloryfied in the paper thanks! they know the website to visit and where they all meet and race, hell why not go for broke and join in. This problem has been continually reported to the police from 9pm – 1am there is no sleep, perhaps the reporter whom took pictures with these people could also have took the photographs of them on the A5 racing up and down, then maybe the police could see those too since they are also doing little or nothing to solve this issue. What a pity it will take a death along A5 in order for action to be taken.
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not all of the people in the cruise scene are boy racers, and do not take part in ‘street races’ this is just giving all people that are into modding cars a bad name. there are shows in which they go to, to view other peoples cars because of how they have been modded, this is not harming anyone, the people who do race are doing so at their own risk, fair enough that is illegal but viewing other cars is not and that is not doing any harm.
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no-one has any objections to people having their vehicles modded and showing them, but since when has the local mcdonalds carpark been an official meet point, if these illegal racers are giving a bad name to the cruise scene then there should be no problem in providing police with registrations of those who are shaming the hobby.
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i live on the A5 and believe me the cars coming up and down all weekend are not cruizing they are RACING and as far I can tell, most of the cars are illegal in some way or other,1)exhaust noise 2)speed 3)how many drivers have notified there insurance of the modifications as they will not be insured if not,As for saying many are advanced drivers I will go back to last year when a wall some 8 feet away from a straight piece of road jumped off its foundations into the path of a mini (top driver he was)The driving standard of some of these morons leaves a lot to be desired a recent trip to sainsbury’s proved that, as I was nearly mowed down by one of these so called advanced motorists,Both mcdonalds and sainsbury’s need to be aware of the problems they are creating by allowing this to carry on I will no longer shop from either as it is too dangerous to get across there respective car parks,One of these days i shall follow one of the noisey cars home and sit revving my bike up outside his house and see if he/she are bothered when I have woke all of there family up at 1am
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it is really stupid how people go on and on about the “boy racers” the fact is.. its Chav’s being the pain not the people who spend a lot of money on the car’s and look after them knowing what and what not to do.. yes we put big exhausts on but we do not mean to keep people away by doing so… as said above about a lot of people taking various tests to improve on their driving skill’s and yes we do, do that because we value our cars more than most things. if people want to moan about us then do so but we dont mean to be a pain in the backside we just want to enjoy being young while we can rather than growning old before our time and being one of those who moan!
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as said above you don’t mean to be a pain so maybe the next time you have a moron meet have it outside your house along your road then tell us that no-one will ‘moan’ about the noise.
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well it as been made to llok like were a load of racers and thats not the case we spend loads on our motors and its a hobbie just like some people like train spoting and stamp colecting so whats the big thing about it ill tell you what it is were easy targets for people to pray on and have ago at and yes i do agree there are some idiots out there but why brand us all the same and as for having them all out side our house well i must tell you now i have done this and i have had no complaints in fact people have come out and had a look round the cars i think to be fair some of you who are moaning should spend a night with us when were all out and see for your selfs what goes on oh and for them of you im not young and im not a boy so please stop calling us boy racers
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we were all young once i am not so old now still 28 years to go before i get a pension but when i was younger I had due consideration for other people when we hung around on our bikes we did it on the middle of the chase there are no houses there and nobody to moan there is plenty of car parks so why not do as i did and go there,wouldnt that solve all the problems but then again there may be a few too many sharp bends for the advanced motorists to negotiate,all in all if you want loud stereos,loud exhausts fine but keep it to youreself keep them outside your own house or take it were nobody else has to suffer it.
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… How old are you people ? i bet all you people are curtain twitches watching everyone in the streets monaing to your naibours monaing about the everything … we pay our frigging tax so why dont you all go fly … we can drive where we want and do what we want … you can talk to mcdonalds and tell them what its causing but to be honest i dont think they will care cause us so called ‘boy racers’ give them the best buissness ever ! so i dont think they will stop us coming … we get judged for having a modded car they think w all speed around causing noise etc.. not all off us are like that … dunno why i even read the papers these days its all false … shite … peace out CRUISING FOREVER !!! …
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I pay my council tax and my morgage, I do not pay to listen to people illegaly racing down the A5, it is the racers giving the hobbie a bad name, but so long as you continue to associate yourselves with them then you are just as likely to share their shit too, afterall those of you who do meet at McDonalds know who is racing and who is not, you may have the money and the intelligence to mod your cars, what a pity you don,t have the intelligence to realise you all meet at the same place but everyone is deaf to the noise of the racing that partakes and of course who could possibly suggest that you know who these racers are, after all this is just a hobbie and as the paper said you are not aware of any racing….yeah now i know your having a laugh.
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What a load of rubbish! modified cars meet at Mcdonalds so that they can get food and drinks whilst out. If they met in the middle of the chase as suggested what are they supposed to do? take a picnic? At the end of the day you decided to live on one of britains busiest roads near a retail centre. How can you possibly moan about noise?
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im a young girl who spends most weekends up longford and sainsburys in cannock. I enjoy my nights out there and find the atmosphere calm and relaxed. In my experience there has never been any trouble. Im sure that if i go out drinking round town bt 8 o’clock im sure that a fight or such as kicked off. Cruising is not a crime and im sure if MacDonalds had a problem with us meeting up at there outlet they would let us know! But i am sure this will not stop because the company would lose a lot of custom. I am ashamed that the country today is ran by a nanny state and any HARMLESS fun has to be stopped. I think the police should concentrate on the real criminals and leave us kids alone!
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nothing to do with living on a main road, and not everybody has a choice of residence, stick to McDonalds car park if you don’t like seeing other people’s opinions, stop harrassing those that do live along the A5 just makes the racers amongst you selfish prats, people would not be commenting if it was not affecting them.
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you will never stop us from cruising its in our hearts,
you try and stop us and well cause uproar in london protesting well gather a good 5,000 cars at least and shut down london youll never ever stop us.
and you should leave us alone and catch real criminals, we aint doing nothing wrong,
just fopr the people moaning because they dont do anything with their lifes its worth mentioning “you were young once”
I ONLY GO TO WORK TO FUND MY MODDING ADDICTION.
cruising is not a crime and the more you try and stop it and build speedhumps well all just buy jeeps and the ridiculous high tax rate wont apply to us because, well all buy old 4x4s.
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crush all boy racer cars, they make a mess of our streets
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to comment no 20 PLEASE…. go to London and do us all a favour and real criminals are no better than those of you who are racing, noise nuisance, illegal speeds, undertaking past other vehicles that are not racing, oh not to forget harrassment. Go to London see the queen have a ball!!!
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Maxine Cullis should be arrested & charged for what she said
There is street racing that goes on, I’m not going to lie, because there are some cars that enjoy that activity so we do it even though it is illegal. But we will take it into an industrial estate that’s shut down for the weekend.”
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i know where u race hahaha
behind my housing estate
shall i grass ?
this is stupid if you ask me!!
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not everyone that is involved with modding cars are boy/girl racers, we dont go out to find races the majority of us go out to show off cars and what our hobby is and actually make some of the bestest friends you can find
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I can guarentee you sad pathetic people that even tho ok yes our exhausted may be too noisy, tints could be a bit too dark BUT well all have driving liences, insurance and tax. If the poilce were that bothered about it n those who live on the A5 are DO SOMETHING about it rather than moaning!!! As far as we are concerned we meet to show off our cars and any racing is done on the track at car shows.
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